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Re: (meteorobs) Perspective
Hi Mike,
I think this is a very narrow way of seeing things...
You make it seem as if those billions of dollars are "wasted" on space,
rather than put in other places where they are needed more. This is not
true. For every dollar invested in space, economists estimate a return of
6-10 dollars. Space is profitable!
Another thing is, that many new medicines and medical treatments have been
improved, invented or made in space, so that space exploration helps also to
the Africans and to those that have cancer. There are of course countless
other things that me and you wouldn't have if space science didn't exist.
Certainly the starving Africans wouldn't.
And if you do want to talk about the starving people in Africa, think about
the reasons why they are starving. They live mostly in countries that are
unindustrialized, not democratic, and not technologically advanced. Three
things that only come to be in a country that is scientificly active,
advanced, successful, and invests in science. So it is not food and medicine
we should send to Africa, but science kits, teachers, books, pens,
notebooks. Don't give them fish, teach them how to fish.
If we take money from science and give to the poor in order to make things
better, eventually we will get the opposite of what we wished for.
To those of you who claim robots are better than men, I have several things
to say. First, robots cannot do everything. They can do a lot of things, but
not everything. Secondly, if we are smart humans, we must think about the
future. Today, perhaps, it is costly and dangerous(not that dangerous
though) to go in space. But in 50 years from now, we will be able to send
people to space by cheaper and safer means. Space tourism, interplanetary
manned missions, marsian and lunar colonies, asteroid mining - all of these
will be reality for our children.
In 100 years from now(let's hope no earlier than that), it is also very
possible that earth just won't be good enough anymore. Population will
explode, resources will dwindle to zero, global warming might take over. We
must be able to survive outside our planet as well, Mars is a very good
option. Otherwise, the human kind will be exstinct very quickly(it is a
miracle that we are still here in my opinion).
To conclude, space is good for us. We must go one despite the things that
have happened. I am absolutely sure that all seven astronauts that lost
their lives on columbia would agree 100% on this one.
Clear skies and happier news to us all,
Shy
----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Linnolt" <mlinnolt@alum.mitdot edu>
To: <meteorobs@atmob.org>
Sent: Tuesday, February 04, 2003 11:08 PM
Subject: (meteorobs) Perspective
> While clearing my mailbox of this deluge of messages on the shuttle
tragedy, it occured to me how little news is accorded to the 1000's of
people who die of starvation in Africa and to the 500,000 or more who die of
cancer in the US every year... Now where should we be spending the billions
of dollars it will cost to figure out a more reliable spaceship?
>
> Mike Linnolt
> The archive and Web site for our list is at http://www.meteorobs.org
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