Re: some here will find this amusing

quoth Guillaume Laurent:

| >   The problem, I think, is that there will always be an education
| > or social issue.
|
| As glaring as it is now ? I don't mean just the US, I mean globally.

perhaps you can explain how throwing money at this will fix it.

| The current state of the world is nothing like what it was when the
| Apollo program started. We hardly lack new technologies, quite the
| contrary most are purposely kept on hold until the market is ready
| for them. And the rift between industrialized and 3rd world countries
| has widened in huge proportions.

perhaps you can illustrate this, both as to the technologies that are 
being "kept on hold" and the increased rift between poor and rich 
nations. in the latter, keep causes in mind if you would, because cases 
such as what has happened in mugabe's zimbabwe have come to pass 
because of things which are counter to your argument, i think.


| Also, we already have the technology to send people to the moon. Why
| would that trigger any new research ? It seems I'm not the only one
| to think this way :
|
| http://www.floridatoday.com/news/space/stories/2004a/011804politics.h
|tm

actually, we *don't* have the technology to go to the moon, even in the 
way we did more than 30 years ago, never mind the kind of excursion 
envisioned. we could not, for instance, replicate the saturn V -- the 
drawings don't even exist anymore, sad to say. the thinkers that took 
us to the moon are mostly dead, and we have not produced a generation 
of specialists to replace them -- so much of what is contemplated 
indeed involves education. so the idea that we'll slap together a 
saturn V, stick a bottle with some guys on top, and go to the moon is 
grossly in error. if your point is that we're technologically more 
advanced than we were 35 years ago, well, yeah, we are.

| And if you aim beyond the Moon and Mars, then you pretty much have to
| reconsider space travel altogether, go back to fundamental physics,
| and hope for two things :
| - Einstein was wrong and it's possible to travel faster than light
| - We'll find a way to achieve such speeds

not at all. first, no one proposes the kind of multi-year trips to the 
outer planets that you seem to be alluding to. that expeditions to 
asteroids might be launched is possible, but they are likely to be 
beyond my lifetime, certainly, and yours, probably. even those would 
very likely be only after permanent outposts on mars had become well 
developed. and the speed of light has little to do with it in manned 
programs. multi-month and multi-year voyages of discovery are scarcely 
unknown historically. would problems need to be solved as to supply and 
propulsion? youbetcha. which is exactly what is proposed, and what you 
seem to oppose.

| So to expect that a new Space program will have the same benefits as
| the 1st one in a completely different situation appears a bit far
| fetched to me.

no, no one says it will have the same benefits. it will have new 
benefits.
-- 
dep

It's remarkable how quickly a problem goes away once the people with
a vested interest in there being a problem go away. -- Mark Steyn

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