NASA should prioritize space colonization over puexploration

On Jul 6, 2008, at 8:23 PM, Ed Minchau wrote:
> --- On Sun, 7/6/08, Chris Smyth wrote:
> "The people manning the ISS serve a useful function - now, for
> observation and research - and, hopefully, later for facilitating
> missions and commerce between Earth and our other enclaves around the
> solar system. Dismissing their work as a mission to nowhere does them
> a disservice."
>
> Name one discovery made aboard the ISS which was not already known
> via Skylab or Mir.
>

It's not all about discoveries -- it's about operational experience.
What "discoveries" are made by building a factory? Pretty much none,
but it's only by building a factory that you learn how to build and
operate factories. That's what we need to do in space, too: learn to
build and operate things, and the only way to do that is to do it.

Not that I agree with all of ISS's design decisions, but it IS a very
large (by current and historical standards) orbital facility, which
we're building and operating. That experience is valuable, quite
regardless of whether we can point to any specific discoveries made
there.

Best,
- Joe