JFleck, whom I admire greatly, defends the Mars plan. I mean, yeah, this is after all the 21st century, and such. But really my question is not “why Mars” but “why now?” and “why this, over feeding the hungry, curing cancer, or stopping AIDS?” (Well, I guess those would require politically inconvenient science like common sense economics and nutrition, genetic research, and promoting the use of condoms, all of which our current administration opposes.)
Yes, I want space travel to work. I want to strip-mine the moon as much as the next guy. But come on, we haven’t got the cash right now because we’ve given it all to people making over $350k/year already, and if we give it to NASA we’d basically be giving it to a dysfunctional, wasteful organization. They need a completely new philosophy. And while we’re at it can we just give them, say, 1% of the military budget?
I feel like this is Saddam again: yes, Saddam is a bad, bad man who should be stopped, but you’re doing it badly and for all the wrong reasons! If you want to give a boost to basic research, double the direct research budgets and give money to schools.
Asking NASA to fly to Mars on any budget, even one double or triple what Bush wants to spend on it, is asking for another shuttle disaster and ten or fifteen more dead heroes to mourn, which I suppose will take the public’s mind off the fact that they’re being screwed out of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Secretly Ironic 