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March 29, 2004
what is the worth of a man?
The Wrong Stuff, in which Steven Weinberg argues that manned space exploration is worthless, dangerous, and a hindrance to real science. neatly avoids population pressure and resource issues, as well as job displacement aspects of his program of choice.
Posted by parody at March 29, 2004 07:54 PM
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Comments
Bush's space plans are a back-handed way of concelling the shuttle and Hubble projects while paying only lip service to manned space exploration.
Hubble and the shuttle are dead. That won't change.
Bush's grandiose manned exploration plans are designed to give starry-eyed space idealists some reason to like him. The best explanation I heard on this was that the plans are the "political equivalent of viagra." "Hey, look at me, I've got a big rocket, and I'm going to explore the universe."
Even addressing the practicalities of the issue is falling into Bush's trap. Bush has killed manned space exploration, as of this year's budget. And his budget doesn't even come close to paying for anything like a replacement. All he's given us is plans designed to kick in some time well after he's out of office, maeaning, never.
We should know better than to fall for that.
Posted by: Great Satan at March 30, 2004 01:40 PM