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Date: Sat, 19 May 90 01:55:18 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: SPACE Digest V11 #425

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 11 : Issue 425

Today's Topics:
		     Re: Manned mission to Venus
		       Re: why there are no ETs
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Date: 18 May 90 20:17:00 GMT
From: mcgill-vision!quiche!calvin!msdos@bloom-beacon.mit.edu  (Mark SOKOLOWSKI)
Subject: Re: Manned mission to Venus

In article <8524.26527a0f@pbs.uucp> pstinson@pbs.uucp writes:
>Maybe the average person does not care about Moon colonies now because they ARE
>just imaginary.  But a real colony on the Moon that has grown large enough to
>be visible from Earth will have a profound impact on humanity.  Imagine looking 
>up at the Moon some evening and noticing the glow of manmade lights and other   
>indirect signs of human activity up there.  It is sometimes said "Out of sight  
>... out of mind."  No activity on any of the other planets in the solar system 
>will be noticible to the unaided eye and perhaps the man in the street would
> care less what happens way out there, but big active moon colonies would be
> hard to ignore and will have a definite cultural impact we underestimate now. 	

It depends. This kind of thing is already achieved by Mir which I was able
to see many times each month just by looking up a few minutes after dusk
every clear evening, not talking about the tens of other large satellites
having a lower but still proeminant visibility. Does it really make a 
big cultural impact???? And beside, a good fireworks display is a million
times more impressive than some glowing lightness lost on our natural
satellite. And what about the fact that by 2000, 1 out of 2 humans will
live in the city, where the most advanced astronomical achievement, given
the average knowledge on the subject, will be FIGURING OUT THAT VENUS OR
SIRIUS ARE NOT UFO's. Come on! We have to be realistic about what we can
do in space for now. We are only a few interested in space, so let's be
selfish, egoistic, do only great things for ourselves (Sorry guys, we have
no choice, sending spacecrafts costs billions, so LET'S FIGHT!!!). France
and England WERE SPENDING 30 to 50% of their GNP on the exploration
of the New World and other colonies in the 17th and 18th centuries, and
if it isn't happening now for the States and USSR, it simply means that 
large space colonies will not be usefull for the next 1 or 2 CENTURIES. 
Since it is really long term, I prefer impressive one-shot projects that
will at least leave a trace, put it in minds. It remembers me my high-school
graduation ceremony were everybody was telling those always boring speeches
falling within the realm of banality, and when it came to my turn, I
simply stood up, raised my fist, and shouted "SEE YOU ON MARS IN 20 YEARS!!!"
(that's a translation, my true words were in french:
"RENDEZ VOUS SUR MARS DANS 20 ANS!!!!"). Nobody laughed, perhaps because I
looked so serious. I guess my teachers and the director will know something 
about space exploration from now on... Too bad Bush has fixed the deadline
in 30 years (I have 17 left now), and that I want to first go to Venus.

Mark S.
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Date: 18 May 90 01:26:57 GMT
From: bfmny0!tneff@uunet.uu.net  (Tom Neff)
Subject: Re: why there are no ETs

In article <1716@nvuxr.UUCP> deej@nvuxr.UUCP (David Lewis) writes:
>Somehow, I think that by the time we achieve interstellar travel or
>communication (beyond splashing RF out all over the place), we won't
>have much trouble dealing with a few pesky asteroids...

If there's nobody to talk to (because the unknown someone kills them),
then we won't have much cause to perfect interstellar communication
beyond the "splashing RF" approach.

And if "splashing RF" is enough to attract attention from the u.s.,
we might not get the chance to move to later phases anyway.

I would suggest in general that it's easier to learn how to fly to
Sirius than it is how to deflect a *big* asteroid.  If one day Earth
does muster some deflection capability -- there was a UPI article on the
subject just the other day -- it's safe to assume we won't be ready for
two or three of them at once, or even two in rapid succession.
-- 
"NASA Awards Acronym Generation       :(%( :  Tom Neff
System (AGS) Contract For Space       : )%):  tneff%bfmny@UUNET.UU.NET
Station Freedom" - release 1989-9891  :(%( :  ...!uunet!bfmny0!tneff

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End of SPACE Digest V11 #425
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