Re: Antigravity Technology Inventor Speaks Out

From: Jeff Findley (jeff.findley_at_ugs.nojunk.com)
Date: 10/25/04 

Date: Mon, 25 Oct 2004 17:07:04 -0400

"Damon Hill" <damon1six1@comcast.not> wrote in message
news:Xns958D8AA8EC029damon161attbicom@216.196.97.134...
> >> NASA has been giving us a >lot< more for our money. And given the
> >> amount of money involved, they'd better have.
> >
> > Over the past 30+ years, NASA has spent something like 4 ORDERS OF
> > MAGNITUDE more money than Rutan has spent on SS1, and they're still
> > stuck in LEO. That's not a successful manned space exploration
> > program, that's stagnation.
>
> You want lunar and Mars colonies, right? You'll have to settle for
> the space station for the time being.

There is no direct connection between the shuttle/ISS program and any
program after. Some of the very research that would be useful for such
follow-on programs has been cut from ISS.

> It's still far more than
> private enterprise has attempted to accomplish. And NASA can do only
> so much as Congress funds it to, by extension, how much the public
> supports the idea. So far they haven't supported the necessary
> trillions for those grand schemes.

Trillions aren't necessary. The end of shuttle/ISS will free up the
necessary funding for NASA to return to the moon.

> Reality check in 20 years, okay? There's change in the wind. Too
> bad I won't be around for that.
>
> --Damon, 54 and not very healthy

Sorry to hear that. I'm "only" 35, so I hope to be around for the first
"return to the moon" flight. Unfortunately, due to the political realities
of NASA funding (likely to stay at about current levels, adjusted for
inflation), the longer shuttle/ISS drags on, the longer it will be.

Jeff 

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