Manned space flight worth the risks

Baltimore Sun ^ | September 2, 2003 | E.J. "Jake" Garn

[Cincinatus' Wife]

HUMAN SPACE FLIGHT is not a luxury. Nor is it a whim, passing fad or eccentric hobby. Make no mistake, human space flight is critical to the future well-being of the United States and, ultimately, the world. The continuation of human space flight is a necessity.

For those who accept that premise, it is vital that we get the space shuttle flying again as safely and as quickly as possible. Our very future may depend on it.

To not understand or acknowledge that Earth is but a stepping stone for humankind is to ignore history, reality and Manifest Destiny. Through age, natural catastrophe or by our own hand, life on Earth has a finite amount of time left. For the human species to go on, we must go out into the far and promising reaches of space. We will do this, or we will eventually perish on the stepping stone adjacent to endless possibilities and salvation.

....Human space flight is not a luxury, and the People's Republic of China, above all others, seems to recognize that. The PRC is poised to launch its first astronauts, and with them launch potentially the most ambitious plan ever for humans in space.

They have their eyes on the moon, Mars and beyond. The question for our country is: Do we cede the future of human space flight, and the future in general, to them or another nation?

[RightWhale]

We are more than forty years into the space age and haven't had one manned flight to Mars or any other planet in the solar system.

46 years, now.

One has to ask, if one is not practicing self-deceit, why we haven't built a manned moon base and why we haven't had a manned expedition to Mars already. These things could have happened by now, IMHO should have happened by now. So why not?

[RightWhale]

We can't even find a safe cheap, clean and renewable power source or stop killing each other.

Why not just dump the lack of space exploration in the trash bucket--along with "power source," "murder," "starving children," "selfishly denying space to the masses"?

What does one problem have to do with the other? Self-deceit is the one mortal sin to exitentialists.

[hedgetrimmer]

Cordless drills, fire detectors, CT scans and ionized water filters are some of the products that can be traced to the U.S. space program.

If you or a loved one ever needed a CT scan, you can thank NASA for helping to bring this useful medical tool into doctor's hands.

And don't forget Tang!

[theFIRMbss]

> An entirely NEW planet to open to colonization is not worth the cost of developing spaceflight ?

What are the odds that
Establishment activists
immediately

get the new planet
declared "development free"
like Antarctica

so there'd be no way
to colonize or profit
from the "investment."

[irv]

get the new planet declared "development free" like Antarctica

Let's see them enforce it.