Mike Griffin & Space travel, Goofy?
- From: "robo" <digitalice@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 11 Jun 2007 19:11:00 GMT
Now I'm fairly convinced by the arguments made by Stephen Baxter and Adam
Roberts that Nasa has been on the wrong track in terms of methods. As far
as necessity of getting into space, I've always thought it was fairly
self-evident for a number of reasons.
In the article below you may notice that the notion of going into space
itself is considered goofy. What you folks think?
_________________________________________
The scientific and policy communities in Washington and elsewhere are acting
as though NASA Administrator Mike Griffin's now notorious interview with NPR
yesterday morning was the first time his logic has seemed a bit goofy. Come
on, people. The symptoms have been around for years. Here's Griffin in 2005,
just a few months after taking office, rationalizing spending hundreds of
billions of taxpayers' dollars to fund the building of space camps on the
Moon and Mars:
Now, you know, in the sense that a chicken is just an egg's way of laying
another egg, one of our purposes is to survive and thrive and spread
humankind. I think that's worth doing. There will be another mass-extinction
event. If we humans want to survive for hundreds of thousands or millions of
years, we must ultimately populate other planets....
I'm talking about that one day, I don't know when that day is, but there
will be more human beings who live off the Earth than on it. We may well
have people living on the moon. We may have people living on the moons of
Jupiter and other planets. We may have people making habitats on
asteroids....
And here's the best part:
To me it's important because I like the United States, and because I
know -- I don't know the date -- but I know that humans will colonize the
solar system and one day go beyond. And it is important for me that humans
who carry -- I'll characterize it as Western values -- are there with them.
You know, I think we know the kind of society we would get if you, for
example, carry Soviet values. That means you want a gulag on Mars. Is that
what you're looking for?
It's worth remembering that Griffin was unanimously confirmed by the U.S.
Senate in April of 2005. So not one U.S. senator voted against his
nomination. Why are his views on global warming just coming to light now?
http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/node/4975
.
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