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  dorpus, 27 Nov 2002 @ 2:48pm

  
  

  Will space colonization ever be economical?

  Paradoxically, the more our technology advances, the less incentive there is to travel to space.
  
  Sci fi authors of the 1960s thought that the moon would be essential for building better telescopes; but atmospheric noise cancellation technology now allows great telescopes on Earth, without the environmental stresses of the moon that would crack lenses.
  
  Manned space flight is itself really an anachronism of the Cold War; back in the 1950s, people felt that space-based nuclear bomber crews would give strategic advantages. But today we have missiles, unmanned satellites, and exploratory robots.
  
  As for the notion that the Earth will run out of resources -- 1. other planets don't have resources we want, and 2. we're getting better at recycling/extracting existing resources.
  
  The International Space Station will perhaps be remembered as the greatest Welfare Project of the 20th century, giving artificial jobs to NASA and Russian engineers, so that astronauts riding $1 billion cadillacs... I mean, space shuttles, can perform useless science-fair experiments in space.
  
  

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    DrGary, 28 Nov 2002 @ 10:20am

    
    

    Re: Will space colonization ever be economical?

    Have to agree that the Shuttle, indeed the entire manned space program, has been a colossal waste of money.
    
    What we should have been doing is using the gov't resources to develop access to space. Instead of funding a long string of expensive space stunts, we should by now have put billions of dollars into creating cheap heavy-lifting capability.
    
    When, or pessimistically if, the gov't does use our resources to reduce the cost of reaching orbit to a price that corporations and banks can justify, then we'll see the creativity and entrepreneurial vitality of the American public finally open the potential of space
    
    It would also help if the public wasn't fooled by toy cars on Mars or old men (Glenn) in space as "Science." Maybe instead of trying to "inspire" the children to study science, we should spend some money on teaching it to them...

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      Spiff, 28 Nov 2002 @ 4:32pm

      
      

      Re: Will space colonization ever be economical?

      You guys are forgetting that an immense amount of technology has been helping civilization simply because it was developed thanks to the space programs. In that sense, not all money is wasted, even if in the beginning appears so.

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        dorpus, 29 Nov 2002 @ 2:08pm

        
        

        Re: Will space colonization ever be economical?

        I've heard that kind of Keynesian argument before, but the same argument could be put forth to justify welfare states. The government deprives resources that could otherwise have been spent to improve the private sector on its own terms.
        
        

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