What is space exploration? Is it sending robots to take pictures? Or is it sending people who can radio back a message saying how it feels to look at the Earth from afar?
The information gathered through space probes is awesome, but what's the point of knowing something if we are never going to experience it? It's like comparing writing a travel guide from second-hand knowledge with making the journey yourself.
You know NASA's budget is tiny compared to the military. I'd also like to point out the lofty goal of exploring other worlds has the power to unite mankind much better than a couple wars. In 1969, all over the world, people were paying attention to Neil's first steps on another world. For a brief moment, we were one mankind, united around the most extraordinary achievement of the 20th century.
To answer your first set of questions: it's both. I'm not sure how Nate got the feeling that I'm against maned space flight? There are plenty of private entities out there with the stated goal of manned space flight, so that's a bit of a straw-man.
"I'd also like to point out the lofty goal of exploring other worlds has the power to unite mankind much better than a couple wars. In 1969, all over the world, people were paying attention to Neil's first steps on another world. For a brief moment, we were one mankind, united around the most extraordinary achievement of the 20th century."
Boy do we ever agree here. Reminds me of the ending of Watchmen. A world united in the effort to save us all from randomly-appearing psychic squid. Gaaaaaaah!
Here's the rub though. I think that private enterprise has a greater chance of leading the charge here. Governments are hamstrung by their constituencies. There's nothing stopping entrepreneurs from reaching out across political boundaries, except for pesky laws in some cases, but that just serves to reinforce my point. The face that the laws like that even exist shows that the government seeks to prevent what some individual may be prone to try. In this context, reaching out in unity with "forbidden" foreign nationals.
private enterprise is about competition. It's about getting somewhere first. It may inspire a generation of entrepreneurs, but, alone, it doesn't have the power to unite people like a huge project the scope of Apollo had. At that moment, it wasn't an American walking on the Moon - it was a human being and that made all the difference for the rest of mankind. That was a precious moment when the message "we can set aside our differences and work together" would be heard.
Still, private enterprise does not exclude projects like those - quite the contrary - most of Apollo was built by private enterprises. It doesn't make them less extraordinary.
The information gathered through space probes is awesome, but what's the point of knowing something if we are never going to experience it? It's like comparing writing a travel guide from second-hand knowledge with making the journey yourself.
You know NASA's budget is tiny compared to the military. I'd also like to point out the lofty goal of exploring other worlds has the power to unite mankind much better than a couple wars. In 1969, all over the world, people were paying attention to Neil's first steps on another world. For a brief moment, we were one mankind, united around the most extraordinary achievement of the 20th century.