Griffen is going to have to get out the big axe if NASA is to be credible.
We are obligated to give to the next generation the same step up as we inherited from those before. We do not have the right to NOT explore. It is inevitable anyways. It is our very nature to do these things. The horizon will always call us. And it is the reason why we are 6 billion strong today. Exploration is part of something so much bigger. It is at the core of humanity itself. We are compelled deep within to do so. People must go and see and touch for themselves. They must be there. Robotic exploration is part of the equation. Not the goal. The goal is far larger.
I could point to dozens of web pages about the benefits of
human space exploration, technologies developed and of lives saved because
of it, but you can easily find them yourself on google.
Im going to tell you what I think instead, and some comments from others that speak a little more to the heart that I find ring true.
One of my most convincing arguments for space exploration is the analogy that Earth itself is a spacecraft. Everything we learn about how to function and live in space applies directly to our spacehip Earth. How to recycle air, water, how to generate and use power efficiently, how to grow food in closed ecosystems. All of it is important. We learn by doing. There is no other way. All of this can benefit mankind in a world with a fast growing population. Understanding other worlds is how we understand OUR world better, to understand how it formed and where it is going. Its our only home for now.
"We must not cease from exploration, and at the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we began, and to know it for the first time."
T.S. Eliot
Astronaut Story Musgrave thoughts on the matter.....................
"Why Space, Why Explore?
We have no choice, Sir. It is the Nature of Humanity, it is the Nature
of Life
The Globe was created and Life Evolved, and you look at every single
cubic millimeter on this Earth, You can go 30,000 feet down below the
Earth surface, You can go 40,000 feet up in the air and Life is There.
When you look at the globe down there, you see Teeming Life Everywhere
It is the Power of Life, And maybe I am not just a Human up here, you
know. Now Life is Leaping off the Planet. It is heading to other parts
of the Solar System, other parts of the Universe
There are those kinds of Pressures. It isn't simply politics, it is
not simply technology, it is really not just the essence of humanity,
but it is sort of also, you could look at it as maybe the Essence of
Life. I think Teilhard de Chardin, in Phenomenon of Man, I believe he
put that incredibly well. So those kind of Forces are at Work. It is
the nature of humans to be exploratory and to Push On
Yes, it costs resources and it does cost a lot, and there is a risk,
there is a penalty, there is a down side, but Exploration and
Pioneering, I think those are the critical things, it is the Essence
of what Human Beings are, and that is to try to understand their
Universe and to try to participate in the entire Universe and not just
their little Neighborhood" -Story Musgrave
President Bush at the Columbia memorial at JSC................
"The cause of exploration and discovery is not an option we choose, It
is a desire written in the human heart."
And at the announcement of new American space policy...........
"Mankind is drawn to the heavens for the same reason we were once
drawn into unknown lands and across the open sea. We choose to explore
space because doing so improves our lives, and lifts our national
spirit."
It isn't about just science or exploration, it's about figuring out a path towards settlement.
To be fair to the manned space program I think humans can be useful in monitoring robots and tele-operated exploration vehicles by being in orbit around the planet or moon being investigated. It would be a terrific advantage to not have to deal with the signal delays of minutes or hours.