still-at-work t1_ixb7jvb wrote on November 22, 2022 at 3:18 AM

There is not a really good reason to do a lot of the things we do beyond we enjoy it.

There are reasons to explore mars and the moon but I am tired of arguing about it. Doing it because it's interesting and exciting is good enough if we are being honest.

If you oppose the government spending money on it, great, you can join the masses in not liking what their government spends money on. Not to say your belief are not valid, they are also not original. Lots of people don't like every program the government spends money on. The space program is neither the worse offender or the least popular. So you can have that opinion but in democratic nations you need a majority to push your agenda. And space is popular with the majority.

So tough, space exploration is here to stay, cry about it why humanity expands into the stars.

simcoder t1_ixb8t8i wrote on November 22, 2022 at 3:28 AM

You can still explore it remotely. And for a fraction of the cost. And with none of the geopolitics associated with human settlement.

You get humans directly involved and then you have to get the military involved and then you get your first space war. And the you get trapped on the surface of the Earth by all the debris created by the first space war.

So honestly, I think some of this stuff is still worth debating.

songsofadistantsun t1_ixba5wj wrote on November 22, 2022 at 3:40 AM

I agree, it's exciting. When did I say I'm against exploration? I'm just not sure space is a place to explore directly, or where significant portions of us will ever live. Imagine how many probes and landers we could send to the outer planets for the amount of money they want to spend on building Moon bases.

Also, please read Aurora. Can't recommend that enough.

still-at-work t1_ixbe6f9 wrote on November 22, 2022 at 4:15 AM

Remote exploration is great, in fact let's close down Disney world and just sell videos of drone flight through it, it's basically the same thing.