Message-ID: <wZX8D=m00VcJ082k5U@andrew.cmu.edu>
Reply-To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU
From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU
To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU
Date: Mon, 18 Dec 89 01:29:32 -0500 (EST)
Subject: SPACE Digest V10 #357

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 10 : Issue 357

Today's Topics:
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Date:     Sat, 16 Dec 89 00:08:34 -0900
Sender: <FSKWB%ALASKA.BITNET@vma.cc.cmu.edu>
Reply-To: <FSKWB%ALASKA.BITNET@vma.cc.cmu.edu>
From: "(C) 1989 Blindman Productions, L"  <FSKWB%ALASKA.BITNET@vma.cc.cmu.edu>

Regarding Jim Bowery's Chronicle of the Cape Pilgrimage:

Nicely done.  Very provactive posting, with an extremely poignant ending.

The assertion that the Challenger crew were sacrificial lambs is offensive to
me, for reasons beyond religion.  Christa McAuliffe and the rest of the crew
of Challenger were simply doing a job.  What that job was is open to debate...
but not right now.  The point of the matter is simply that they knew that
there was an element of risk.  They accepted that risk, threw their lots in on
a faulty O-ring seal, and paid the price.  They did nothing that would qualify
as last minute heroics.  There were no eloquent soliloquoys following the fine
oratorical traditions of Homer, Spenser or Wagner.  There wasn't enough time.
Rather, they died in the line of duty, and should be treated as such.  Making
media martyrs of them is doing their memories and dependants a grave
disservice.

Quite frankly, the costs we have paid to get out of this little tidepool of a
planet have been paltry, when expressed in either dollars, or in human lives
and effort.  If killing people at random would markedly improve my species'
chances of expanding beyond this planet's embrace, I would be willing to
do it...no matter how many people died.  70 astronauts would have been an
incredibly inexpensive price.  400 billion dollars is chicken feed -- when
compared to the potential returns.  (And, yes, those returns are out there.
This planet makes up a miniscule percentage of the Solar System's accessible
mass.  I don't have exact figures, but somebody on the net probably does.)
In reaping those benefits, humans will almost certainly have to go out there.
And some of them will die.  There will be spacer's widows a-plenty in the
future...but they will not paralyze our escape from the cradle.

Historically speaking, every human conflict boils down to a grab for
resources.  The Mesopotamians needed fertile farmland.  The United States
needed Vietnam's tungsten and vanadium deposits.  When you consider the
resources (solar power, floating chunks of nickle iron, real estate) within
reach over our heads, it kind of makes the history of human conflict look
rather silly in comparison.

So which will it be?  Sitting on our thumbs, muttering about "maybes" and
"might-haves", or taking a step that's every bit as significant as the
coelecanth's coming out of the ocean?

Please do not take this posting as a radical menifesto advocating the pell-
mell exploration and exploitation of space.  I advocate a clearly reasoned
expansion.  First into LEO, then to Luna, then elsewhere.  Grandstanding
accomplishes nothing in this arena.  It doesn't even matter if it's a govern-
ment or private industry that makes the move.  Or even WHICH government
makes the move.  Just because the US has hamstrung itself doesn't mean we
should resent the progress made by the Soviets, or the Chinese, or the
Japanese, or whoever seems to be ahead of us.  Just so long as we get off
of this planet before we bring it down around our ears.

(Turning flamethrower down to "medium" intensity...:-)  )

I do think that we WILL make it...but by the hair of our teeth, in the
finest human tradition.  And the part of the human species that makes it may
very well speak Russian.  Or Chinese.  Or Japanese.  Or...

Once again, Jim, thank you for a very provacative piece.

"The Earth is far too fragile a basket for humanity to keep all of its
eggs in."  Robert Anson Heinlein.  American soldier, author and philosopher.

Yorik the Blind/Ken Burnside/FSKWB@ALASKA.BITNET/FSKWB@acad3.fai.alaska.edu

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End of SPACE Digest V10 #357
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