Re: Lunacy from Brussels

Richard the Dreaded Libertarian wrote:

> On Sat, 15 Oct 2005 16:44:52 +0100, Pooh Bear wrote:
> > Ken Smith wrote:
> >
> >> In article <1129257304.452186.31070@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
> >> <bill.sloman@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >> [...]
> >> >Actually, the Moon is a nice idea. And it follows the same principle as
> >> >having the UN in New York. Nobody in their right mind would have wanted
> >> >to live in New York in 1946, and the Moon is now the most inhospitable
> >> >location accessible, and even more remote from real human beings.
> >>
> >> The US is planning a new mission to the moon for 2018.
> >
> > That's another way to waste money I guess.
>
> Did I tell you about the time there was a call-in show on CNN (or one
> of those cable news networks) that was about that $300M Mars lander,
> with the rovers that are still going? I called in, and I GOT THROUGH!
> I got my voice on TeeVee!
>
> Anyway, they had spokespeople and scientists and NASA officials, it
> was a real thrill. I don't remember my exact words (I was ODing on
> adrenaline), but it was something along the lines of, "If the US
> government were to refrain from buying, say, one aircraft carrier,
> or one nuclear-missile-carrying submarine, is it not true that the
> savings would cover the entire budget for the entire history of
> NASA?"
>
> The answer turned out to be, "Pretty much, yeah."
>
> Imagine my surprise. :-/
>
> If "we" weren't spending a trillion dollars ($1,000,000,000,000.00) a year
> on machines that have no other purpose than to kill people, we could have
> those moon hotels like in "2001", and probably an outpost on Mars by now.

I rather doubt it actually. The NASA budget in the Apollo days was way higher
than it is now.

Besides- what's the point of living on the moon ? Mars is too cold. Venus is
too hot. No point in humans going there. Nothing worth seeing anyway.

Graham

.

Relevant Pages

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