In defense of NASA: was Re: Wirin' up blinkenlights

From: Paul Braun <nerdware_at_laidbak.com>
Date: Thu Jun 8 22:09:09 2000

Date sent: Thu, 8 Jun 2000 18:51:11 -0700
From: sjm <sethm_at_loomcom.com>
To: classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org
Subject: Re: Wirin' up blinkenlights
Send reply to: classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org

> On Thu, Jun 08, 2000 at 09:16:04PM -0400, R. D. Davis wrote:
> > On Thu, 8 Jun 2000, John Allain wrote:
> > > How many people on this list have fantasized for even a
> > > moment building an Apollo spaceflight simulator with all
> > > the lights & switches accurate and active?
> >
> > No. Such space flights amount to little more than a massive waste of
> > taxpayer money, and take place just to appease those who are into
> > science fiction, or who make money from it, and I don't fantasize about
> > having my money wasted.
>
> Yeah! Just like that damn pesky ARPAnet.
>
> -Seth
>

<rant>
Absolutely. If you only take a narrow view of life, the internet could
look like a tremendous waste of money and time.

The space program, while costing the taxpayers a sizable amount
of money, has produced huge quantities of spinoff projects and
technologies that have definitely benefitted mankind.

If you take the previous poster's comments back several hundred
years, the Spanish could have said, "Why should the Queen spend
our money on that Columbus guy? He's just some obnoxious
"explorer" who only wants to satisfy his curiosity. What a waste!
We have everything we need, right here."

I've been following the space program for as long as I can
remember, and it always irritates me when someone says that the
only reason we're doing it is to make some sci-fi geeks happy.
Most of the people in the space industry, I would venture to guess,
are probably not sci-fi nuts but damn good engineers and scientists
who are gaining a lot of valuable research from NASA and the like.


</rant>






Paul Braun WD9GCO
Cygnus Productions
nerdware_nospam_at_laidbak.com
Received on Thu Jun 08 2000 - 22:09:09 BST