Griffin Tells Astronomers To Lower Expectations

Aviation Week & Space Technology ^ | 1/14/2006 | Frank Morring, Jr.

[RightWhale]

Exceptionally cool.

[TheForceOfOne]

Dick Debartolo always has cool things he reviews.

Here is his website where I found that device originally.

http://www.gizwizbiz.com

[jalisco555]

Got my eye on that one. I fell out of the astronomy hobby a while back but this might just get me back in.

[from occupied ga]

That goes double for the nutjobs with dreams of colonizing space.

They have all sorts of dreams, but they can't tell the difference between science fiction with science.

We have frigid deserts here on earth with air you can breath and 1/1000000 the cost to get there, but there isn't much interest in living there (except for a few government grant supported scientists in Antartica and a few Eskimos in the far north)

I'm all for space exploration as long as the funds to do it come solely from the people who want it done.

[RightWingAtheist]

I had to click on the website, because I couldn't believe it: it is the same Dick DeBartolo who writes for Mad magazine!

[agere_contra]

The first people to establish a stable base at the lunar pole (where the ice is) will own the next century.

NASA seems to be doing the right thing, bizarrely - though probably too expensively as usual. Anyway: science is one thing, but the high ground needs to be seized.

[orionblamblam]

> I'm all for space exploration as long as the funds to do it come solely from the people who want it done.


So... should we sell Alaska and the Louisiana Purchase back?

[from occupied ga]

building linear accelerators on the moon to drop rocks on your head...

Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is science fiction.

[TheForceOfOne]

Really? I didn't know that, how strange.

I listen to WBAL on my morning commute and he calls into the show on a regular basis. They link to his website at www.wbal.com (Baltimore)

[from occupied ga]

So... should we sell Alaska and the Louisiana Purchase back?

And this is relevant because....?

[agere_contra]

then actively DENY us access to space.

You nailed it. I believe that the water ice at the lunar pole will form the basis for future solar system resource development - it will be a "Panama Canal" style bottleneck for a hundred years. Consequently I would rather America owned it than the UN or the Chinese

[newgeezer]

We have frigid deserts here on earth with air you can breath and 1/1000000 the cost to get there, but there isn't much interest in living there

Yeah, but the nuttiest of the nutjobs want to colonize space in order to -- get this!!! -- prepare for the day when we're forced to abandon planet earth.

[from occupied ga]

I believe that the water ice at the lunar pole will form the basis for future solar system resource development -

Then form a company to exploit this. Raise the capital from like minded people who think the way you do, built a space ship and then sit back and make a fortune when your dream materializes (or not)

[RightWhale]

A valid question. Goes all the way back to the adoption of the new Constitution in 1787. Two radically opposed factions in FedGov, not even civil war put an end to it. Remember: almost every bridge was a Bridge to Nowhere at the time it was built.

[from occupied ga]

Yeah, but the nuttiest of the nutjobs want to colonize space in order to -- get this!!! -- prepare for the day when we're forced to abandon planet earth.

I've gotten into "discussions" with them before. It's a religion with them. Facts are not welcome. They are true believers. As I look around the solar system, I don't see any place that will support human life except good old earth.

[newgeezer]

As I look around the solar system, I don't see any place that will support human life except good old earth.

C'mon, Dude, you're just no fun at all. We can do anything given enough imagination and (other people's) money. Besides, you're not looking far enough. There's got to be another solar system out there. "To infinity and beyond!"

[staytrue]

If you cut the income tax by 50% and cut nasa to zero except for voluntary contributions, there would be more than enough money.

[staytrue]

prepare for the day when we're forced to abandon planet earth.

That day will come. It may not be for one or two billion years, but it will come.

[from occupied ga]

We can do anything given enough imagination and (other people's) money.

Gosh, you're right I forgot the O'Neal colonies and the Lunar domes. Shouldn't take more than two or three time the total annual GDP to establish these (Well considering that government at all levels consumes over half of it now, maybe a bit more than that)

[Fatuncle]

Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is science fiction.

So was going to the moon ... until we went to the moon.