🚀 go-pugleaf

: Days, not years.  The big economic benefits, the things which will affect
: everybody to some extent in our lifetimes, will come about from activities
: in Earth orbit, stable points (called libration points) between the Earth
: and the Moon, and maybe on the Moon itself.  You can get to the Moon at a
: leisurely cruise in a few days.

	When will I get to the moon in a few days?  How much $$$$$$ do I 
need to spend before it's going to cost me a forutne to buy a ticket and 
rent a room?

:  
: |> 	Oh, come on now!  How can it help Canada's situation?  Let see 
: |> some facts, some sort of study!  All I can see is a programme to eat at 
: |> our debt (anything that wastes the nation's money affects the debt.  
: |> That's what the debt is), with NO ECONOMIC OR SOCIAL GAIN/BENEFITS for 
: |> years to come.  With no gain, it certainly can't help the Canada's 
: |> situation (and please don't explaing to me how a moon rock will solve the 
: |> welfar problem).

: Brave words, in caps yet!  Let's see ...  Canada, like Australia, has
: a large land area with a relatively sparse population -  most people
: live in cities, long distances between folks in the wilderness areas.
: Both countries have major debt problems.

: FACT: Australia spends about $700 million a year on space-related goods
: and services.  Australia's population is pushing 18 million.  It's
: likely the value of space business will scale up roughly with the
: population because of the similarities between the two countries
: (mostly to do with distance, resource management, mining activity,
: a general need to know about the weather for agriculture, disaster
: preparation, you name it ...)

: That money winds up in foreign (American, Chinese, European) pockets.
: Why? Because those places were smart enough to invest in space research,
: which allowed these businesses to come into existence.  This means jobs
: for their people, tax money for their treasuries.

: Our country benefits as well.  People who work for the importing
: companies pay taxes, as do those companies (to some extent!).  The
: things those companies do make money (or they'd go out of business).
: They spend this money on other goods and services, increasing the
: general level of economic activity, and the government manages to
: scoop off some at every turn.  We just lose out on the jobs, the
: wholesale industries ...

: The net result is that our society (both government and private) makes
: money out of space activities.  The downside is that our balance of
: payments is shot to hell.  If we did the research, owned the businesses,
: that wouldn't be a problem; there'd be more jobs for our people, more
: money all round.  The same applies to Canada.

: That's just today's space business, from yesterday's space research
: and development.  There's every reason to think that future space
: research and development will create even more opportunities, make
: us all richer, in terms of both money and quality of life.

	I believe in funding research for satelittes, space stations, manned 
voyages to the moon, and unmanned voyages to planets in our solar system.  
These missions are relatively cheap.  I can't understand why a country would 
want to waste so much money, however, on manned voyages and the like to 
placesother than the moon, when we can't feasibly produce a habitate 
(other than a cramped space station) to begin with.

	Maybe this is the wrong thread for me to complain in.  Is Canada 
talkng about  cutting back funding to deep space exploration, or the 
smaller missions I mentioned above?

	I feel like an ass, I think I've beena arguing about the wrong 
thing for a long time now.
	
-- 
Mike Steele			| St. Catharines -- Canada's Canal City
msteele@freenet.niagara.com	|              Go Leafs!