From: Samantha Atkins (samantha@objectent.com)
Date: Tue Jan 30 2001 - 02:52:54 MST
denis bider wrote:
>
> > << It seems to me that programs like NASA are vastly
> > under-financed - people seem to think that "we've been there,
> > done that". But I think we haven't even scratched the surface;
> > we really need to invest to establish a backup civilization.
> > If I were Mr Bush, I would invest those USD 1.3 trillion
> > directly into space, not into tax cuts. [...] >>
> >
> > Do you mean colonization on Mars or do you mean a genuine
> > backup copy, same people-same lives, virtual earth?
>
> The former - the sooner the better. I really think we might be approaching
> an emergency situation. We've been close enough to the brink of destruction
> in the past.
There are several huge problems. Like it being hideously expensive to
get much of humanity to Mars and established there. Like there being no
known way the colony could break even or be self-supporting in less than
oh about a dozen generations. That is a pretty slow to take hold backup
and pretty darn fragile - much more so than earth. Like the dearth of
volunteers to go endure utterly horrid conditions and a huge likelihood
of death with no discernible golden lining for quite some time.
Exactly where do you believe the money will come from to fund such a
misadventure?
- samantha
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Nov 02 2002 - 08:05:27 MST