Re: Saturn V

On 24 May 2006 17:33:42 -0700, in a place far, far away, "Hyper"
<hyperboreea@xxxxxxxxx> made the phosphor on my monitor glow in such a
way as to indicate that:


Rand Simberg wrote:
That's a pretty calous way of putting it.

Sorry, just pointing out the irrationality of how we do space, and why
we do so little of it.

Are you saying that too much money goes into safety features?

Yes, given that we spent many billions on the Shuttle to make it safe,
and still ended up killing over a dozen astronauts.

Plus, even is accidents are inevitable in the long run, incompetence is
less acceptable in the space business than in mining - no national
pride is invested in the latter.

That's irrational, too.

Not everyone's a Vulcan.

If true, a good reason not to leave space development up to the
government.

Irrationality aside, losing a dozen miners in an accident doesn't put a
crimp in coal production.

And losing seven astronauts in a Shuttle accident wouldn't put a crimp
in Shuttle flights if we were rational about it.
.