Biased in favor of taxpayers and those who love space? You bet! :-)
I'm just curious what qualifies the group to debate the subject and why I should be the least bit interested in their opinions. Their science background? Their space program awareness capabilities? Their economic/business acumen? I wouldn't want them making decisions on this or too many other matters with the possible exception of annoying and worthless TV programs.
Cool. Let me know when private industry lands on the moon.
C'mon...NASA did it with 1960s technology. Surely with 21st century technology, someone like a Bill Gates or Burt Rutan could do it.
Oh...wait...they're only now doing what NASA did in the early 1960s. And they're only getting 1/3rd as high off the ground as the shuttle goes.
Let's see now...NASA's proposed budget for FY06 is $16,471,050,000 (House Appropriations Committee). That is a lot of money, but consider for a moment that President Bush's proposed FY06 Information Technology (IT) Budget for the U.S. is $65.2 billion dollars. That is FOUR TIMES more than NASA's budget.
If you want to gripe about money going down the drain, why don't you start with an arena that has an obsolescence span of 36 months and ask why so much money is being dumped into it.
'Course, I doubt you will. It's not "fashionable" for you pseudointellectuals to badmouth IT...yet.