Doug Rushkoff writes well what I’ve been thinking about the “Mission to Moon and Mars” proposed by the President.
Hubble Hobbled by Bush’s Bubble …In order to fund Bush’s PR campaign for space – a series of pointless but publicity-rich manned flights to the moon and Mars – NASA will have to abandon the Hubble telescope. The shuttle mission to do routine maintenance and battery replacement has been canceled, and the telescope has been slated to die sometime in 2007.
…In spite of the fact that its images have been responsible for radical reappraisals of our understanding of the formation and creation of the universe (or, come to think of it, maybe it’s *because* Hubble has been responsible for radical reappraisals of the formation and creation of our universe), Hubble will be scrapped. (BOLD EMPHASIS MINE – ed.)
Perhaps I shouldn’t have put that part in parentheses, because it’s at least partly at the core of what’s going wrong in America under his leadership. We tend to do things that people can rally around, ignorantly if need-be, rather than things that make any real difference. This is because people who believe that human actions can make a real difference tend to be people who believe in evolution… [via rushkoff.blog]
I’d love to see the US go back to the moon, discover new things, visit Mars, and expand out to the universe. It is a positive thought in an otherwise depressing administration. But it comes at too high a cost. How much will my kids have to work to pay for these things? Because I’m just working to fund Social Security right now, and I feel like my bucket isn’t bailing out the Titanic fast enough…