Re: starship-design: Why?

[Kelly St <KellySt@aol.com>]

In a message dated 12/8/97 3:50:58 AM, TLG.van.der.Linden@tip.nl wrote:

>>Seariously a big question we've never gotten very far with is why anyone
would
>>send such a mission?
>
>Curiosity.
>
>Some would say that future robotic (AI) probes may do all the exploring for
>us. I'd not dare to despute that. However it's not merely listening to the
>tales of others that make us tick. First hand, real time experience is for
>many much more satisfying.
>For this reason we'd like to go there ourselves.
>
>
>Timothy

Thats definatly a reason why people would like their to be such a mission, but
they certainly wouldn't fund anything on this scale just out of curiousity.
It would almost certainly be most of an order of magnitude more expensive then
the U.S. Apollo program, and even things a order or two less expensive then
Apollo can't get funded for reasons of science or curiosity.

National prestigue works pretty well, but this seems a little steep for that.
Commercial or defense works better, but neiather are applicable.

Kelly