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Jan
27

There’s waste, and there’s waste

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I’m with James.

Look, I want to go back to the Moon, too. I’d be happy with a base in ten years. I wish we had a big manned probe heading for Jupiter by now. But it’s not like we’ve stopped: Cassini flies by Titan on Monday, again, and we have a craft en route to Mars to deliver a big rover. Just those phrases give me pause: we have a probe flying past Titan, and a craft on the way to Mars. These are extraordinary things. There are positions people hold with which I disagree and understand, but I do not understand anyone who regards a machine on Mars driving around and taking pictures from ground level as a waste of money. Unless you went with the undercoating. That’s just a dealership scam.

Heh.

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2 comments

  1. ErikZ says:

    1/27/2012 at 9:42 AM (UTC -5)

    I'm very excited that China will probably be the first to create a permanent Moon settlement, and build it with the legendary skill and quality the Chinese are known for.
  2. Mr. Lion says:

    1/27/2012 at 10:43 AM (UTC -5)

    My problem with what's left of the space program is that none of it is particularly difficult, relative to goals we've set ourselves before. Yes, firing off a probe or a rover is neat and all, and it's more than anyone else is doing just now, but we've been tossing probes at planets since the 70s and rovers since the 90s. Hell, Russia was tossing rovers at the moon in the 70s, even if they did end up in a commu-tastic cloud of dust.

    It's sort of a different thing to decide that we're going to stick a bunch of the best guys we have on the pointy end of a very large bomb and launch them into the black. And do it again, and again, and again with near complete success.

    If a rover makes a crater, well, there's a few billion down the drain. There isn't much risk, and likewise nowhere near the commitment or wonder when you're chucking a piece of metal at a planet, as doing the same with people.

    While the initial reaction most have to a moon base or Mars mission is "well, that's silly", I have to ask-- is it? Would a large, hugely technical, very risky national project like that be a bad thing right now? Yes, we'd have to cut back the government cheese quite a lot to pay for it, but what would you rather have: Men in space, or a better cheese grater?

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