Mars and Island One

From: babbler36 [mailto:babbler36@...]

> Actually, I had the High Frontier for nearly 2 weeks.
>
> It a very good book, and its vision is clear, understandable and
> inspiring. The only problem with the book is it very bleak near
> future of humanity on Earth. The natural resources of Earth have
> proven to been somewhat more pentaful, or we use them more
> efficently, that it make the retectal of new source of resource less
> ugrent. This is the reason of the delay in space resource
> devlopement, besides high launch costs.

It's true that THF reflects the conventional wisdom of the era it was
written in regarding where we are at ecologically speaking. For myself,
I've tried to steer away from arguing the necessity of space settlement
in terms of resource depletion or overcrowding, and have tried to come
at it more from the perspective of heading off the stultification and
regimentation which can overtake a society not pushing at its frontiers.

However, I can see us soon coming to embrace SPS less from the energy
shortage concerns originally offered, and more from concerns about
global warming, perhaps combined with a desire for the West to extricate
itself from political involvement in the Middle East.

Regards,

Mike Combs