Re. SPACE: Economic Role for Manned Space Stations

mark@unicorn.com
Mon, 19 Jul 1999 05:18:54 -0700 (PDT)

Alintelbot@aol.com wrote:
>I'm 23 and ecstatic about the possibilities, but absolutely sick of the
>reality of it, and our repeated blown opportunities.

Indeed. I'm not surprised that so few people are excited about the Shuttle flights or Space Station Alf, because, frankly, what's to be excited about? I want to go into space myself, NASA just wants to grab hundreds of billions of tax dollars to conduct experiments of little interest and dubious worth. So why should I care about it? Alf barely gets me one step closer to going into space.

>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.

Well, what can you expect from a Mars Face believer? Hint: the shuttle has wings, wheels, and is only designed for a very limited stay in space before the consumables run out.

Mark