[ExI] simulation as an improvement over reality

[Adrian Tymes]

On Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 11:00 AM, Eugen Leitl <eugen at leitl.org> wrote:
> On Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 10:00:52AM -0800, Samantha Atkins wrote:
>> I am very concerned
>> in my focus with how exactly we get from the nitty
>> gritty "here" to any sort of of interesting and fun
>> to fantasize about "there".   Show me the path, especially
>
> See http://www.molecularassembler.com/KSRM.htm
> and the NASA ISRU (in situ resource utilization)
> program.

The former is a proposal that has no funding behind it, and no
ability to attract funding.  It's going nowhere.  (The related
RepRap project, by means of comparison, has at least a little
funding.)

NASA's ISRU is one of its many programs that it trots out to
appease the public and claim it's working on the problem,
then quietly defunds and kills off before it could actually do
anything that would threaten its contractors' ability to
overcharge for making stuff on Earth.

> At this point, it's largely a question of budget.
> There's a second Moon race of sorts on, Japan,
> India and China (and Europe) being the main participants.

Getting to the Moon is one thing.  Industrial-grade exploitation
of the Moon is quite another.