Comments on: The End of the Space Age? http://blog.nss.org/?p=2767 Blogging for the creation of a spacefaring civilization Mon, 20 May 2013 05:53:44 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: Orphan of Apollo http://blog.nss.org/?p=2767&cpage=1#comment-33990 Orphan of Apollo Mon, 28 May 2012 08:13:07 +0000 http://blog.nss.org/?p=2767#comment-33990 Whose Space Age? If you mean the sort of vision that NASA sketched out before the downsizing of Apollo and its tapering off into LEO work, yes. That vision is as faded as the Mars-base pamphlets I saw at a talk by Gene Cernan, just after Apollo 17. With apologies to the author of the post, I disagree about the Shuttle. It was no more than an overpriced and dangerous delivery van for the ISS, beyond the breathtaking and worthwhile mission to put Hubble into orbit and then service it. Otherwise, America's "reach" stopped with Apollo 17. Even Hubble and the brilliant Mars rovers fail to inspire that nearly religious conviction to "The Dream," as we zealots like to call it. America's general decline intellectually (anti-evolution more generally anti-science) and gridlock politically make it unlikely that a government-run program will rekindle the spark. After 40+ years of hoping, I resign myself to being an old man just as the private firms and other nations pick up the torch that Apollo once carried. Other than proof that an alien civilization is "out there," I think our best hopes remain private sector ventures such as Dragon or shaming by that other Dragon, the Chinese one. Whose Space Age? If you mean the sort of vision that NASA sketched out before the downsizing of Apollo and its tapering off into LEO work, yes. That vision is as faded as the Mars-base pamphlets I saw at a talk by Gene Cernan, just after Apollo 17.

With apologies to the author of the post, I disagree about the Shuttle. It was no more than an overpriced and dangerous delivery van for the ISS, beyond the breathtaking and worthwhile mission to put Hubble into orbit and then service it. Otherwise, America’s “reach” stopped with Apollo 17. Even Hubble and the brilliant Mars rovers fail to inspire that nearly religious conviction to “The Dream,” as we zealots like to call it.

America’s general decline intellectually (anti-evolution more generally anti-science) and gridlock politically make it unlikely that a government-run program will rekindle the spark.

After 40+ years of hoping, I resign myself to being an old man just as the private firms and other nations pick up the torch that Apollo once carried. Other than proof that an alien civilization is “out there,” I think our best hopes remain private sector ventures such as Dragon or shaming by that other Dragon, the Chinese one.

]]> By: Regis http://blog.nss.org/?p=2767&cpage=1#comment-32891 Regis Tue, 22 May 2012 20:35:33 +0000 http://blog.nss.org/?p=2767#comment-32891 Actually, the TRUE SPACE AGE (the one we had dreamed about) is as dead as JFK. Actually, the TRUE SPACE AGE (the one we had dreamed about) is as dead as JFK.

]]> By: Anonymous http://blog.nss.org/?p=2767&cpage=1#comment-21577 Anonymous Wed, 23 Nov 2011 21:39:41 +0000 http://blog.nss.org/?p=2767#comment-21577 The Editor and Author of "The Economist" needs to be properly informed! The Editor and Author of “The Economist” needs to be properly informed!

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