The Complete Dope
Who would have thought that a site that had such useful information about Heinz 57 sauce could go so wrong?!
Maggie, NASAexplores' Texas Bureau science writer, sent me this article at The Straight Dope, which was coincidentally the site I linked to in here recently for the explaination of where Heinz' "57 Varieties" slogan came from. For that article to have been so useful, this one's pretty bad.
For example, in explaining that the idea of spin-offs from the Space Program is a myth, he uses a quote from 1993 from a "space skeptic" and the fact that at a Senate hearing in 1991, nobody had any documentation with them about spin-offs. To me, you're arguement seems pretty weak when you're having to dig that hard to support it.
With two clicks of my mouse, for example, I can produce this site, which has lengthy documentation about spin-offs. And this page is only one page about small business spin-offs, just a tiny fraction of the resources NASA has on-line about technology transfer.
In his research section, he uses one quote from one group, which he then provides his own context for. Again, assuming that he really isn't interested in doing a good job of research, just the materials on the recent STS-107 mission would show the numerous benefits of space research.
Under his argument involving space colonization, one could just as easily reason that since the Wright brothers couldn't build a Concorde, they should have stayed on the ground. What good was a flying machine that could only fly a few yards?
And his coolness argument is basically just that he's not that interested in space travel, so it's not "cool," or worthwhile. Man, that's quite the standard. Considering all the things government spends money on just because they're cool--from the Olympics to Maplethorpe exhibits--surely there are enough people in the world other than this guy that do think spaceflight's cool to make it worthwhile.
Which leads me to a question--why do we explore space? I mean, working for NASA, I could talk for literally hours about the benefits and justifications of spaceflight, but the fact of the matter is, I loved the idea of space exploration just as much when I was little and had no concept whatsoever of microgravity protein crystal growth research or low-energy combustion experimentation. Nowadays, though, it's like we have to stick with the cost-effective reasons for space travel. Better treatments for diabetes carry an obvious benefit, but saying that we explore space for the same reason mankind has always explored, learned, discovered, investigated and challenged is a little more intangible. And heaven help my friend who believes in the space program because he believes there must be other civilizations out there, and we need to go find them. So, what's your answer to the question of why?

:: :: 10:05 :: David :: [permalink] ::