[Moonbase-discuss] Re: Moonbase-discuss Moon vs orbit

[Samuel Coniglio]

In Russia, they celebrate Cosmonaut Day each April 12.  Yuri's Night 
is making it a global celebration.  But it is not just for 
remembering one man. It is for remembering what people can achieve if 
they put their mind and lots of effort to it.  Martin Luther King 
forced our society to mature and respect all people equally.  Gagarin 
and the space programs show the potential for greatness in the human 
race.  The human race needs a positive vision for the future.

We choose space exploration and settlement as a noble goal.

Sam


At 4:30 PM -0500 3/17/02, JonAlexandr@aol.com wrote:
>Jon Alexandr:
><< Anyway, it can be argued that Yuri Gagarin's flight into space 
>was a stunt, whereas the first human landing on the Moon was a 
>concerted effort to show the
>possibilities of a multiplanet species (by some of those involved, at least).
>
>Randall Clague:
><< Quite the contrary - as much as I admire the people involved, 
>Apollo was the stunt.  A huge, memorable, and important stunt, but a 
>stunt.  One measure of stuntiness is how many times the achievement 
>is repeated.  In Gagarin's case, that figure is well over 200, and 
>still climbing.  In Apollo's case, that figure is 5, and will remain 
>at 5 for the foreseeable future. >>
>
>Jon Alexandr:  One of course needs to go into orbit in order to go 
>to the Moon -- or anywhere else, including non-Earth orbits.  It's a 
>vacuous point in the context, I think.
>
>JA: << What, in fact, was dreamed of in the millennia before -- 
>going into space or going to the Moon? >>
>
>RC: << They were considered the same thing.  Where was there to go 
>in space, but the moon?  (Sagan called this "planetary chauvinism." 
>O'Neill jumped on it.  O'Neill was wrong.)
>
>Jon Alexandr:  Even in the 20th century, space was by far mostly 
>considered an intervening distance -- not a goal.  As for O'Neill, 
>it would seem to me that his timeline was just overly ambitious -- 
>not erroneous.  But I must credit the Russian, Tsiolkovsky (if what 
>I've read about him is accurate), with the brilliant 
>counterintuitive idea of space itself as a "place" to establish 
>civilization.
>
>JA: << What was the 'pull'? >>
>
>RC: << Romance, mostly.  Just like now. >>
>
>Jon Alexandr:  Cute.