That's if the country had the money or income stream to pay for manned
spaceflight.
We're the world's biggest debtor nation of all time, our creditors are
nervous as cats on a hot time roof since the crash ... not liking what
they now see nor the amount of our debt they are carrying and we don't
even know how we can put the genie back in the bottle and get the
balance of trade revenue ... that made us the 20th century's richest
nation ... positive again.
Asia has gotten to the development point that they can now drive their
growth and dominance simply by investing in themselves / Asia and
manufacture for the rest of the world secondarily. They are now the
world's biggest market and they now have the tools and capital to drive
their own economies.
There's never a shortage of good things to do that people and nations
can't afford.
In the 21st century, if we don't focus as a nation on using what we have
to get ourselves back in the world economic / power game, we risk
becoming a 3rd rate power who won't have the resources for Moon shots
etc anyway.
If we continue in this oblivious direction, there is shortly coming a
point as a nation the US won't be able to borrow much of anything for
anything... no less incredibly expensive manned space flight to moons
and other planets.
With such US manned space flights, I think we're talking about champagne
tastes on a beer budget....
db
Eric S. Sande wrote:
Like what? I'm not trying to be a smart-ass, it's a serious question.
I've >yet to read about any really important research that is going
on in the >space station and that couldn't be done any other
way.
Microgravity offers real advanages in alloy and semiconductor
maufacturing, also pharmaceuticals. We now know how to construct
large structures in orbit and maintain a long term presence in space.
Energy is unlimited and free. Four nations/national consortia can boost
cargo into orbit and to the station assuming JAXA's HTV is successful.
I see the potential as enormous. But we have to be there to realize it.
The ISS is a good start. If we look at it as a platform for the assembly
of space-only ships, and as a fuel transfer point, we could explore the
L4 and L5 Lagrangian points. The moon is probably not a good idea
if we can't prove the presence of water.
Robots aren't smart enough to do it all, and if we look at this new
frontier as a government monopoly we are shortchanging ourselves.
Just my opinion.
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