Orac- Whilst there are days when I wish I had a Russian rocket launcher handy I do not think it would fit into my life in suburbia, ---sadly!
And Bill S, I too have struggled with the idea that it's just too much money to squander on exploring space, but I really do feel that it is that urge to explore and satisfy our curiosity that is that thing that makes us human, and anyway I really do not think that the revenue saved would be spent on those who need help, instead it would be grabbed by war-mongers and oligarchs the world over.
When I wrote the first post I was really trying to point out how one of the most amazing achievements of we humans has been dumbed down. The moon missions are now conflated with 'Toy Story', and Buzz Aldrin has morphed into Buzz Lightyear! So much of the population missed the excitement that we oldies remember, as one of our species stood on the moon.
Many of the people under 40 today believe it was all a story and no-one ever went to the moon. Soon there will only be the stories left, and they will be told to children at bed time as fairy stories -and I think that will be very tragic indeed.
