Manned space flight worth the risks

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

[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.