On 7 Jul 2004 07:55:18 -0700, (Gene Seibel) wrote:

Unfortunatley, NASA is bound by politics. They must answer to
politicians whose goals are re-election and handouts buy more votes
than space exploration does.

True enough. However, any good cause needs good leadership in order to
convert people to that cause. Unfortunately, in this case, it also
needs good wisdom as well. When it is a difficult idea to sell and in
the past many flaws have been uncovered.

That is why I say that they could not have done any better in this
case. When costs have been limited to the rate of progression and the
technology of the hardware is sound enough.

Also I guess it is the case that NASA is a lot more prepared for
serious space exploration now. When from the early 1970s technology
had to catch up. Where they even now have basic space weather (solar
flares) monitoring.

As to politics, then every *good* politician should always give people
what they need. Since this is not always what they want, then you
should be able to spot good and bad politicians.

Democracy is a good idea, until you realise that the general public is
both stupid and ignorant. Not that the politicians would directly
mention this of course. So their voters should be flexible and let
them do their job.

The question is does people need human space exploration? And I for
one can see a great deal of return from such investment.

If NASA was free to explore space, they would do quite well.

I would question if they are actually competent enough make use of
space exploration with resulting infrastructure construction? As
things like the Shuttle and ISS does not inspire confidence.

Hell, they have never even been serious about seeing how much mass
they can get off this planet for their $$$. So all they have is their
exclusive club and spending their budget on what looks "fun".

Still, NASA is slowly changing. And just maybe they will get serious
about space exploration and put their budget to good use.

As I said once before, then I care not one bit as to their desired HLV
rocket hardware. When their only two considerations are launch cost
per kg and that they can actually do it.

Once they have a cost efficient launch system, then there are very
many things that they could put on it that their new Lunar Base won't
already have.

One recent point is that once they are up there, then they can put
their astronauts to good use in exploring and construction. Once they
can build from Lunar resources, then I would consider building a solid
infrastructure just as important as exploration.

More so in fact. When anyone can explorer to a greater or lesser
degree, but you need the infrastructure to support them. So more
people supported equals greater exploration.

As I mentioned my method would result in a small (industrial) sized
city, providing nearly everything that a Lunar Colony needs. And I am
sure that they can write their own list.

I'm so sorry you missed the real age of exploration. It was grand.

The real age of space exploration has not even started. Short hops to
the Moon and their space probes do not count. These MERs are the most
advanced so far, but they can only achieve a fraction of what a human
could achieve.

So the last real age of exploration was back in earlier centuries on
this planet. When explorers left their home and took a trip to
destination unknown.

The planets and moons in this solar system cannot be understood until
you have humans walking all over them and looking for themselves. And
just like earlier exploration there is bound to be a lot of resources
to exploit.

Still, I can sense that this "golden age" is soon approaching. Not to
forget the likes of TPF actually discovering life containing planets,
including ones where we can live, will one day cause us humans to set
out on a very long voyage into the unknown.

One last point I guess is that it won't be NASA who does this real
exploration, construction and more, but at least they can make a good
start at it. As no one can control human nature, which is a recipe
that just needs humans.

So the most important job that NASA can do is to see how many people
they can get up there. Not to forget keeping them alive to a high
degree.

Cardman.
http://www.cardman.com
http://www.cardman.co.uk