Science Forums 2

[charles brough]

It looks increasingly precarious to me!

I would say the standard of living of Americans has declined in the last ten years and people are too worried about it to focus any longer on space exploration. The desire to catch up with Sputnik and get into space has long since died; it is dead, dead! I have talked with people who resent spending the money on the Space Program.

Funding for NASA is relatively unchanged. The Mars project is projected so far out into the future because funds are low. NASA has even had to hire a public relations firm in order to try to get some enthusiasm restored in the general public.

So, the project drifts along on momentum, but that could change suddenly. Just one more space accident in which astronauts are killed and the whole space effort would be set back and forgotten.

"What is going on?," one might ask. Why this lassitude when we are clearly running out of room here on Earth. Anyone interested in the long term future of the human race can clearly see that outer space is where our future lies. We have the whole universe in front of us to learn about and colonize. Otherwise, we are a doomed species here in the long---perhaps even intermediate---term.

If the goal of "God's Kingdom on Earth" can shape three mainstream religions into building civilizations, we need one with "space colonizing" as its goal, a goal that is actually achievable! Our present goal is "the pursuit of happiness." That, instead, is a goal one cannot achieve by looking for it---certainly not just by accumulating "stuff!" . . .and goals at what we human work for and towards. Otherwise, we drift and get nowhere.