(Alex Terrell) wrote in message

The main reward is for myself - putting this down on paper helps get

On second thoughts, silly of me to talk of rewards. What rewards? This
business has no rewards. The reward will come when you look up at the
sky one night and you see your little asteroid hab gently gliding
across the sky... with a few lights flashing on its exterior robotic
implementations.

my thinking straight. Since America's new Constellation direction,
I've started trying to redo this based on lunar resources. This has
confirmed my thinking that NEOs, rather than the moon, should be our
target. That said, the moon as a target is better than no target.

The Moon is a totally barren place and very very far away. Personally,
I'm not very convinced by any of its 'claimed' attractions. Still, it
may drive future progress in other, more beneficial directions.
Skipping the Moon altogether and going for a permanent base on Mars
would be the ideal dream thing to do, but that is not going to happen
because of distance and risk. It's plain wishful thinking on the part
of people like Robert Zubrin. But its a nice thought if only... if
only...

So, establishing a well designed high Earth orbiting asteroid colony
is the right thing to do. I wonder if George Bush might have some
second thoughts about his "Moon to Mars" idea, the man must get a few
nightmares just thinking of that ghostly white lunar surface where
nothing ever grows and no rain or rivers flow...

If 5 asteroids of, say Tunguska proportions each, were to impact the
Earth - one on each continent over the next 5 years - then that might
persuade the world to start thinking about building a safe haven off
this planet!

Look at the underlying price trend in a barrel of Brent Crude,
currently topping $60/barrel... once all the oil runs out and there's
economic chaos everywhere, it may be too late to do anything.

Somebody should start on a 'Celestial Titanic' program right away!

Abdul Ahad