The article
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I thought this was going to be another anti-space rant. But I read onwards.
The guy is right. The US space program has done nothing in the past 50 years. China should be allowed into the ISS program. Orion is pathetic. The space station should be modified into a space ship.
My rant that has nothing to do with the article
We all know that the US has been loosing its place as the premier explorer of space and has cut NASA's budget each year for too long a time. This is unlikely to change. But perhaps after the US leaves us Euros, Canadians and Japs the keys, we can do a bit of home improvement and go explore the solar system while America's plays in its Lunar sandbox.
We should go back to being our imperialistic selves and start working on space colonization.
Have we lost that spirit that drove us to enslave millions of people across the world and paint the map pink/blue/grey?
And the stars are empty! We can claim the land without pesky natives declaring independence or staining our boots with red blood (green is another matter).
There are too few of us on Earth and younger, reckless and more vital cultures have taken over. We should head out towards the Grey Havens and then sail towards
Valinor as all elder civs do.
Link
Consider the International Space Station, that marvel of incremental engineering. It has close to 15,000 cubic feet of livable space; 10 modules, or living and working areas; a Canadian robot arm that can repair the station from outside; and the capacity to keep five astronauts (including the occasional wealthy rubbernecking space tourist) in good health for long periods. It has gleaming, underused laboratories; its bathroom is fully repaired; and its exercycle is ready for vigorous mandatory workouts.
The only problem with this $156 billion manifestation of human genius -- a project as large as a football field that has been called the single most expensive thing ever built -- is that it's still going nowhere at a very high rate of speed. And as a scientific research platform, it still has virtually no purpose and is accomplishing nothing.
The only problem with this $156 billion manifestation of human genius -- a project as large as a football field that has been called the single most expensive thing ever built -- is that it's still going nowhere at a very high rate of speed. And as a scientific research platform, it still has virtually no purpose and is accomplishing nothing.
The guy is right. The US space program has done nothing in the past 50 years. China should be allowed into the ISS program. Orion is pathetic. The space station should be modified into a space ship.
My rant that has nothing to do with the article
We all know that the US has been loosing its place as the premier explorer of space and has cut NASA's budget each year for too long a time. This is unlikely to change. But perhaps after the US leaves us Euros, Canadians and Japs the keys, we can do a bit of home improvement and go explore the solar system while America's plays in its Lunar sandbox.
We should go back to being our imperialistic selves and start working on space colonization.
Have we lost that spirit that drove us to enslave millions of people across the world and paint the map pink/blue/grey?
The world is nearly all parcelled out, and what there is left of it is being divided up, conquered and colonised. To think of these stars that you see overhead at night, these vast worlds which we can never reach. I would annex the planets if I could; I often think of that. It makes me sad to see them so clear and yet so far.
There are too few of us on Earth and younger, reckless and more vital cultures have taken over. We should head out towards the Grey Havens and then sail towards
Valinor as all elder civs do.
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