"Darren J Longhorn" wrote in message
news
On Sat, 21 Jun 2008 14:12:58 -0700 (PDT), C3 wrote:

The first step would be to colonize Mars. McCain has talked about
sending a shuttle to Mars. Then we would mine the Universe for its
vast riches and explore more planets. We certainly have the
technology to do this, it's just a matter of logistics.

http://www.postcardsfromthefuture.net/



I'll be damned!

What we need is a competition among future visions.

The problem with the classical approach to 'selling'
the future of space is with this 'faith-based' approach.
Which for the Vision is essentially 'if we build it they
will come'. Having faith that tangible benefits of all
kinds will naturally flow from building bases on
the Moon and Mars.

That's just poor logic. Because it places our 'faith' in the
wrong place. In discoveries or new markets that are
only vaguely expressed, and are very far off in the future.
The KEY SELLING POINTS, are as unclear and distant
as possible.Minimizing the potential appeal and inspiration.

What drives a projects success is the level of clear and
unambiguous tangible benefits that will be returned.
That needs to be maximized, not minimized as
with the Vision.

You maximize the clear benefits by tackling the biggest
single problem facing the future of the entire planet.
So that /everyone/ on the planet has a clear interest
in it's success.

Where does NASA, space travel and the largest global
threats ...overlap???

A logical goal, one that maximizes potential support
and effect on our future, is one revolving around
creating an unending and clean source of energy.

A logical goal designed to maximize potential
support and effect on our future would be one
like..."Replacing fossil fuels with solar power
before global warming becomes irreversible".

It's an extremely difficult goal and within a very
demanding time constraint. But like Apollo, I have
faith we'll figure out how to accomplish it
along the way.








--
Darren J Longhorn
It's all faked, I tell you, all of it!
You want proof? I'll give you your stinkin' proof...
http://www.geocities.com/darrenlonghorn/proof/nasa2.jpg