In a message dated 3/30/2007 11:53:29 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
rtarara@saintmarys.edu writes:
No boos from me. The faster we develop the technology and then actually
deploy it to have a colony of humans housed elsewhere than this planet, the
better--IMO. With all the eggs in one basket we are a prime setup for an
extinction event--be it asteroid, super-bug, or self-inflicted. A
self-sustaining colony on Mars is the only (near term) insurance against
such. A moon colony is probably a necessary step towards the Mars one. Too
bad we don't have money to do every last thing everyone wants, but I'm in
NASA's corner on this.
Rick
I think the hope that the Human race can survive the self inflicted
destruction of our environment by immigrating to other planets is a bit unrealistic.
Most likely it will just be billions and billions of dollars to get a few
photo opps for our astronauts while real science using much more cost
effective unmanned probes will be starved for funds.
The " new world" analogy you often see on this point overlooks the fact
that the western hemisphere had air, water and sources of food.
Bob Zannelli
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