[FPSPACE] Final Nail In the Coffin for USA's Manned Space Aspirations?

[E.P. Grondine]

Hi Peter - 

Let's not get all hysterical here. Yes, Griffin's Ares 1 is a real dog, but we have a great alternative design in Direct. Direct keeps in production the same plants and skilled people used for the shuttle, and can provide the United States with the tools needed to deal with the comet and asteroid impact hazard, a hazard which is simply not going to disappear and go away, despite the desperate wishes of some manned Mars flight enthusiasts.

Of course the US economy is in pretty rough shape, mainly due to panic. 
People don't know how they got here, and they don't know what to do.
That's what you're seeing in the fall in "consumer confidence" and "investor confidence".

Perhaps an the easy solution for that is simply to put either Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac in the business of buying CDOs and simply taking the toxic parts out of them, and then reselling the resulting good investments. Essentially, de-leveraging the instruments that the New York financier clique created.

Also, stockholders themselves are likely to be given better powers to limit corporate managers salaries and powers and mismanagement, so there will be some good reform there as well.

The US is going to have to reduce its dependence on imported oil and on oil entirely, and that's going to be a major effort. But again, the comet and asteroid impact hazard can simply not be wished away, and it is severe, and we all face it. NASA has responsibility, and will need Direct to deal with it.

In response to the fall in US demands for their goods, the leadership of China will have to raise wages for industrial workers so that they can afford the goods that they themselves manufacture. What this means in terms of unions, or worker ownership of factories, is a theoretical matter which I am sure they are working on. China will also have to review Mao's initial pledge to small farmers (I hate the word "peasants") to give them the land they farm, and the formation of agricultural cooperatives under the small farmers own control so that they can afford modern machinery and food processing facilities. 

Again, these are major theoretical matters, and I've had a severe stroke, but that's my guess on how it will play out.

E.P. Grondine
Man and Impact in the Americas - a truly great book if I do say so myself - 
fpspacers can contact me off list for a signed copy special price



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