Text 4480, 51 rader
Skriven 2006-07-21 16:42:00 av Robert E Starr JR (4977.babylon5)
Ärende: Re: Congratulations NASA
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Paul Harper wrote:

> That whole set of technologies is so past-it these days, and flakey
> and full of kludges and compromises, that I really *really* wish
> they'd hurry up and get the next generation of these things developed.

Yeah, unfortuantely the US space program has quite fallen out of the 
public favor it once enjoyed... really cuts into the funding necessary 
for development.

> I am also utterly unconvinced of the benefit of a shuttle over
> standard heavy-lift boosters, these days. Shoving all those people
> into harm's way for missions that can so easily be automated and/or
> managed from the ground borders at times on testosterone-charged
> recklessness.

It's never been a question of one over the other; the two are intended 
to serve different purposes.  Think of a heavy-lift rocket as a 
semi-tralier rig - great for getting big objects from here to there, but 
not very handy for moving it around the warehouse - and in this case, 
it's incapable of bringing anything back.  The shuttle is ostensibly 
more along the lines of a cross between a pickup truck and the warehouse 
forklift (or I guess with the Canadarm, it would be a pickup truck with 
a small crane lift on the back ;)  The two aren't interchangeable.

Besides, space exploration has always ultimately been about actually 
getting people out there.  Everything Apollo did could have been done by 
remote control... except actually having people step foot on another 
space body.  We're at the same place now with Mars: we've done plenty of 
remote exploration, and there's lots of room keep on sending bigger and 
better remotes and poking around via camera for decades...but it's all 
toward the final - very dangerous, yes - goal of actually landing people 
there.

And ideally, returning them safely, but that's never been a guarantee in 
ANY exploration over the course of human history.

We (well maybe not you) have always been creatures of exploration - not 
just peeking in at what lies beyond the hill, but actually GOING there. 
  Those of use living out here in the Colonies can probably appreciate 
that more though...
                                                                               
    
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