Political Commentary, Space, Space History

The History And Future Of Space Exploration

6 Comments

I missed my connection to LA, and am stuck in Chicago until I can find a flight some time tomorrow. It’s kind of late, and I don’t have much time for blogging, and many of you may have already seen it, but Glenn Reynolds has a piece on space exploration in the Journal tomorrow. And of course, Tuesday will be the 41st anniversary of the first steps on the moon. It’s not too late to plan a party to celebrate. I and the co-author, Bill Simon, will be on The Space Show that evening. We may even do a live version of the ceremony, though that’s still TBD.

6 thoughts on “The History And Future Of Space Exploration”

  1. Rand, I trust you’ll be voicing your opinions on the travesty of the Nelson Rocket. In fact, I bet if you approach it right you can get Dave to argue that it is actually good, no great!

  2. Jump over to Midway and fly Southwest. They have a direct flight to LA, Burbank, or Ontario.

  3. 200 good pages out of a 400 page book sounds like quite an accomplishment. I’m used to paying $50 or more for an 800+ page software book where only about 20 pages were essential.

    Glenn does a great job of conveying the sense of the voyager program. That software upgrades enhance the probes beyond what was initially imagined should tell us a lot about how essential humans are to exploration even with robotics.

    A great achievement that continues…

  4. According to a Salon.com interview with Pyne, though, humans aren’t needed for exploration now. 😛

  5. As to whether humans are needed for exploration, it kinda depends on how you define exploration. The kind of exploration the Voyagers did surely didn’t require humans. In fact, doing that kind of exploration, humans would have been bored out of their skulls. Some good reasons to believe that humans on the Moon in an outpost there would end up equally bored out of their skulls.

  6. If some government employee were sitting in an oxygen tent twiddling his thumbs… yeah, he could get bored. However, someone with resources and desire might find plenty to keep him or her occupied. Not everyone has the inclination so it has to be the right people. The more I read Sowell about property rights, the more I see that as the key. Liberty is a powerful idea.

    Not having resources can get tedious, but an active mind can fight boredom effectively.

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