Prickly City by Scott Stantis for July 23, 2009

Hitler had a vision (and possibly heard voices) and was a socialising nationalist .

(oh no! Godwin’s Law :p )

Hitler didn’t have a vision, he had a delusion. Slight difference.

McGehee, I think delusions are visions only that, they are deceitful.

You want wonder and the spirit of exploration, you can get that from Hubble photographs and unmanned probes and robot landers. If you want adventure, go out and make your OWN. If you want a couple of new rocks to look at in the Smithsonian, send someone back to the moon (or to Mars)…

The purpose of space research is to expand the boundaries of our knowledge, not make great television, or to push pins in a map of the sky and say “Been there. Been there. Haven’t been there. Been there.”

If we, or a comet, destroy this planet, it would be handy to have some people elsewhere.

We’re a long way from having the capability to establish any sort of self-sustaining colony, ANYWHERE, and the technology required to do so can be developed here on earth. Before we try sending people into the great beyond, let’s at least find someplace that might be suitable to send them.

It would be handy to destroy another planet wouldn’t it. No worries Chuklitl, I jest. The unsettling thing is that it might not be a joke in the future.

Domes on barren rocks beat extinction, but keep the robot idea. The best Mars plan I’ve heard is robot factories, there, to produce air & fuel before anyone leaves Earth.

ChukLit shouldn’t we get a second opinion?…I’m sure Marvin Maartian is open to giving suggestions

Terraforming is an option, but it’s a LONG way from being workable. Remember, if we’re talking about a colony that could act as an “ark” in case of earthly extinction, it will need to be FULLY self-supporting. If all they’re going to be is a last gasp of survivors who live ling enough to write a history of the death of Earth (like the Australians in “On The Beach”), there ain’t a lot of point.

But we won’t know for sure whether colonies and terraforming can or can’t work until we actually try. That should have been the next step after going to the moon - setting up colonies on (or actually in) the moon to see if they could be done successfully.

They didn’t get laid off, they quit.