🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <107@beaver.cs.washington.edu> szabonj@minke.UUCP (Nick Szabo) writes:
>  It's a question of X dollars divided between manned and
>unmanned programs.  What allocation is best for our future?   Spending all
>or most of the money on one or two large, risky projects, which go nowhere 
>but LEO, is the poorest allocation.   Sending out a few probes, while
>still spending half the money on thread-bare manned projects, is still poor.
>The only reasonable allocation is to spend the money on unmanned projects
>(and research), and forego manned projects until they are affordable,
>and/or discoveries provide the incentive to substantially increase the
>budget X which the government provides.

You imply that manned projects are worthwhile if they are affordable, and that
unmanned projects are worthwhile and cheaper. I stated essentially these 
points in my previous postings. The difference is that I believe that because
manned space R&D is important, there is much to be gained from doing it as 
soon as possible. Therefore, as long as NASA can get the money out of
congress, the R&D should be done. The issue then is the more technical
question of whether NASA's budget is sufficient for worthwhile manned R&D.
I believe NASA's current budget of over $10 billion a year is enough for a
small manned program, leaving $1 or $2 billion for a reasonable productive
unmanned program.

The point I've reiterated for three postings now is that manned space R&D is
important, so if the money can be found it must be persued, even though it
is much more expensive than unmanned. Unmanned space R&D is just as important
and so must be persued too, though with less money because a productive
program requires less.

John L. McKernan.                    Student, Computer Science, Cal Poly S.L.O.
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