The future is something that American’s have proven they have a unique abilty to absorb as it arrives. Almost any change can sweep across America , and it just stimulates even more ingenuity in it’s ripples.
Space IS the new frontier. I know the intelligentsia is interested in things like closer pictures of Jupiter or one of it’s moons but the average American can see little use in that.
I believe, what we really want… is quality building materials and inexpensive elegant plumbing fixtures. Am I wrong?
More pictures of Mars is not working to get us there. In fact, this whole idea of planning a colony just sounds…too far out there. When I see a land rush on Death Valley I’ll know there might be some future in developing a freezing cold desert.
The focus should, and is to some extent, changing to the asteroid belt
The U.S. has sponsored several probes:
The Japanese probe was supposed to land on an asteroid and bring back samples but there have been problems.
Since I was a teenager I’ve been waiting for asteroid mining to commence. I lived with a book which intrigued me for years. “Space Colonies” edited by Stewart Brand, and now 30 years later I’m still waiting. That book spoke about the asteroids being able to supply minerals in quantities that dwarfed production sites on earth. And the best part, in my mind, is that if you don’t fall into a gravity hole like the Moon or Mars, you don’t need a government scale project to plan your escape.
Humanity is developing the technology to use robot explorers for this task. A marker that everyone can relate to is Toyota ’s recent violin playing robot.
And the U.S. has other projects and is toying with the idea of swarms of robotic asteroid explorers
Technology marches forward and I want to share a vision with you about our future. Mining the asteroids will enable us to deliver high quality mineral feeds to our processors. This star dust will change our lives.
Once we drop it into the atmosphere we’ll use it in our fabricators. This technology is just starting to reach mass production and you can participate in it today at www.fabathome.org. You can build the desktop fabricator for a few thousand dollars and start experimenting. We’re soon going to be able to take that star dust, our fabricator….can I call it a replicator?...and change the way mankind lives.
I can see a day, sooner rather than later, where I make sure the dustbin of my replicator is full and punch in the code for that nail or bathroom fixture that I need.
BELIEVE IT!
Our expenditures in space need to be focused for human needs. We need to be feeding and housing humanity not looking for places that might have had water. As Wanda Sykes says in her act, “So…This glass used to have vodka in it!”
As U.S. Senator I will force NASA to focus like a laser beam for the first time in a long time!