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July 1, 2005
A response. . .
Via trackback, Half Sigma disagrees with me about the value of the Space Shuttle returning to space. I wanted to offer a proper response.
The big disagreement is "why we need to get off this rock" and everything else stems out of that.
There's alot wrong with our little blue marble when you look at it over time. Look far enough out and you come to the biggie. One day the Sun will expand to encompass the Earth. Life on Earth will end long before that, and if we're gonna be around as humans, we're gonna have to be someplace other than this particular rock orbiting this particular star.
It doesn't get any simpler than that. One day the Sun will destroy this planet and all life on it.
YES, YES, I know that's a LONG LONG LONG ways away, but it's a fact. One that we "as a species" have to deal with. I'm doubting that we'll find a way to stop our Sun from cooking us, so the other alternative is to leave.
Long before that happens though, there are just as real and dangerous threats to the survival of our species right here on Earth. Not the least of which is us; the little human jackasses that roam the planet. We like to devise new and better ways of blowing ourselves up. It'd make sense to realize that nuclear holocaust is just the tip of the iceberg of the threat we'll become to ourselves if left unchecked. Neutron bombs will be as primitive as a flint spear one day.
Beyond blowing ourselves up, we may or may not be turning up the heat on this planet and regardless, in just under 1500 years or so I believe we are scheduled for another Ice Age anyway.
All the while we're breeding quite fast. We're growing some pretty nasty bugs in our planetary biologic soup, many of which like to kill humans.
So that's why I want off. I'm speaking for the species here, that getting off the rock is a pretty important task that we've gotta undertake folks.
We know we can probably get to Mars with people within a couple of decades, we know there are other rocky planets out there in the galaxy. We know that if we establish a working permanent platform in space we can solve alot of problems down here on Earth (fossil fuels and global warming for starters).
All of this is why we have to get the shuttle going again. I'm not saying that the shuttle shouldn't be replaced. I'm all for that!!!! 200%, but we've got modules for the ISS down here that need to get up there. Modules that fit in the shuttle.
We've got to get the James Webb Telescope up to replace the Hubble, that's set up for the shuttle. The shuttle isn't sexy anymore, and it's not supposed to be. What the shuttle was supposed to be was a low-orbit crewboat, a role it's only now beginning to see.
We've got an International Space Station to service, we've got projects on the books that we shouldn't scrap because our rocket ship isn't sexy enough. In two decades we won't need rocketships at all, we'll have construction of the Space Elevator begin sometime next decade and then it's only a few decades after that before we're terraforming mars and have a permanent moon colony.
Think of it as ensuring the viability of the species for the long term. Think of it as a getting a short term lifeboat colony to avoid ecological disaster or war. I don't care which you choose, they're the best reasons to keep moving forward. Get off the rock, and it doesn't matter how sexy the rocketships are.
Beyond all that though, the Space Program is a great economic driver for the planet. Yep, I did just say that. Because it's true. Satellite techonology now effects every person on the planet via communication, plastics developed for the space program are in millions of products of all shapes and sizes, new drugs are being created and new hybrid crops are being developed.
Every dollar that the United States has spent on the space program has come back over and over, just the taxes on telecom in the U.S. has paid the entire space program bill. Thousands of other industries have been created, creating thousands of jobs (jobs that pay taxes and provide an economic stimulus themself).
In Short, the Space Program is a money MAKER for the United States.
So I say move forward with all current plans for space exploration, lets get the ISS caught up, let's put up the Webb, get moving on the Space Elevator, get a permanent base on the Moon, develop microwave power transmission (solving the world's engery crisis), get moving on Mars, and look at ways to mine the Asteroid belt.
It may very well take us decades to reach the nearest star, but every journey begins with that first step, and we also know that exploration has generally turned out to be profitable throughout history for the nations that practiced it.
Honestly, I can't think of a reason for us not to be clamoring over ourselves to get off this rock.
Half Sigma says that nothing will be as grand as Kennedy's quest for the moon, and he's right. Never again will Orville or Wilbur's flight be duplicated either, nor Newton's apple, nor any child's first step.
The Moon wasn't a monument to our achievement, it was the first step to realizing our potential as a species. To reach out and fill the vast voids and experience the discoveries that lay before us in this galaxy and the galaxies beyond.
--Jason
PS I may fill this post up with cool links tomorrow. Check back.
Posted by JasonColeman at July 1, 2005 12:35 AM
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Comments
"Half Sigma says that nothing will be as grand as Kennedy's quest for the moon, and he's right. Never again will Orville or Wilbur's flight be duplicated either, nor Newton's apple, nor any child's first step."
Which is, I think, a good thing. Dramatic "firsts" are important but it's the routine work-a-day that builds a civilization.
Posted by: brian at July 1, 2005 8:35 PM
Well said. I've commented to much the same extent, and I think you're letting both the space shuttle and half-sigma off a bit easy.
There can be no doubt that future accomplishments will surpass the moon-landing ten-fold, if we stick to it, and that even if they fail to accomplish the same level of publicity, the benefits to our nation, and, as you point out, ultimately the species, will far surpass any costs now.
It also seems that the space shuttle is being overly expensive, bureaucratic, and tying down what little resources NASA has to frankly menial and inefficient tasks.
But that's my uninformed take, perhaps I'm terribly wrong, and the ISS isn't a disaster and the shuttle doesn't cost that much and it's all part of a grand plan to build colonies & elevators real quick. I genially hope I'm wrong.
Posted by: William at July 1, 2005 11:17 PM
