Someone Finally Asks Why

02/25/03 00:00:00    

By Michael Mealling

John Carter McNight (The Spacefaring Web) attempts to ask the really important question of “why do we want to go to space?”. He covers most of the bases: Science, Settlement, Emigration, Adventure, Exploration (whatever that is), Spinoffs, Wealth (my personal favorite), and Environmental Protection. Overall I like the article. The nits that annoy me are the fact that I can't really tell the difference between Settlement and Emigration. I would also prefer more depth on each one: who are the advocates? can they live together? do they have the same funding sources?

One other thing that bugs me is the lack of process here. Part of my day job is developing standards within the IETF. When someone asks a question there's a process for getting it answered. But, while I like blogs a lot, the endless stream of punditry isn't doing much to get the questions answered. Heck, it isn't even getting the important questions in front of the mainstream media. So my question is: ok, so at least some of us have identified the fundamental question. But a question without an answer is stupid. How are we going to go about finding an answer so we can get on with our lives.