Absinthe & Cookies (a bit bitter, a bit sweet)

I worked at the Johnson Space Center for 10 years as a flight controller. It is really nothing new that this country takes a short sighted view of the space programs. If the program does not put money in their pockets or give them something free today then it is not interesting to the general public.

The public rarely thinks about all that has come and does come from space. Of course, some of this is not surprising since NASA has never liked to talk much about commercial space research, done by industry for industry, and all that has come from it. My hope is that the new plan will focus on commercial for many things, which will truly make it come home through jobs, products, etc. that clearly come from space. My fear is that it will simply be Apollo writ large.

Let me be a cynic for a moment: there are two great motivators in the world, greed and fear. The public does not generally think of all the economic spinoffs of space, but even less do they think of it as the necessary destination of the species if humanity is to be assured of long-term survival. The further out one projects the timeframe, the more the likelihood of the earth becoming an exceedingly inhospitable place approaches one.

OK, so no one's really going to worry about the planet being swallowed by the sun as our currently-friendly star becomes a red giant four billion years from now, but a stray asteroid or nasty cosmic radiation from a nearby supernova is another story. Such things, while not exactly likely, are still possibilities that exist at a not-infinitesimal level within the timescale of a lifetime, or at least no more than a few generations. Space will not ignore us, even if we foolishly choose to ignore it.

i think getting a person on mars would be amazing. the thing is, i don't know what we'd get out of it yet other than basic science info. it seems like there is going to be a steep growing curve with going beyond the moon. but i think it will pay out, but maybe not for a long time.

You might be seeing another dynamic at work--hidden by the false dichotomy in the survey question. It may be that Americans realize that government exploitation of space is a boondoggle and has only gotten worse since the end of the Apollo program.

What's needed is for government to get out of the way and let private enterprise run with it. Problem there is that the statists and collectivists in the UN and elsewhere would have a cosmic cow.

My complaint is that we're listening to that mind-set in the first place.

M

I had a very vivid dream a few years back about a pioneer scientific colony on Mars. I do hope I live to see the day that it becomes reality, even if I am too old to be one of the participants.

Well, DC, I had a very vivid dream a few days back about Nicole Kidman, and I hope I live to see both our dreams come true, but, um, uh...where was I again?

Perhaps this isn't the right place. ;-)

probably not...we live in a shortsighted society...most people have no idea how much benefit the space program has contributed to their lives...nor do they think about how having a permanent true space station, moon base, etc pay for itself many times over...many industries would be more profitable, and produce better product in zero or low gravity...there is a wealth of minerals out there to feed our needs...and getting into space is probably the most certain way to guarantee the survival of the human race...oh well, who wants all those things, or science to advance or all the other benefits.

DaveJ; There are another two great motivators you neglected to mention; Hope and Awe

And howz about: Because It's There

I said I was being cynical, Claire.

The Public will become quite interested the day someone *else* demonstrates the [military] advantages of owning the top of a gravity well. See "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" for details.

There are indeed great military advantages to owning the top of a gravity well. Having read a lot by this crowd, I seriously doubt I need to expound on the scientific or technological benefits of such an endeavour....

I agree very much that I would love to see space in the hands of private enterprise. It's imperative to do away with the U.N. Space Treaty and to allow corporations to stake private claims on extraterrestrial territory independent of any national liability. But while I am very much in favor of having all scientific undertakings in the hands of private enterprise, I think there is currently no organization with the resources and vision to mount any project on this scale. Thus, I am willing to concede that for the time being it is probably necessary to allow the government to blaze the way.

I will forward an oft-dismissed benefit of projects such as this one, and one that does relate very directly to the lives of people in the near future: The overpopulation crisis. We are nearing the point at which the globe will no longer be able to adequately support and house all its inhabitants. If when that day comes we do not already have a good infrastructure of extraterrestrial transit and colonization, people are going to be dying by the millions of famine and disease that make the problems we have now look very small. It's not the kind of thing that can be done at the last minute. We must be there already, preparing to become an interplanetary species. Then, when we need to, we'll be able to.