It seems like humanity has amnesia a lot of the time. Always repeating the same mistakes. I think one humongous mistake our nation made was canceling the Apollo program, and not intensifying the push for a permanent human presence off world. When Nixon canceled Apollo, it caused the United States to start regressing.
I read that now scientists have found real liquid water on mars. The rovers have found [metallic meteorites on the surface of Mars] that have been collecting for billions of years. There is [large quantities of water on the moon]. We know there are [asteroids with large quantities of platinum group metals] and other useful elements. [Google the words in brackets] for more information.
It is like it is beckoning us. When president Kennedy made his speech that led to the first human foot prints on the moon, human technology wasn't advanced enough to do it. So we created the technology. Now we do have the technology.
Please consider this my progressive brothers and sisters.
Humanity really needs to start exploiting and colonizing Mars soon. The $16 trillion the people used to bail out Wall Street could of provided 91 Apollo size projects, start to finish.
Do you think Apollo times 91 would equal Human Civilization on Mars, and 10's of millions of jobs for the people? What about setting us up for mining the asteroid belt? My rough estimate is 34 million jobs if it all went like Apollo. Apollo provided 400,000 at its peak. With 34 million we could farm jobs out to other countries who need it, and not effect our employment at all. During the height of the recession there were 12 million unemployed. We could be mining asteroids for platinum group metals, and other resources like water for hydrogen/oxygen fuel to refuel satellites and spacecraft.
In 2009, NASA held a symposium on project costs which presented an estimate of the Apollo program costs in 2005 dollars as roughly $170 billion. This included all research and development costs; the procurement of 15 Saturn V rockets, 16 Command/Service Modules, 12 Lunar Modules, plus program support and management costs; construction expenses for facilities and their upgrading, and costs for flight operations. This was based on a Congressional Budget Office report, A Budgetary Analysis of NASA's New Vision for Space, September 2004. The Space Review estimated in 2010 the cost of Apollo from 1959 to 1973 as $20.4 billion, or $109 billion in 2010 dollars.
So what do we do with it? How about 91 times the above effort to jump start our economy into the next century? Okay so it wouldn't be exactly like this, but this is merely an example. 1365 Saturn V rockets, 1456 Command/Service Modules, 1092 Lunar Modules, plus 91 times the program support and management costs; construction expenses for facilities and their upgrading, and costs for flight operations. But that isn't all.
Instead of what we got for $16 trillion bailing out billionaires, which was nothing, we would have full employment, a highly educated populous, accelerated technological advancement, a permanent human presence on the moon, Mars and in the asteroid belt. Most importantly, humanity would at last have the key to true equality, an economy built on unlimited resources instead of scarcity.
I think this may be the answer to an old question. Once progressives take control of the government, how do you cause equality? Once we have the reins of power, how best to steer a course for the future of human well being and fair distribution of the wealth? I don't think humanity will ever be able to do that in a closed system of resources.
Humanity has resources, but their distribution is uneven throughout human society because they are scarce. Because the resources are scarce, people tend to hoard the wealth. They go to war over the worlds wealth. It's a survival tactic. The only way to break that cycle is to have an open system of resources. Then we could have an economy based on abundance instead of scarcity. There would be no need to hoard food, energy, metals and other items, or to go to war over them.
The only way to have an open system economy is for humanity to spread their presence and culture throughout the solar system. To utilize the virtually inexhaustible abundance of our planetary neighborhood, including the resources of the asteroid belt, of course. Any person who keeps up with technology knows humanity has the technological skills to do this. I know we have the facilities to do this. I've seen them and worked in them in the military and commercial aircraft industry. I know this can be done now at long last. It would solve many problems, and assure the survival of the human species. Waiting another ten years or 15 years will not due.
If the United States of America and its people can commit $16 trillion to the bailing out of banks, and Wall Street billionaires, our civilization can commit the same effort to a real solution to our economic problems. It is great that we want to put $1 trillion into the rebuilding of the infrastructure. It desperately needs it, and that would provide for many jobs. I think there will come a time when our nation will get done playing catch up, and then not so many people will be needed for maintenance. If we go ahead and grit our teeth and expand civilization off world, that end of infrastructure building would never arrive. I think it could cause something like a golden era of human civilization.
If you think this is viable, please promote it.
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