Rep. Bill Posey Introduces 'Back To the Moon' Bill 562
MarkWhittington writes "In an attempt to rationalize and give focus to NASA's human space flight program, Rep. Bill Posey, Republican of Florida, has introduced a bill that will direct the space agency to send astronauts back to the Moon with a goal of permanent habitation of Earth's nearest neighbor."
Re:A better idea (Score:5, Interesting)
How about paying the government deficit that is about to default in a month so humans can habitat Earth first
Because if man is to survive as a species, we must leave this planet. To leave this planet, we must advance the state of the art. To advance the state of the art, we must spend money on human space exploration/colonization.
Deficits will never go away, and neither will the fact that the sun will eventually incinerate the earth.
I agree that we need space exploration but as an Australian I am not going to demand that it be funded by US taxpayers. The fact is that Mercury, Gemini and Apollo were funded by the cold war and this funding is long gone. It was gone in the early 1970s and its not coming back. Fortunately a lot of good research and development was done in the 1950s and 60s. Launches are cheaper and more reliable now. Maybe the gap has been closed and exploration money can come from private sources. I think that is the only way space exploration will get beyond flags and footprints.
I hate to say it but nationalism and religion were the drivers of exploration in the past. Maybe this will happen in space.
Re:Umm... (Score:3, Interesting)
Since a "socialist" got elected to office. Economics are not the Republicans' strong suit. They worship the guy who slashed taxes so much in the early 80s that he had to go back and reraise them almost every single year he was in office, but a Democrat wanting to let George Bush's tax cuts expire to help bring down the deficit they caused? Oh hell no.
Re:A better idea (Score:2, Interesting)
Would you rather the Moon and other celestial bodies be carved up by megacorps?
Yes. I want a Solar System so valuable that business is willing to invest serious money in its exploitation. It's the kind of universe in which humanity has a future.
Re:A better idea (Score:1, Interesting)
"we'd best spend some energy keeping what we've got habitable."
Quit fucking wasting the energy in the first place and this wouldn't be an issue. Quit using dirty energy, as well.
Re:You are an idiot (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:A better idea (Score:4, Interesting)
a rock on a collision course with the earth. It may or may not be large enough to "destroy the earth" - but it doesn't need to be that big to "end life as we know it" on earth.
And yet, even after surviving an asteroid impact sufficient to destroy "life as we know it" or a full-on nuclear war, what remains of Earth will still be a million times more habitable than Mars.
We simply don't need colonies in space to ensure the continuance of the human race. If going all survivalist is what lights your fire, just build a sealed bio-dome in a mineshaft in Texas. It will be orders of magnitude cheaper, you'll get free oxygen and dirt to start with, and as a bonus, you'll get to find out whether it's even possible to build a self-sustaining colony. And if that answer turns out to be "no" (as it did for Biosphere 2 [wikipedia.org]), you can jump out the escape hatch without needing a working billion dollar rocket and a nine-month wait.
Space is not magic fairy dust which will make unworkable science or uneconomic technology spring into life. If sealed colonies in a can are possible, they're possible right here on Earth, for cheaper.