I think it's kinda cool. I remember man's first steps on the moon; It was so exciting and new. I think the renewed interest will be exciting. It will generate new work too.

What do you all think?

I think its very cool. I would rather it be funded by something other than my tax dollars. I'll be moving to an island soon where I can tax myself!

But I do like space research, and I just think it's kind of cool.

I think our society is set up now so that the real power of politicians lies in their control of huge amounts of money and in making new laws. Without the promise of that power, most of these people would not go into politics.

So taxes will be huge no matter what. And if we're taking in too much, then we/they'll find a way to vent the excess. Look, we just had a trade surplus not that long ago, now she be gone.

I strongly believe a bunch of our money should go to space programs. This may be the only window of opportunity we have for doing the basic studies that could expand us beyond this rapidly depleted and polluted ball of dirt. If India and Pakistan or the Koreas, just as examples, have a blowup, it could end our ability to devote resources to expansion.

Just because we can do it now doesn't mean we'll always be able to. And just because it's promised in a campaign year doesn't mean we will.

For building a new home so to speak for a place to go after the world ends. Why not just build a new village here that is capable of everything a space station is? radiation free, water supply, regenerative power. A place protected from all outside climate and self supporting of its own climate and life.

just for conversation.

I understand your point of view and respect it. I'm an idealist like you. Our difference lies in our respect for the competitive model paradigm in which we live.

When settlers came to the New World, food was so abundant that a flock of passenger pigeons blocked the sky for days at a time. Now our world is becoming "more urbanized" which means more crowded. China is now second in oil consumption to the US. There is an unprecedented amount of population, wealth and consumption. There is more friction due to lack of Lebenstraum (sp?).

We could argue that this tax money should be used to feed the starving, and I would agree if that would be realistic. But not that long ago the US sent huge amounts of food to India, who refused it based on the controversy surrounding GM corn. People died while food rotted. Now we are discussing lifting steel surcharges if we cut down on foreign subsidies. Bottom line: the amount that we help ourselves and other people is governed by political, not humane factors.

Also, our present president has made it clear that he believes that it is important to have a national debt. My guess is he believes that other nations would be far more interested in the survival of our democratic governments if they were to lose (what they are owed) by our collapse. So budget surpluses again are politically, not economically governed.

My main reason for the promotion of space exploration is as follows: Any closed system that is not perfectly efficient is subject to depletion. Only in this case, when depletion reaches a critical point, expansion will cease to be an option because we won't have the resources to invest. Mining of the moon, Mars, the main asteroid belt, etc., will no longer be open to us. I'm sure mankind would then find solutions, but I don't think that we will have the luxury of choosing humane solutions any longer at that juncture.

During great economic booms (like the late 90's) many people could not imagine the economy ever returning to painful levels. It is the same here: Many people believe that we'll always have the option of expanding beyond the planet or that there will never be the need to do so. History shows cycles of poverty and prosperity, with much prosperity coming from finding new resources (and technologies). Unless we decide to choose who goes when we begin to depopulate Earth, we need some new form of Manifest Destiny.

It's also a sociological issue. Instead of spending a bunch of our money and lives declaring wars, we could be laying out how each nation will gain from mining and settling space, which might generate common goals and therefore alliances without the extinction of ancient cultures.

And the most important argument for space colonization, of course, is the hard vacuum that can be mined to bring back high quality vacuum tube audio to the masses.

It would be much more that just a noble idea to have a common goal between world powers, such as space colonization. If China is now the second largest oil consumer globally that should really start to ring in. It could be a short time and China could have a government surplus that will surpass the entire global economy. This would then allow them to build condos on the moon for us to live in?

There are suggestions that a meteor or some other natural phenomenon would be found on collision course with this planet and thereby offering nothing or no place.

How ever, and aside from that minor detail. I would rather to see monies and labor on a global scale be put into forward motion for a subteranial colony on this planet. First off we as humans could start the project in an atmosphere and environment we like. It would only cost mega billions instead of mega trillions since the whole transportation thing using those pesky gas guzzling, solid fuel
rockets could be set aside until they meet the Fed's new specs.

Lastly, If we burrowed into this planet we have a warm and familiar place to bail out to while we study the important things that will effect a "sealed" civilization. Underground movement and geothermal effects on building materials might head up the list alongside people trapped in a false outdoors with each other.

So I'll fire up Frank Sinatra, "fly me to the moon" playing through 300B's and settle back into ,my, vacuum

Bill

I think the idea of space colonization is wonderful - however, I firmly believe that we should be MUCH further along than we are now. Since we wasted so much time and money on the space shuttle program, which never went very far, I think we should be looking in different directions.

Let's spend the money on:

1. Researching alternative fuel methods (I am tired of being dependant upon a part of the world which will always be in turmoil).
2. Under sea exploration and colonization. There is a lot of unused area and resources down there.
3. Subterranial colonization as you suggested would be good also.

Truthfully, I feel the bottom line is, in this day and age, when so many are unemployed, uninsured and worried about how to support the family, our politicians should be more concerned with looking at what is happening in the United States than in flying to the moon. Unless, of course, they would like to send the greedy ceo's who are causing most of our problems to the moon along with the illegal aliens ... Maybe they could build a colony there ...