Re: Barack Obama Pits Space Explorers Against School Children

On 3 Dec, 07:45, Quadibloc <jsav...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Dec 2, 5:39 am, "Mark R. Whittington" <mwhitti...@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

Whenever a
politician wants to do something "for the children", it's time to
watch out.

Slashing funding for space projects isn't similar to undermining gay
rights or banning pornography or whatever.

But, yes, it's true that children are - quite properly - valued
emotionally by everyone. So, if your point is that this is when
politicians don't want people to think too hard about what they're
advocating - yep, you're right, time to watch out.

I think there is one very fundamental point underlining this. OK the
US will not be able to go to the ISS. What is the ISS doing anyway?
Why have we got to go the the Moon/Mars what will we get out of it?

Space has got to be packaged in terms of what directly relates to life
on Earth. The dinosaurs were wiped out by an Asteroid strike. We have
the technology to divert asteroids, we need to spend a relatively
small (in terms of the amounts of money that are spent by governments)
to ensure that this does not happen. We don't want out children going
the way of T Rex.

OPEC has far to much power. Perhaps eventually space solar power has a
role to play. We need NOW to work on small scale demonstrations. SSP
has got one important by product. If you can produce a spot 1km in
size that will have enormous implications for WiFi particularly in
remote areas. It will also render "Great Firewalls obsolete. You may
or may not be able to see the Great Wall from LEO. You are able to see
neither the Great Wall nor the Great Firewall from GEO.

There may be other objectives relating to life on Earth I have not
mentioned. This is the form in which space will increasingly have to
be packaged.


- Ian Parker
.

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