January 19, 2004
@ 06:57 AM
Comments [4]
Why I Read "Get Your War On" Weekly

 You know what we should do? Send up a Mars mission and once they're up in space, call them and say, "You guys can't reenter the atmosphere until you develop a cure for AIDS. Get crackin;

C'mon I bet if you asked people in Africa if they wanted us to go to Mars, they'd say yes--because it's important for humanity to reach ever upward. It's inspirational. We're at our best when we dare to dream a...GAAAH! I just puked in my space helmet.

I read somewhere that the cost of going to Mars may eventually total up to $170 billion which is nowhere close to the $12 billion the US President has stated will flow into NASA's coffers over the next 5 years to help finance the Mars dream. I don't want to knock the US government's spending on AIDS (supposedly $1 billion this year) but aren't there significant, higher priority problems on Earth that need tackling before one starts dabbling in interplanterary conquest?

Gil-Scott Heron's poem Whitey's on the Moon is still quite relevant today. I guess the more things change, the more they stay the same.


 

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Wednesday, 21 January 2004 01:30:25 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
I would agree there are huge problems that need to be solved here on Earth. Just as the fall-out of the moon-race has led to huge advancements in down-to-Earth issues, the developments needed to get people living on Mars will spawn new technologies that WILL benefit humanity. Why everyone always uses AIDS as poster-child for spending, when orders of magnitude more people are affected by cancer, alcholism, automobile "accidents" EACH, I'm not sure...
Marc Brooks
Wednesday, 21 January 2004 01:30:28 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
I would agree there are huge problems that need to be solved here on Earth. Just as the fall-out of the moon-race has led to huge advancements in down-to-Earth issues, the developments needed to get people living on Mars will spawn new technologies that WILL benefit humanity. Why everyone always uses AIDS as poster-child for spending, when orders of magnitude more people are affected by cancer, alcholism, automobile "accidents" EACH, I'm not sure...
Marc Brooks
Wednesday, 21 January 2004 06:14:56 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
I agree that W's "vision" to go to the Mars at best is just an election PR stunt, at worst it will lead to the demantling of any useful NASA project (the Hubble telescope, anyone?) and the eventual privatization or demise of NASA (no projects anymore worth doing and spent $12 billion without getting anywhere). I think NASA should develop a program to eventually travel to Mars, but after we balanced the budget...

To Marc: AIDS is taken as an example, since AIDS in Africa is as bad or worse than the plague was in the middle-ages and it threatens the stability of most African countries and eventually even the "developed" world. In addition, the US and European Nations have the means (money and medications) to help. A move that would in the end benefit our societies as well as the African societies.

I read "The price of Loyalty" and I would have rather seen W take on O'Neil's water well project for Africa at a fraction of the cost than this PR stunt.
Michael Rys
Friday, 23 January 2004 10:29:37 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
No, there isn't.
Because investing in space has a lot of by-products that result from this, including new materials, new technologies, better ways to solve problems, etc.
Just look what the space race did for man-kind on <b>earth</b> and you'll see what I mean.
Not@for.spam.com (Ayende Rahien)
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