[ale] [OT][Fwd: Arthur C. Clark on the Shuttle disaster]

[Jim]

On Friday 14 February 2003 12:03 pm, cfowler wrote:

> The bottom line is that many people died so we can enjoy flight today.
> Many people will die so we can enjoy space tomorrow.  Its just a fact
> progress.  I think America has lost some of its pioneering spirit.  We
> have to accept the fact that exploration comes with the price of life
> and money.

I've also heard the argument that robotic missions have done better science 
than the manned missions. This argument just amazes me. While there are many 
things that machines can do better than we can, only manned space travel can 
help us to define a purpose for space travel. And what happens when the 
machines break? The Hubble Telescope would have ended up a useless piece of 
junk if shuttle astronauts had not been able to make repairs that corrected 
its spherical aberrations.
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