[ExI] What happens to US space programs after November?

[John Clark]

On Tue, Jun 16, 2020 at 3:02 AM Giulio Prisco via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> *John, we DO have the technological capability to do these things.*


It would be vastly easier to make a totally self-sufficient colony on
Antarctica then on Mars or the Moon, and yet we don't even know how to do
that. Prove me wrong and set up such a colony, and then we'll talk.


> * > I think that, at this moment, re-igniting the human spirit with
> ambitious crewed space missions to the Moon and Mars is more important than
> astronomy.*


That's where we strongly disagree. I think getting from astronomy a better
understanding of the relationship between us and the Cosmos and hints about
the very nature of reality could ignite the human spirit much more
profoundly than yet another non-scripted TV show, even one with blockbuster
ratings. Apollo 11 was a worldwide sensation but when Apollo 12 came along
people felt it was just a rerun; I remember my grandmother complaining
about how all the special reports about it we're interfering with her soap
operas. And people were only interested in Apollo 13 because something went
wrong. The first Mars mission would be the talk of the town, but ask
yourself how much igniting of the human spirit the SECOND two-way
non-colonization manned mission to Mars will create. I think it would
ignite a worldwide yawn, a yawn that would cost many trillions of dollars
to create.

And the space shuttle was an utter failure that didn't deliver on any of
the economic or safety claims made about it before it actually flew; they
said it would only take two weeks to turn around a shuttle and have it fly
again, but two years turned out to be closer to the truth. It would've been
cheaper to just keep the old Saturn-5 production line going, and 14 people
would not be dead. And don't get me started on the International Space
Station. the most expensive and most useless "scientific" project in
history.


> > *Are you sure you aren't letting your dislike for Trump dictate your
> opinions on space policy?*


Yes I'm sure. I've thought both the US and Russia have placed far too much
emphasis on manned space flight from long before Trump Was president or was
even a candidate for the presidency, and I have said so on this very list.

John K Clark
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