[extropy-chat] Re: USA - No Science, No space travel, No money

[Bill Hibbard]

Programs are being shut down and cut back all over NASA,
to save the money needed for the imaginary mission to
Mars. My guess is that the motive is to shut down NASA's
"Mission to Planet Earth" to stop the flow of discoveries
embarrassing to the administration's contributors in the
carbon-based enery business. Probably won't work, given
the developing ecological catastrophe in the artic and
other potential climate problems.

Bill

> 2. MOON-MARS INITIATIVE: EXPLORING THE OUTER LIMITS OF POLITICS.
> So what's really behind "The Vision"? Why is the administration
> pushing so hard for a science initiative that scientists scorn, and
> which won't take place on Bush's watch? Ah, but that's the plan. It
> will be up to the next administration, stuck with a huge deficit, to
> decide whether to go ahead with a meaningless but staggeringly
> expensive program to see if humans can do what robots are already
> doing. As one well-informed NASA watcher put it, "Moon-Mars is a
> poison pill. It hangs responsibility for ending the humans-in-space
> program on the next administration."