Once private firms can charge people $5,000 to see space, you won’t need to worry about it anymore. Soon they’ll be charging people $10,000 to stay a week in space. Give them 5-10 years and for $20,000 people will have a week on the moon.
All it takes it entreprenuers to do the job that government is too foolish to do.
I kinda agree, but the space station has given us a lot of insight into low earth orbit construction, which I’m sure will be vital to any serious mars mission. I suppose you have to look at the last half of the shuttle program as a prolonged modern day Gemini program.
You do not think people living continuously in space for 10 years is a feat worth doing?
....Bob
“Personally, I would have killed the Space Station following the Challenger accident, and placed the savings into the return to the moon and on to Mars.”
...but do you really think that the same Congress that would have killed the Station would give a rat’s boutruss about going to the Moon and Mars?
In other words, the money would have simply gone into Section 8 (see Google).
For $100 billion, the thing better last a century.
“give new momentum to the scientific research conducted there”
I kinda missed that - any new drugs? zillion watt batteries for cars? ANYTHING?
(crickets)
Ya, wudda waste of dough. COuld have been back to the moon by now...maybe a small baase even. At least the tolet would flush.....
It should have been killed when it stopped being Space Station Freedom.
As for uses for the money, I'd have told the NASA geeks to do something cool and left it at that.
Of course, with creeps like Barney Frank in Congress, the one and only space exploration they’d vote to fund is a mission to Uranus.