[oasis-members] L5 by 2025?

[Tolan, Thomas (Space Technology)]

Sounds to me like another method for NASA to kill any manned deep space
missions altogether.  If every administration changes the plan to please
the next loud group of space managers, no plan will ever get
implemented, but NASA still gets to spend $billions every year on it.
Landing on the moon may delay landing on Mars, but landing on Mars, or
even the Martian moons/asteroids is just another "flags and footsteps"
boondoggle, at least until we figure out how to live in reduced gravity.
Ultimately, going to the moon to stay will provide the resources for a
realistic, long term investigation of the rest of our solar system.  But
it will not provide employment, or scratch the itch of today's senior
scientists, since they will be retired or dead before this happens.  So
we will be selling off the long term for the short term benefit of some
short sided old men (and I am getting to be an old man).  We can take
our time learning about Mars and the rest of the solar system, unless we
don't believe that the US HAS a long term future, but this kind of
one-shot deals makes the probability of a long term interest in space
much less likely.

Incrementallism, taking things one step at a time, and making it work
before moving to the next step, is the only way we can have a long,
productive program in space.  Going to the moon isn't a huge step, we
know we can do it, but using lunar resources is the most important step
to making space affordable for the next tier of investigators.  

Yes, I am irritated.  I am even more irritated that anyone interested in
space industrialization and or settlement could consider this a good
thing.  This was a good plan, even if it did mean we had to wait a
generation or 2 to put people on Mars.  No plan is perfect, nor will any
plan satisfy anyone, but the existing plan is good enough.  Stick with
it and something will be accomplished.  Break with it and all is lost.

BTW, are most of the sponsors of this coming from the old direct Mars
camp, the ones who said they could get behind this plan in order to move
ahead rather than just discussing it?  This sabotage was planned all
along.  Won't this just prove again that the US CANNOT put together and
perform on any long range plan?  Why plan anything that takes more than
4 years to do, since the next administration will just change it anyway?


As for the L5 society, the desire of that organization was to put manned
space colonies at L5.  Putting robotic spacecraft there will terminate
that dream, since the scientist will demand that those "special"
locations be off limits for any thing other than "science".  


-----Original Message-----
From: oasis-members-bounces at oasis-nss.org
[mailto:oasis-members-bounces at oasis-nss.org] On Behalf Of Warren James
Sent: Friday, January 18, 2008 7:43 PM
To: rgounley at earthlink.net; oasis-members at oasis-nss.org
Subject: Re: [oasis-members] L5 by 2025?

And don't forget the slogan "Lunar Mine by '89"

----- Original Message -----
From: "Robert Gounley" <rgounley at earthlink.net>
To: <oasis-members at oasis-nss.org>
Sent: Friday, January 18, 2008 7:33 PM
Subject: [oasis-members] L5 by 2025?


> "Some of the most influential leaders of the space community are
quietly 
> working to offer the next U.S. president an alternative to President 
> Bush's 'vision for space exploration'--one that would delete a lunar 
> base and move instead toward manned missions to asteroids along with a

> renewed emphasis on Earth environmental spacecraft."
> 
>     See http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewnews.html?id=1267
> 
> "Their goals for a new array of missions also include sending
astronauts 
> to Lagrangian points, 1 million mi. from Earth, where the Earth's and 
> Sun's gravity cancel each other out and spacecraft such as
replacements 
> for the Hubble"
> 
> To anyone who joined the L5 Society before it became NSS, manned 
> missions to the Lagrangian points hold special significance.
> 
> I hope they happen.
> 
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