Interstellar Probes

It has been said that NASA lacks a grand vision, and that recent presidents
haven't been able to find missions as inspiring as Apollo. It seems to me
that an equally inspiring and equally outrageous vision would be to send
unmanned probes to the nearest star. By 21st century standards, this would
require technological overachievements equivalent to sending man to the
moon. I'd love to hear the group's opinion on whether this is a good idea
or not.

I think that there is a lack of the opposite awe in our times, which led to
the major achievements of the space race era. Maybe now with the chinese,
that they seem to try to get ahead (for inner political reasons mostly), we
'll see a reaction of the americans. But I think that no government will
invest in a long project with no visible results in the short term.

Of course it is a good idea, but being the cynic I am, the results from
anything suggested by a world leader needs to be coming in within the
living years of the individual, and I do not see that we have the technology
yet to get to the nearest star in a lifetime, and to get data back of
course.

In a way, we seem not to have seen the importance of the cultural aspect of
discovery. There is no vision out there.

I'm about to write a new thread about what appears to be a complete messy
minded policy change for the people at Nasa, so I'll put some comments
there as well, for what it is worth.

Brian

--
Brian Gaff....
graphics are great, but the blind can't hear them
Email:
__________________________________________________ __________________________
__________________________________




---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free, so there!
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.560 / Virus Database: 352 - Release Date: 08/01/04