posted on Jan, 29 2010 @ 09:25 AM
While I've been a life-long proponent of space exploration and colonization, I had to shake my head when the Bush plan came out. It was described as
'Apollo on steroids' and I remember thinking at the time, 'is this the best they could come up with 40 years after Apollo?'
So I'm not upset that this particular plan got axed but I will be upset if nothing better replaces it.
Marshall Savage wrote a wonderfully inspiring book called the Millenium Project: How to Colonize the Galaxy in Eight Easy Steps. In spite of the
cheezy title, it's a very well written book, that demonstrates, how we can solve ALL of our environmental, economic and resource problems by
exploiting the almost unlimited resources that are in the moon, the asteroids and on Mars. He has provided the vision, now all we need is the will to
make it happen. NASA's lack of vision and Congress having their head up their ass means the last 40 years have been wasted but it's not too late to
start down this path.
The Earth has been called the Cradle of Humanity. I submit that it now time that we leave the cradle. Maybe we as a species need to move out from the
Earth in order to broaden our attitudes towards each other and mature as a species.
As a final comment, it's been estimated that ALL of the technology that we take for granted today, is a direct result of the US space program and the
boost it gave to technology research along with spinoff benefits. So spending money (wisely) on space is NOT a waste.