I'm scared.

[c9]

US President Bush appears to be planning to announce a new space mission / goal, possibly a return to the Moon for NASA. I'm scared, because it's the first time he's ever done ANYTHING I agree with! If he actually does it. I believe very strongly that as a species we need to explore, and exploring space (hopefully not fighting over it, but I suspect that's inevitable) is one way to a) annihilation-proof our species, b) gain access to new resources, and c) bump into the other species that live on other planets somewhere. My way of thinking is that if life evolved on Earth in so many ways, there have got to be other planets out there with life too -- especially considering how many planets we keep discovering at a distance.

Anyway, Buzz Aldrin has written an Op-Ed about the idea, and ways to improve it -- interesting reading for any geeks out there.

Comments

[bartok.livejournal.com]

unfortunately there's somewhat of a contradiction in what you are saying, since on one hand you say that we aren't a "special" species, yet on the other hand say that other races are out there waiting for us to join them. Unfortunately I really do think that space-exploration as it currently stands is a pipe-dream, and that the resources really need to and should be diverted elsewhere. Also in the movie Contact seems to make a conclusion that science is just another religion, which is dangerous territory to go into.

[c9.livejournal.com]

I didn't mean that there's a bunch of races breathlessly awaiting our inclusion, more that there's more to the universe than just us and a bunch of lifeless planets, that's all.

Good point about Contact -- precisely their approach to it. Carl Sagan's novel actually deals with it a little differently, as I recall (very different from movie).