Monthly Archives: January 2004

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So, everyone seems to be posting about The Plan For Mars.

I’m not sure I’m excited about manned missions to Mars.
I wouldn’t mind seeing folks going back to the moon, just
for kicks.

But heres the thing that annoys me about space exploration
as it stands. It’s all R&D.

So to me, once you design, say, a space telescope. Build
10. Or 20. Or 50.

Why aren’t we launching newer more advance Voyager and
Pioneer style probes every week? Why is there
one mars rover at the moment? Why isnt there a
hubble style telescope heading out of the solar
system?

And if were sending 100 probes to say, the edge of
the universe, we wouldn’t have to be quite so picky
about the components and construction. If you build
20 probes from off the shelf components for $1,000,000
grand each, instead of one $20 million probe, I think
thats worthwhile.

And while were talking about NASA. I’ve got no
problem with NASA spending tons of money. Especially
if we know most of it is going to get spent on US
research, salaries, materials, etc.

But you say, how will they make money? Volume!