by nobodypanic » Wed 14 Sep 2011, 17:21:32
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Windmills', 'L')ovely. More billions on taxpayer funded space camping trips. Let private industry do it--and not through corporate welfare handouts. They can use their own funding, too.
they can't - and haven't been able to do 'it' in a very long time. and i don't mean build a rocket; i mean get along without government demand (what you rightly label 'corporate welfare').
aside from that... space represents an area of hope: if humanity finds a way to get into space in a serious fashion, the species is effectively 'saved' and can thumb its nose at finite resources for quite some time. and given that, i think its a good expenditure of resources, especially considering that the capital outlays for something like this (given the high risk and long time-line before profitability) are beyond private industry.