One stone, number of mangoes .

USA has announced a tentative plan to spend about a trillion $ over the
next 25 years for activities that could lead to humans obtaining a permanent
foothold in space. While many welcome this initiative, others have their own
doubts whether such a large sum of money should be spent when we have so
many problems on our own planet requiring urgent attention. When we a throw
a stone, especially when the throwing of that stone will result in our
spending huge sums of money, it is necessary that we bring down not just one
mango, but a number of them. It is more likely then to garner popular public
support.

Let us break down the individual components of space exploration / setting
up of space habitats:

GROUP A

1. Launch vehicles to escape earth's gravity.

2. Space ships capable of traveling in space

3. Life support systems and modules and machinery that permit humans to
explore and to exploit an environment like the ones that exist on Moon and
Mars.

GROUP B

4. Sealed space habitats allowing agriculture and community life

5. Versatile and compact production systems which allow flexible manufacture
of any product.

6. Versatile systems to fully recycle all waste so that life can continue in
a sealed environment for a long time with minimum addition of external raw
materials.

While GROUP A activities are challenging, in some ways they can also be
considered as routine. If the resources are made available they can be done.
GROUP B activities fall in another category. If these are not done properly,
we will have a lot of expensive space habitats, with no one willing to stay
in them. Indeed one could say that the challenges inherent in group B
activities are greater, because we have one cantankerous variable here the
human element!

There is one great advantage however with group B activities. They can very
well be simulated on planet earth. And what is more important, group B
activities will help to solve a lot of problems on our planet, problems
related to 1) recycling 2) optimum use of resources 3) Development of
sciences related to the better understanding of human physiology and
psychology (almost completely ignored over the last 50 years, as they would
have stood in the way of powerful business interests) 4) and creating an
alternative model to our present market economics powered by human greed, to
one that is powered by human instincts for cooperation, achieving worthwhile
objectives like protecting one's environment and seeking a better life for
our descendants, and adventure (colonization of space).

We would like to see our sciences (there seem to be a bewildering number of
them, many just creating Brownian motion going nowhere) sharpening their
objectives to work together, rather than in isolation so as to make both (1)
protection of our environment and (2) space habitats possible.

Selvaraj

To be continued (Some topics of interest)

--- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, sraj wrote:
>
> One stone, number of mangoes .
>

sraj,
I agree 100% - although whether here on earth or out in space, I don't
think we'll ever overcome the lure of the profit motive.
Chris

From: spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Chris Smyth

> --- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com
, sraj wrote:
> >
> > One stone, number of mangoes ....
> >
> sraj,
> I agree 100% - although whether here on earth or out in space, I don't

> think we'll ever overcome the lure of the profit motive.

Yes, in the interests of broadening its appeal, I would recommend
dropping the capitalism-bashing from this otherwise fine set of
proposals and points.

Regards,

Mike Combs