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Steven L. wrote:
> Is this type of mission worth risking even one astronaut's life?
>
> It might be worth even high risk to human life to voyage to the planet
> Mars--"to boldly go where no one has gone before."
>
> It's not worth any risk to human life to maintain the stupid ISS--"to
> boldly grow where no weeds have grown before."
How do you propose we learn to grow things in space, then?
Granted, ISS is a bit of a boondoggle, and this is probably not the
*best* way to learn how to do this. But we might as well use it while
it's there. And if we're going to learn about how to grow plants in
space *at all*, *ever*, it will be at the risk of at least one
astronaut's life.
> I would risk my life to walk on Mars in my lifetime.
> I wouldn't risk my life to grow weeds in the cabbage and mustard family.
A "flags and footprints" mission, like the Apollo missions were, would
accomplish little in terms of an established presence in space. If we
want to go in space to stay and not just do stunts to impress Joe
Sixpack and Suzy Bluehair, we need to do some (relatively) mundane
things, too -- like figuring out the best way to grow food. We as a
race do put our lives at risk doing glorious things, but we *much* more
frequently put our lives at risk doing things that are much more
humdrum.
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