>I recall seeing the first moon landing as an 8 yr old, and thinking how
wicked >cool is this whole adventure. But I have seen some of the younger
crowd, Eliezer >for instance, diss the whole thing.
I'm 23 and ecstatic about the possibilities, but absolutely sick of the reality of it, and our repeated blown opportunities. This is one of the reasons I'm on this list.
Yo have to admit that it's rather difficult to get excited about the Space Shuttle. It's been going up and down for years and years and there's amazingly little to show for it. It's NASA's job to restrict access to space, not open the door to it; the Shuttle, as a design and as a concept, is increasingly inefficient. What's fascinating is that there's no real reason we couldn't be going beyond Earth orbit with it after some retrofitting. To my mind, a retrofitted Shuttle would make an ideal vehicle for shipping hardware to the Moon for, say, a permament base.
Maintaining interest in space is goping to be difficult when the most "historic" space venture in recent memory is flinging John Glenn back into orbit in a completely transparent PR gesture...school kids are supposed to relate to this? Give me a break.
--Mac Tonnies