Re: NASA rushes plan to send humans to moon, Mars, despite doubts ...

From: Will McLean (mclean1382_at_aol.com)
Date: 02/25/05 

Date: 25 Feb 2005 11:29:39 -0800

Rand Simberg wrote:
> On 25 Feb 2005 04:34:02 -0800, in a place far, far away, "Will
McLean"
> <mclean1382@aol.com> made the phosphor on my monitor glow in such a
> way as to indicate that:
>
> >> >If nothing else, ISS has taught us valuable
> >> >lessons on how to, and how not to, do a big,
> >> >manned, cooperative international space project.
> >>
> >> If that is all we get, we could have learned it much faster, for
much
> >> less money, and the opportunity costs of how all that time and
money
> >> could have been invested to actually make some progress in space
are
> >> to weep for.
> >>
> >
> >In practice, the opportunity cost is not what you would have done
with
> >the resources instead, but what Congress would have done with the
> >resources instead.
>
> Sure. I was talking about theory, not practice. Even had we built
no
> space station at all over that time period, I still think we'd be
> better off. Absent that program, with its false promises, we might
> have realized much sooner that we can't count on the government to do
> it for us.

That seems unlikely. It was pretty clear from 1986 on that space
manufacturing wasn't going to amount to much commercially as long as we
were limited to something like current launchers and manned spacecraft.

The station only existed on paper then.

Will McLean

Relevant Pages