Posted on 07/11/2005 3:56:03 PM PDT by KevinDavis
The Columbia tragedy in February 2003 forced a deeply wounded NASA to reform, but the space agency hopes for a triumphant return to flight next week with the Discovery shuttle's launch amid ambitious plans for missions to the Moon and Mars.
An investigation on the Columbia accident took aim at NASA culture, criticizing officials' obsession with respecting flight schedules to finish work on the International Space Station, to the detriment of astronaut safety. Seven crew members died in the crash over Texas.
The disaster also prompted President George W. Bush to retire the shuttle fleet by 2010, 10 years earlier than the National Aeronautic and Space Administration had planned, and replace it with a new spacecraft.
(Excerpt) Read more at spacedaily.com ...
For a trillion dollars, what kind of results can one expect to get with manned versus unmanned?
Which would be better, a couple manned missions, possibly ending in tragedy, or 1000 unmanned missions (10% of which fail), each advancing the art further, based on earlier discoveries?
Jefferson said in his inaugural that the West would last for thousands upon thousands of generations of honest, moral, and hard-working farmers. Ignoring that the West as a frontier barely lasted for four generations, how long would a Space Frontier last if it were ever opened by establishing private property rights?
Land claims are predicated upon setting foot on the land in question. Landing some robots might not meet the requirements for recognition. The point is moot anyway while the 1967 UN Outer Space Treaty remains in effect, but if national claim is ever to be asserted, landing some human beings would be essential.
Corporations get leases and private citizens get deeds.
However, if the ship is launched from Costa Rica (a nation that did not sign the 1967 Outer Space Treaty), the point is moot.
I was kind of hoping for a crown charter. That is actually what set off the Boston Tea Party and the American Revolution, that a chartered stock-corporation had exclusive rights to carry tea, but a similar system also opened the West through building railroads, which in backlash to the Robber Barons led to both the Populist and the Progressive political movements.
Bump!
You would have to whack a bunch of American-owned building lots to make room for that kind of spaceport. Would the gov't of Costa Rica be willing to chance exercising their eminent domain power for that and take the chance of invasion by the American military to protect American corporate interests?
I don't think so.. Costa Rica is somewhat of a Libertarian Government....
Extrapolating from the given example, between four hundred and a thousand years.
Primary factors are:
Limited access
Limited expansion capacity of emigrant population
Tremendous area of expansion -- Mars has twice the dry land area of Earth, plus nearly a hundred moons that could be settled elsewhere.
If one accepts that the Oort Cloud has potential, it could last several thousand years, and would lead naturally to interstellar colonization.
I think that is a fair estimate.
I wonder how much longer they will survive as an independent country. Guatemala, Honduras, notorious Nicaragua, Costa Rica all would be gone if they had anything of value.
well that and i would LOVE to see old golry on mars!
Me, I want to go to Alpha Centauri......
If I said what I was thinking, I'd get flamed to ashes.
1. It is not going to cost a trillion dollars.
For any given price, unmanned will do more.
2. Manned missions can do a lot more than robots...
Can a few mission do more than hundreds of robotic missions? Computers have advanced since Apollo.
3. Also we have to leave this stikin rock...
I'm happy here, and don't want my earnings spent for the dreams of others.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.