Re: [ARSCLIST] NASA

[David Breneman <david_breneman@xxxxxxxxx>]

--- Tom Fine <tflists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Hey, if the president has his way with the national treasure, we
> will be blowing large clumps of 
> money in the near future to go back for ... what??? 

Well Tom, there's more to exploring space than taking
information from other places and relaying it back here.
This planet  isn't going to last forever.  Some time in the
next couple 100,000 years there's going to be another
cataclysmic meteor impact of the type that wiped out the
dinosaurs, and even if we're able to divert that, the Sun is 
eventually going to expand and swallow up the Earth.

So mankind's destiny must be to move out from the Earth,
first to nearby places like the Moon and Mars, and 
eventually to other solar systems.  It will take 
thousands of years.  We've wasted 30.  Why waste more?
It's going to be a long, slow process, but it needs
to begin eventually, and I'm selfish enough to want
to live to see permanant bases on the Moon, and people
on Mars, so sue me.  :-)

Besides, as archivists, we'll need to have found somewhere
safe to put our stuff before the Sun goes nova.


David Breneman         david_breneman@xxxxxxxxx

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