Eric Chomko wrote:

Mission Planning - MSFC - Alabama
Mission Control - JSC - Texas
Launch Facility - KSC - Florida

There is manned spaceflight in a nutshell. Last I checked, they are all
red states.

I wonder if, since 1994 and the GOP takeover of Congress, if manned
spaceflight accountability -as you yourself are bitching about- doesn't
coincide. Pure coincidence?

Chomko, if you find a clue, please post it. Your paragraphs
there don't appear to be making any kind of rational argument,
and certainly not one that has anything to do with what I've
been claiming.



: I do not agree that that is an end in itself. It may be a means to
: an end, but colonies need an economic base. ESAS will do little to
: bring lunar colonization closer, because it doesn't address the economic
: barriers.

You are putting the cart before the horse. Exploration leads to discovery.
You can't have colonization before discovery. Columbus proved that.

Columbus disproved it -- or are the American Indians somehow
non-existent now? Their ancestors came to N.A. in a process
that did not involve precursor exploration by governments, but
rather diffusion and settlement by small groups. In other
words, colonization without separate exploration.

But, regardless, even if one is to agree that exploration must
precede colonization, it does not follow that anything that we
happen to call exploration will do the trick. As, for example,
the abortive Viking foray to N.A. demonstrates.



: But the idea that ESAS is that next step is a fallacy of linear
: thinking. Kind of like the idea that the first step to reaching
: the moon is climbing trees.

No the first step to reaching the moon was putting Alan Shepard into
space.

That whizzing sound is the point going entirely over your head.


: Right. Going to burn me at the stake now?

No. You're entitled to your own opinion, despite how flawed I think it is.

It's clear that your opinions on intellectual matters are not
to be given much weight at all.

I suspect that we both agree that the crowning achievement of the first
half of the 20th century was the allied victory of WWII. What is the
second half's major moment? I say it was Apollo. What do you say?

The Green Revolution. Compared to that, Apollo was a trivial footnote.

In fact, I'd place Apollo well down the list of important events.
Any number of technological, political, and social changes were more
important.

Paul