Quote Originally Posted by lucy View Post
I’d just say: Leave the astronauts on the ground for the time being, just because sending them up is extremely expensive and not really necessary, care about other problems first, and if and when they are solved, think about it all again.
A lot of the current research into interplanetary travel is involved in sending robotic missions to establish viable bases and begin the task of creating a man-usable habitation, then sending the men (and women) up to run things. True, a lot can be done without the use of astronauts, but right now we have at least one rover on Mars which is stuck in sand, probably forever, when all it really needs is for someone to walk up and give it a good swift kick in the wheels.

But a lot of your concern over space travel seems to be the tired old complaint of where to spend the money. Give it to these people, help those people, throw it down yet another rat-hole. Yet the very fact that you are here and able to complain about it is evidence that you don't practice what you preach. How much better could the world be if you would just donate the money you waste on internet access to charity, where it would be put to virtually no good at all?

I think what bothers people most about the frontier of space is that, like virtually every frontier mankind has faced, the best and the brightest will flock to it, leaving the homelands to stagnate. Unfortunately, once the frontier has been tamed, all those nay-sayers will drag their preconceived notions along and try to make the new world exactly the same as the old, thus destroying whatever good there might have been.

So just sit there at home bemoaning how other people choose to spend their money. Let those who really care about the human race push back the frontiers, making a better world, and a better solar system, for themselves. After all, it's not costing you anything.