We are not alone: 'trillions' of planets could be supporting life

Times Online ^ | 02/15/09 | Mark Henderson

[Richard Kimball]

I'm a big fan of Heinlein. Haven't read that one. I know where you're coming from. I love caving and exploring. I would be more than willing for NASA to be funded if it would let me go exploring. Would I want to fund NASA so other guys could go exploring? Eh, not so much.

As to learning about what's on Mars, if we accept that at most ten or twelve people will go there at great expense and come back home, what is the value to us here on earth? The early explorers went for gold, for silk, for spices, and sometimes to build a new life in a strange land. That's not here. Not in space exploration. In space exploration we've got the desire to explore and scientific and intellectual curiosity. I don't think that is enough to sustain the level of effort required to do what we'd need to do to reach out beyond Mars at the most, except for the stray unmanned satellite every few years.

[Richard Kimball]

I’m with you on that. If it won’t make you any money, I know it.

[listenhillary]

We should tax them ALL! (/sarcaasm)