Dr. Alan Binder - calls it as he sees it.

I am pleased to see an authoritative figure such as Dr. Binder
speaking plainly. He states that NASA by itself is not capable of
returning to the Moon, there has to be a substantial private
commercial component, or the whole presidential initiative is doomed
to failure.

First, I recommend you listen to this interview with Dr. Alan Binder
on The Space Show.

http://www.thespaceshow.com/detail.asp?q 5

Then read the announcement for his new book coming out in July 2004
"Lunar Prospector: Against All Odds"

http://www.lunar-research-institute.org/lunar_prospector_book.htm

Congrats to Dr. Binder for calling it precisely as he sees it.

"..the incompetence and self-serving activities of the entrenched
NASA bureaucracy and the big aerospace companies, which together
waste a large fraction of the more than $13 billion that NASA
receives from the federal government every year."

That quote gives a flavor of what you will find on that web page.
I can't wait until the entire book is published.

--- In ssi_list@... "Charles F. Radley"
> Dr. Alan Binder - calls it as he sees it.
>
> I am pleased to see an authoritative figure such as Dr. Binder
> speaking plainly. He states that NASA by itself is not capable of
> returning to the Moon, there has to be a substantial private
> commercial component, or the whole presidential initiative is
doomed
> to failure.
>
> First, I recommend you listen to this interview with Dr. Alan
Binder
> on The Space Show.
>
> http://www.thespaceshow.com/detail.asp?q 5
>
> Then read the announcement for his new book coming out in July 2004
> "Lunar Prospector: Against All Odds"
>
> http://www.lunar-research-institute.org/lunar_prospector_book.htm
>
> Congrats to Dr. Binder for calling it precisely as he sees it.
>
> "..the incompetence and self-serving activities of the entrenched
> NASA bureaucracy and the big aerospace companies, which together
> waste a large fraction of the more than $13 billion that NASA
> receives from the federal government every year."
>
> That quote gives a flavor of what you will find on that web page.
> I can't wait until the entire book is published.

I took a look at Alan's web site. He has a chapter-by-chapter
description of the content of the book. He also has all the figures
from the book on the web site. I suppose the most interesting are the
scanned copies of letters to and from NASA, Lockheed, SSI, etc.

I was interested since I participated in one of the workshops on
Lunar Prospector back in 1989. (I found no mention of it in the
summaries.)

What struck me were the endless battles Alan had with just about
every person and organization involved - for 11 years! He not only
tears into NASA and his former employer Lockheed, but he also attacks
SSI, Congress, his teammates, the engineers, other scientists, on and
on.

Much of what he says is well founded, I suppose. But he also comes
across as rather angry and abrasive. He really tears into Gregg
Maryniak, SSI, and Gerry O'Neill. Their main crime? Failing to raise
$10M before his group finished their preliminary design study.
Horrible, horrible. :-)

Anyway, history will have to judge who was right in all this.

My question..

Will we *always* have to put up with these kinds of
problems and conflicts to accomplish anything?

While many of us got interested in space because of a sense of
idealism, what we find are all sorts of organizations (companies,
agencies, etc.) that are full of the worst types of human
motivations - greed, deception, corruption, power-grabs, lies,
arrogance, ..and egos gone mad. We spin our wheels, waste decades and
$ billions, and gradually destroy our spaceships and astronauts.

Sometimes when I talk to people about humanity moving into space, I
have encountered individuals who *really* don't want this to
happen. They say humanity is not ready to spread itself into the
universe. They look at how humanity has behaved, and view humanity as
something close to an infestation of cockroaches. They would rather
keep us confined to one planet.

On the grand scale, could they be right? Shall we all give up now?

- Eric Dahlstrom

Much of what he says is well founded, I suppose. But he also comes
across as rather angry and abrasive. He really tears into Gregg
Maryniak, SSI, and Gerry O'Neill. Their main crime? Failing to raise
$10M before his group finished their preliminary design study.
Horrible, horrible. :-) That's a shame. I was wondering if SSI's role in helping Prospector come about got any mention. To bad it was, but in a negative way. Sometimes when I talk to people about humanity moving into space, I
have encountered individuals who *really* don't want this to
happen. They say humanity is not ready to spread itself into the
universe. They look at how humanity has behaved, and view humanity as
something close to an infestation of cockroaches. They would rather
keep us confined to one planet.

On the grand scale, could they be right? Shall we all give up now? Yourquestion reminds me of my response to a Fox Newscolumn by Rand Simberg. He had been arguing with a "Lori M." who viewed humanity as a virus/parasite/cancer, and thought that its spread to other parts of the universe would be a tragedy. Here's the response I posted: One day I had an epiphany. I'd been having an argument with my own "Lori M." on Usenet. I was in the back yard, and my then-4-year-old brown-haired brown-eyed daughter came running down the hill and into my arms. I decided in that moment that one trillion brown-eyed little girls running down one trillion grassy hills throughout the galaxy would be an enhancement of the state of the universe, not a diminishment of it. And if one out of a billion of those little girls grows up to be another Hitler or Stalin, well, that's a shame, but what are you going to do? I say bring 'em on.

Regards, Mike Combs

> [mailto:Eric.Dahlstrom@...
>
> Having raised 3 beautiful, gifted children I have to
agree with Mike. This is the species and history that
gave rise to me and mine. Perhaps our ancestors could
have been gentler about it, bit since I am a result of
their dreams and efforts,bitching about humanity not
being nicer is just self hate and I really like me.
Trillions of humans? That means millions of Bhuddahs,
Christs, Delai Lamas and, as we get better at
separating out the evolutionary failures, i.e., psycho
non-humans, our tree will continue to grow. (Gads, I'm
wandering.) I'm human. I'm stuck with that. Guess I'll
make the best human I can,,,

Gary 7

Having raised 3 beautiful, gifted children I have to
agree with Mike. This is the species and history that
gave rise to me and mine. Perhaps our ancestors could
have been gentler about it, bit since I am a result of
their dreams and efforts,bitching about humanity not
being nicer is just self hate and I really like me. I think that's spot-on. Sometimes when I'm debating on Usenet and somebody goes on about the failings of our primitive, backward, savage race, I ask them, "Primitive, backward, and savage compared to what other technological race that we know about?" And of course I do this to bring home the point that they are not comparing our species to anything real, but only to the utopian visions of science fiction. (Of course that tack doesn't do any good in the case of some people who are convinced that yes, they do know all about the other races out there!) Trillions of humans? That means millions of Bhuddahs,
Christs, Delai Lamas and, as we get better at
separating out the evolutionary failures, i.e., psycho
non-humans, our tree will continue to grow. My attitude: If we can say that humanity is as much as 51% good and 49% evil, then humanity settling space would be an improvement of the universe, not a diminishment.

Regards,
Mike Combs

Wouldn't it be funny if it turns out WE are the ELDER
race, the first technological species to succeed in
making the transition to a space based ecology/economy
in this galaxy, against all those nihilists who
believe humanity to be a rampant slime mold? In my
personal, anecdotal experience, about 98% of humans
are really nice, while 2% are just creeps. The average
human does a remarkable job of tolerating crap and not
going postal. I think my ancestors dreamed well.

Gary 7

Wouldn't it be funny if it turns out WE are the ELDER
race, the first technological species to succeed in
making the transition to a space based ecology/economy
in this galaxy, I think it's a possibility that we need to remain open-minded to.

Regards,
Mike Combs