The Cellar - View Single Post - Columbia Has Apparently Broken up on Reentry

Griff · 02-02-2003, 08:46 AM

This accident has got me reflecting on our space program. I think we have to admitt that its going nowhere. How many tons of payload have the shuttles hauled over the years and to what end? We have one puny space station, hubble the one real acheivement, a lot of military hardware, and countless comm satellites which really don't require this kind of complex delivery.

Governments control access to the frontier of space. America doesn't work without a frontier, our culture can't be productive without a place for free people to dream about. Instead of looking outward, we look inward toward controlling our fellow citizens and lets face it the rest of the planet. We need that frontier. Someone needs to wrest it free from the State. I can't really mourn astronauts, they're the few who've been allowed into what shouldn't be an exclusive club. They are the fortunate ones, even if their lives were wasted for petty goals. Thats the tragic part, I guess, they lost their lives on a bureacracies small step, intead of something more worthy.

When I'm an old man and we still have no sizable permanent presence in space, I'll be sad for humanity. I was born in '64 when I was a kid man's conquest of space was inevitable. A broad section of humanity from different disciplines would be creating human communities on a limitless frontier, what a wonderful idea. Somehow the shuttle program ended up being an end in itself rather than a tool toward that greater goal.

02-02-2003, 08:46 AM	#14
Griff still says videotape Join Date: Feb 2001 Posts: 26,813	This accident has got me reflecting on our space program. I think we have to admitt that its going nowhere. How many tons of payload have the shuttles hauled over the years and to what end? We have one puny space station, hubble the one real acheivement, a lot of military hardware, and countless comm satellites which really don't require this kind of complex delivery. Governments control access to the frontier of space. America doesn't work without a frontier, our culture can't be productive without a place for free people to dream about. Instead of looking outward, we look inward toward controlling our fellow citizens and lets face it the rest of the planet. We need that frontier. Someone needs to wrest it free from the State. I can't really mourn astronauts, they're the few who've been allowed into what shouldn't be an exclusive club. They are the fortunate ones, even if their lives were wasted for petty goals. Thats the tragic part, I guess, they lost their lives on a bureacracies small step, intead of something more worthy. When I'm an old man and we still have no sizable permanent presence in space, I'll be sad for humanity. I was born in '64 when I was a kid man's conquest of space was inevitable. A broad section of humanity from different disciplines would be creating human communities on a limitless frontier, what a wonderful idea. Somehow the shuttle program ended up being an end in itself rather than a tool toward that greater goal. Last edited by Griff; 02-02-2003 at 08:49 AM.