[BOOTSTICK]

Yet another silly assumption, that the technology brought about by space travel, could ONLY HAVE BEEN DONE SO IN SPACE!. What rubbish.

[steve86]

Humans belong on the earth, or using a more liberal interpretation, within the earth's biosphere, so as not to exclude travel within the lower reaches of the atmosphere or the oceans.

Regarding the ISS, the three astronauts should be evacuated at the earliest possible time and the project abandoned. A possible followup project would be use of the ISS as a laser weapon target, thereby providing a means whereby earth-based mass spectrometers can be precisely calibrated as aluminum, titanium and other alloys are vaporized in the vacuum of space.

[Thermalseeker]

Yet another silly assumption, that the technology brought about by space travel, could ONLY HAVE BEEN DONE SO IN SPACE!. What rubbish.

Not in space, GETTING THERE. ROUTINELY. The big nut to crack is getting there, not staying there. Look at the material science that has been developed with Shuttle. Jeez.