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NASA Boss Says Mars Colonization Will Be Corporate Only
99luftballon writes "The head of NASA Ames Research Center has said that he expects any colonization of Mars, the Moon or asteroids to be done by private companies rather than by NASA. There's some interesting parallels with the East India Company, although that was hardly a triumph of capitalism. From the article: 'Dr. Simon Worden, director at NASA Ames Research Center, told The Register that the agency was firmly enmeshing itself with the private sector, citing cooperation on the Dragon capsule being developed by Elon Musk's SpaceX team as a good example. NASA developed a heat shield material called PICA (Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator), capable of withstanding 1850 degrees Celsius (3360 degrees Fahrenheit), and gave it to SpaceX, who manufactured it.' The article also mentions Google's head of space projects, who has 'Intergalactic Federation King Almighty and Commander of the Universe' on her business cards."
Colonization of Mars will be done by China. What's it got to do with NASA?
I wonder how many people will end up as indentured servants unable to purchase transport back to earth, working in dangerous working conditions on a world run by corporations. They'll be lured by false promises, or maybe even sent by countries with overpopulated prisons.
The right to protest the State is more sacred than the State.
Facehugger anyone? Seriously though, how many of us would sign up for a one-way trip? I'd do it in a heartbeat, but the wife would kill me.
The fact is, that NASA can not afford to do prolonged bases. We have already seen the damage that CONgress can do to us over and over and over. Back in the mid 90's, the republicans destroyed NASA's ability to go BEO. Then they gutted them again in 2001. Likewise, they are doing everything possible to gut private space now, to push their SLS. Sadly, CONgress members like Hatch, Coffman, Wolfe, Shelby, Hutchinson, Nelson, etc. are fighting to destroy private space while continuing the funding of SLS until 2020, along with having Russia do our launches for another 10 years.
What is needed is for Bolden/Obama to get funding for private space for the next 3 years. That should include enough to fund 3 human launchers along with getting bigelow aerospace going. Once this has happened for the next 3 years, then it will be impossible for those people to stop private space.
What is so odd about this, is that America is within several years of turning space from a cost center into being not just taxable, but the next internet boom. Yet, certain members of CONgress wants NASA to be a jobs programs, rather than developed of America's space and aeronautics systems.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
The summary somewhat misrepresents what Worden said. From the article, here's Worden's actual statement, which seems quite sensible to me: "Governments can develop new technology and do some of the exciting early exploration but in the long run it's the private sector that finds ways to make profit, finds ways to expand humanity. ... Most of private individuals I've talked to about interest in settling on Mars, including Elon Musk, talk about in the next few decades they think the private sector will fund settlement missions - whether to the Moon, Mars, or asteroids. As a government laboratory our job is to develop to enable those kinds of things by developing technology and early exploration, and we hope the private sector will find a way to do something like that."
Not so much. Religion tends to eschew science as an often necessary evil, with the heaviest promotions in a religious organization going to the least scientifically curious (sadly, the religions which tend to prosper the most are those who take a hands-off approach to scientists...but we all know that sooner or later, some dogmatist will make a power play against a resident scientist, refuse to acknowledge his own lack of understanding, get the resident authorities to side with him and piss off the entire community). As such, space, being a hard vacuum, can be incredibly unmerciful when a hull breach happens, or the oxygen generation breaks down (and no spare parts can be had).
Only human beings care about charisma. The universe does not, or the noted efficacy of prayer would be much greater than that of hard thought / labor. The human being is adapted to Earth, and only Earth (time spent on other planets might change this). Moving elsewhere in the universe requires, at this time, some uncommon knowledge. What does this mean? The typical tyrannies of religion will, in all likelihood, annihilate entire sects of people who prefer the words of their priest over the guidance of their scientists ("Uh, we need that piece of red wire you're using for tinsel around your makeshift altar" "Sinners!" "Plus, you probably shouldn't be lighting a fire in space, in a pure oxygen / zero gravity environment..." "Heathens! Be gone!"), especially when dealing with matters in the material realm. Communicable diseases (hello Syphilis / the flu) that the priests will say can be cured with prayer will run rampant and destroy entire colony ships before they make it halfway to their destinations, while the doctors on hand are shouted down for not placing enough faith in God's hands.
You'll notice that in the US, it's a practical requirement for all astronauts (save the educator / teacher in space types) to have a STEM degree. If you're going to be on a star-ship, for the next few hundred years or so, they're going to ensure you're not dead weight (if something breaks, they want people who can fix it from scratch). Not much demand for people in funny clothes, carrying around brass plates, and reading from a book. You may want to play the part of Kirk, but if you can't speak the language of McCoy, Spock, or Scotty, you don't get to be Kirk.
I am John Hurt.
The only way that you would have a prison on the Moon is if the cost of spaceflight drops significantly. If the value of a liter of water on the Moon is literally more valuable than a refined and processed bar of pure gold, nobody is going to be going to the Moon much less a hardened criminal. The economics of doing that simply aren't available.
I'll also note that it has been almost 30 years since somebody even went to the Moon, and it would take something substantial in terms of a major policy change to even see anybody go back to the Moon in the next 50 years, much less see a penal colony. I certainly wouldn't plan on anything like that happening, as 50 years is far too short of a time frame to even suggest such a notion.
Because some people deserve only death for what they've done
You know, I can't understand the "death penalty" thing at all. Death is no penalty -- we are all under a death sentence, every one of us. But when you or I die, it is very unlikely that you're going to die peacefully in your sleep. You're going to have cancer, or a heart attack, or pneumonia, or alzheimer's, or fall down in the nursing home and break your hip after suffering from arthritis for decades.
Timothy McVeigh, however, who killed hundreds of people, many of them children, knew exactly when he was going to die and how he was going to die, and had a chance to repent his evil deeds and make peace with his maker (McVeigh was a Catholic). Then he was painlessly put to sleep like a beloved pet with an incurable disease.
I say fuck the bleeding heart conservatives. Someone commits an atrocity, keep them locked in a cage, until they die as horribly and unexpectedly as I surely will. I consider that a good expenditure of my tax dollars.
As well as what you said; Illinois abolished the death penalty when DNA proved that half of death row were innocent. Over half of all prisoners in the US are nonviolent and were incarcerated for drugs, half of those for marijuana. Now THAT is a serious waste of tax money.
Here's a single example of a terrible waste inolving an old friend's brother.
There was a dope dealer in Cahokia, IL who deserved prison; he was also a theif, and violent. He sold every drug there was, including steroids and heroin. After 20 years dealing dope he finally got caught. Of course, the feds offered him a deal.
So Mike's brother, who didn't even smoke pot, let alone sell drugs, gets a call from Radford (the dope dealer). Radford needed money to make a purchase and if Mike's brother would loan him a thousand bucks he'd get two thousand back in a week. Loan a guy a thousand bucks at 100% weekly interest? Of course he did. he had the money, he made a good living as a truck mechanic.
And of course it was a setup, and the DEA's tape recorders were rolling. Mike's brother, who had never had any connection with the drug trade in his life whatever, not even as a customer. spent five years in federal prison for conspiracy to distribute cocaine. As did half of his high school graduation class, most of whom were likewise innocent before the setup.
Radford, who'd been the town's biggest dope dealer for two decades, spent two years in prison.
Mike's brother's wife divorced him when he was in prison and married another man. He's now unemployable and a hard core alcoholic and yes, now is a doper himself.
Anybody who doesn't think the justice system is severely dysfunctional in the US is either ignorant or delusional.
Free Martian Whores!