[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
Yes, it's called exploration. Science is not the reason we send spacecraft
to the planets; if it was, why would NASA's budget be as large as the rest
of science - excluding medicine - put together? Science is simply something
interesting to do when you've got there. We don't go to Jupiter (for
example) to clear up niggling mysteries about it's aurora, magnetic field,
and interior in order to gratify the few hundred die-hards who can both do
the math and find joy in it. We go there out of wonder and awe - and to
satisfy the ancient urges to do something about our origin and destiny. The
same thing drove the building of the pyramids, and, I suppose, the frantic
potlatching of the West Coast indigenous Americans. Pyramids, potlatch,
Pluto. The complete survey of the solar system would be a fitting monument
to our civilisation - and it's this urge for completion that's driving the
desire to get this thing off the pads now, not the admittedly ridiculous
smokescreen about
Keep this thread going. WHY is Europa worth going to? I say that money (or
the promise of money) is it. Edwin says it's the joy of discovery. Others
say raw science data. Maybe it's just something we need to do to keep
ourselves busy?
I suspect that the bigger reason for the pyramids was hubris (outrageous
pride, on the part of the pharoahs) and a cause celebre' for the nation... to
build those giant stone structures took 1000s of people, decades to build.
In the process, a nation was forged. Building a bridge to the moon / Mars /
Europa may be the same thing... a monument to governmental hubris, and a
reason to spend billions of dollars (after all, just imagine... the Feds have
billions of dollars to play with. If they don't spend it every year, there
will be less justification for having as much money the next year). Ergo,
they build it, in order to build it.
By the way, since Bruce Moomaw et al have planned a low-cost probe, why
not take this to the logical extreme and build one for $5 mn? How to do this
is layed out in detail in Bill Yenne's "Interplanetary Spacecraft"
(Brompton, 1988).
The era of the small space explorer is soon to dawn. It's becoming cheaper
and cheaper to launch the damned things... it stands to reason that by 2015
or so, some small country or large corporation will make a shot for space
away from the aegis of NASA and the Euro Space Agency. After that, all bets
are off.
-- J.
Edwin Kite
