Sunday, July 19, 2009

Low-hanging fruit: Jabba the Roy edition.


Blogging Tory Jabba the Roy gets all moist and squishy over the clinically deranged Charles Krauthammer thusly:

Space, the final frontier?

Charles Krauthammer has a great piece [here] on why the United States shouldn't abandon space exploration. I absolutely agree.

Fortunately, those wascally wabbits over at Sadly, No (unintentionally, of course) yank down Jabba's and Chuck's panties and give them the public spanking they deserve.

OK, maybe that imagery didn't work out as well as I wanted.

P.S. While I am a huge fan of scientific research for research's sake, I'm going with Robert Park on this topic. Sorry, kids, but Star Trek ain't gonna happen. Get over it.

15 comments:

Unknown said...

Yeah, Park's got the right idea. I do like the idea of humans going to space though, but more in the Virgin Galactic or whatever they're calling it these days sense than the Star Trek or Apollo missions sense. There's stuff we could do on space stations and the like, which we aren't really needed for on the moon or planets.

Ti-Guy said...

I want robot slaves. Get working on those, you sciency-type people.

CC said...

Already been there, Ti-Guy. We have an experimental model, the "Arnie Lemaire," designed for complete subservience. Sadly, it escaped from the lab. We're still looking.

Ti-Guy said...

Science is evil.

Lindsay Stewart said...

Sorry CC but I want an L5 space colony, I'll settle for a Bernel sphere but I'd really prefer a toroidal arangement. And really what the hell is Park on about...

"If he had possessed a drone that he could have sent out to discover whether there was something across the ocean besides the edge of the Earth, I’m sure he would have done so."

Um, we don't need a friggin' drone. We know the moon is there and we know Mars is there. The drones have done what they can, we need boots on the ground. Humans, unlike blogging tories, are versatile and adaptable. Drones, not so much. We've sent the drones, they've done some great work. Next step, suit up and fly.

"But if we insist on exploring Mars with human beings, that’s the end of our journey. There’s no place else to go."

Jeez, there's the moon and there's Mars, two whole planetary bodies. I mean really what's the point of trotting off to a whole other planet. By Park's timid reckoning, after pooh poohing the allegories of Lewis and Clarke and Columbus, those guys would have looked across the ocean and said, continent? we got one of those already besides, it will be hard. But the infinitesimally tiny imagination of Mr Park shouldn't dissuade us from looking beyond those two bodies. What about the friggin' asteroid belt? Resources already broken up into transportable chunks, some big enough to house substantial colonies. And who knows what might be yielded in knowledge and resources on the Jovian moons.

As for Park whining that it is expensive, a year's worth of the slaughter budget in Iraq and we have a moon base, bought and paid for. Ta-da. And that's a damn site more interesting and less dangerous than modern warfare. Park is full of crap. His last paragraph is twaddle about sterilizing craft and robots by being outside Earth's atmosphere and magnetosphere but even there, a frickin' singer songwriter knows that bacteria can and do survive the vacuum not to mention tardigrades. He's a punk. Rockets bitches, we needs rockets!

KEvron said...

jesus, chuckles makes a bad case. if industry figures out a cost-effective way to tap the resources out there, we will man mars, and, more than likely, they'll get the govt to subsidize it.

KEvron

Bernier said...

Where's your spirit of adventure, guys.

Why rain on Dr. Roy's parade, I'm sure Marc Garneau would agree with the sentiment expressed.

Hopefully you're not the ones leaving messages on Dr. Roy's website claiming Canadians are too apathetic and lazy and indifferent to support such endeavours.

A century ago such ideals found expression in Arctic exploration, as opposed to the exploration of space. My own ancestor, Captain Joseph-Elzear Bernier, lead several such expeditions financed by the government of Canada ( Liberals of Sir Wilfrid Laurier) between 1904 and 1911 to assert Canadian sovereignty on the whole Arctic archipelago.

Now, if you want to investigate worthy controversial issues, you may examine the issue of refugee claimants in Alberta.

Per recent comments in the Alberta Ardvark, we note for instance :

Brian Dell said...

"I'm a Wildrose member, and while I'd welcome any and all refugees from Stelmach's authoritarianism, including a guy with a Harvard degree like Mr Boutilier, I'm not sure this would help the party.”

And one of your own favourites notes her intention to file such a claim :

hunter said...
"I will not vote conservative next election, Stelmach is in way over his head, anyone ever heard of Peter's Principle? I emailed him about our HRC's and told him I would not vote for them again unless they fixed it. He instead gave them more power. He should step down, but he won't so Wild Rose here I come."

The Artful Nudger said...

Rockets bitches, we needs rockets!

No; we need space elevators. Or, to really blow peoples' minds, a Lofstrom Loop.

Shuttles are for amateurs. Let's start harvesting space resources. Or (just as an example), geostationary orbit solar power stations. Can we say oil independence? I thought we could.

Lindsay Stewart said...

Rockets, elevators and loops! At the rate we are fucking up the bottom of his gravity well we'd best be looking for other worlds to despoil with our walking about on two legs. Shave a fraction off our military budgets and away we go. Since we're human we can always take up the hobby of murdering one another in space, win win!

theo said...

I find myself straddling the fence on the issue of people in space. Bob Park is a scientist. He is quite right in his assessment that the best best bang for your buck scientific exploration of (and in) space is by robotic endeavour. Sending humans to do the same is just plain stupid from a cost perspective and will not be nearly as effective for the principle reason that the extra cost to do it with humans will limit the amount of research that can otherwise be done.

Lindsay is quite right that the cost of a manned outpost on the Moon is probably equal to what gets pissed away here on earth maintaining any number of stupid aggressions and bloated military industries. The same argument could be made for universal health care, decent education, eradicating poverty, etc.

I want people in space. Using the analogy of exploration of the world to justify the effort remember this: those early explorers did it for the riches they perceived they would attain. When we have found a way to make a huge profit by being in space then I expect humanity will make the effort to be there if that is what is required. Until then, let’s do robotic science with the budgets that are allowed.

CC said...

theo writes:

"I want people in space."

As do I. We can start with Stephen Harper, then move on to Stephen Taylor, Dr. Roy, Neo Conservative, Hunter, ... I think you see where I'm going with this.

Zorpheous said...

Can we avoi the needless polution of space CC, lets just through them into one NASA earth bound vacuun chanmbers, cheaper and just as effective,...

Lindsay Stewart said...

yeah zorph, tell that to the janitors.

Rev.Paperboy said...

I'm with PSA - Rockets, motherfuckers! We wants them!

Unknown said...

People in space is a great idea. People on planets, eh, not really better than robots there.

Stephen Harper, et al in the sun, I can support.