I'm not saying don't do it. I'm saying that the way to do it is to find a way for people to make money in space (other than on govt projects), then exploit their eagerness to make money to fund other long term goals. If the greedy (okay, enlightened entrepreneurs) want to make money in space, they will need all that infrastructure you mentioned. No Buck Rogers, no bucks!Show me a politician that thinks in terms of 150 years, I challenge you. We're lucky if any of our "leaders" look past the next election, or even the next poll leading up to the next election. You have to work within the system as it actually is, find a way leverage it and exploit its motivations. And then redirect that energy to make progress in areas that the entrepreneurs have no interest in. Like giant space telescopes!Mark S.
They also don't like dust.
Space telescopes - like all telescopes and many other structures - like stable thermal environments and an unlimited viewing field. They also don't like dust. All this speaks against the Moon. Even LEO is better than the Moon. Go to an Lagrange point and you are done. Less delta v needed too.Analyst
"We now have a world civilization in its infancy" All this squabbling over HSF prioritization is small potatoes compared to the squabbling that seems to be accompanying the drift towards a "new world order" or what ever one wants to call it. Perhaps the defense budgets we now have are absolutely necessary in this process.
the only way we are ever going to get off this rock in any meaningful way is to find a way to make rich people even richer
Quote from: JohnFornaro on 01/22/2010 04:02 pm"We now have a world civilization in its infancy" All this squabbling over HSF prioritization is small potatoes compared to the squabbling that seems to be accompanying the drift towards a "new world order" or what ever one wants to call it. Perhaps the defense budgets we now have are absolutely necessary in this process.Don't count on a one-world government. Not even in a hundred years.