R is for Rocket
Chris ran across a good article recently on the worth of manned spaceflight. It's preaching to the choir. I've always said the space shuttles have no real purpose since the majority of activities could be robotic. I understand the need to get and keep humans in space since it's really the only way I can forsee the species surviving in any long term way. But why not use humans when they are really needed. Like saving the Hubble telescope as the article talked about. Fixing satellites or building an orbiting space station. Make this space station useful. Design it as a jumping off point for the moon. Build a huge optical telescope on the far side of the moon to search for stars that have "Earths". Do something useful other than watching how a plants grow in microgravity. It just seems like we are just exploring just to be exploring. Because historically those that explored sustained their civilization so we better do some exploring. What?! There doesn't seem to be any purpose behind it, more like empty exploring. Real exploring is running a rover all over Mars or landing a camera on Titan. That shit blows the mind of most people, that is purposeful exploration. Putting people in orbit to perform tired out microgravity experiments seems insane. Hell I hand it to the Russians for trying out space tourism, in a way there is some profit exploration going on. Somebody should hand them a capitalist prize! the irony!! I hope Branson and Burt Rutan can figure out how to get a passenger space plane to be profitable, that would shut down NASA's low orbit efforts. Another thing I've wondered about is why NASA built a spacecraft that was intended to be used for 20+ years. Don't they know technology is always improving and they are wasting money by sticking with obsolete tech? Big goverment agencies and good planning never seem to work right.
Here's an interesting question -- why ensure the survivability of the human species? What do we care when we are dead and gone? What stake do I or anyone have in the species? What if tommorow there's a plague outbreak that spreads like wildfire. Of course I'd want myself and the people close to me to live. But what if that part is removed, if we all get wiped out then what? Poof. The marks we left on the Earth would disappear in a million years through subduction and decay. Do we really matter as a species to anyone but ourselves? We think as individuals but rarely as a community so why concern ourselves with the continued existence of the community? It's very likely that the extinction of intelligent self-aware species happens on a frequent basis in the universe. Self-awareness is often seen as the heart and mind of the universe, giving the universe an ability to look at itself. With every death of that mind there is probably a birth, negating any effect. How unique are we? Is that worth saving? Will anyone miss us?