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[quote=boorite][quote][quote]I don't see the use in manned spaceflight, either. Maybe I'm missing something.[/quote] Assuming that decimation of the human race is not the ideal solution, we need a bigger pie. Whether it's resources to mine outside of earth, or just some new living space out there somewhere, we have to learn to get off this rock we call home. And that means going forward with some sort of manned space program.[/quote] I do see the impending population crisis. I don't see manned spaceflight, given current technology, as anything remotely resembling progress toward a solution. Liquid-fueled rockets simply aren't going to cut it. You may say that the only way to advance the technology is to put more liquid-fueled rockets up there. I'd say that's a good way to advance liquid-fueled rocket technology, which isn't going to cut it. It's literally going nowhere. We haven't been beyond Low Earth Orbit in how long? Spaceflight proponents make lots of analogies to Columbus and Magellan and so on. "They said it couldn't be done," etc. Well, all analogies to terrestrial exploration simply fail, in my opinion. Such is the scale and inhospitability of interstellar space. Until we come up with something like a photon sail or a portable tokamak, we're just playing with matches up there. I think the population crisis is much closer than any possible large-scale space colonization. It's as if a truck is bearing down on us in a crosswalk, and we're talking about constructing a concrete anti-truck bunker. The way to handle the population crisis, in my opinion, is economic development based on renewable resources. This would require letting many "3rd world" or client nations or whatever you want to call them nationalize their resources and implement protectionistic measures (which is how every G8 nation got it done). In short, freedom. This is the opposite of the trend toward "free trade" globalization, and so is unlikely to happen. I figure we're doomed. But it's our best shot.[/quote]
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