They are right. And it’s our own fault.

We Space advocates seem to have more fun fighting each other, VSE, NASA or NASA’s chief rather than putting up a unified front fighting for our Space program in front of Congress and the President. Though we got VSE, now so-called “Space Advocates” are not happy about how Mike Griffin is implementing it, so why not kill it by criticizing VSE to death? We don’t need people working against the Space program; we do a quite sufficient job of that ourselves. Opponents of Space just sit back and enjoy the show. People, we make the Democrats look functional.

And worse, the melange of Space advocacy groups that is the “pro-Space” community have zero political impact. Do any of us doubt one bit that Kay Bailey-Hutchison or Barbara Mikulsky care one bit what our acronym-laden support groups think? No–they have little money and have not turned one election since…well, 1960. There are too many to have a real impact and that needs to change.

Perhaps it’s too late. After all, Obama is going to kill our manned program and Space people are talking about things that don’t matter. Why? And why have we let them get away with their distractions?

— Donald

While I wouldn’t mind living in space if possible/available I subscribe to Donald’s point of view on the much larger importance of someone being able to. Exactly who is secondary; I won’t be jealous of the rich, I’ll thank them for their trail-blazing contribution and try to add to it.

Canttellya:
1. O’Neill was great but he’s not the end-all nor are his designs and I don’t think he would want them to be perceived as such either. One can approach the problem from other directions and/or goals like increased radiation protection, nearer-term realization, minimal size of various general designs and so on.

2. I assume you focused on bremsstrahlung? I know you were talking about Mars but none of the other stuff really applies to habitats and I’ve seen other people who take that position. I simply don’t get why though: if nothing else a solution can be brute-forced. Bremsstrahlung really isn’t an unbeatable death beam.

3. On practical efforts to get “there” –to a stage at which humanity has started to spread out into space– I don’t believe there’s a silver bullet but I do believe you’re right about profitability in general. However do not completely remove the possibility of various kinds of philanthropy, big and small.

Rand (and many others along with him) is right about access and not just the human access usually focused upon but small “throwaway cheap” access to test ideas (Masten is targeting this). There are a lot of possibilities that haven’t been explored in detail or at all and which might not require more than a kilo or less to LEO or lower.

You seem to confuse “unsolved” with “unsolvable.” They are mostly a matter of engineering development, which won’t happen until we reduce costs of access.

Rather than wave your hands about the answers, point them out.

And I will note, for other readers, that there is a vast literature of potential solutions to these problems, of which “Canttellya” is apparently unaware, but that this blog in general, and this post in particular, is not the place to discuss it.

I will note, for other readers, that neither Donald nor Rand suggested one innovation for solving the problems I mention that will work. Donald doesn’t think gravity’s a problem, thinks having some of your CHON is enough, thinks that convenient water deposits are just waiting for us, and thinks that a brick house will stop radiation.

Donald, galactic cosmic radiation is the problem and a study of it will help you understand just what a problem it is.

Well, for better or worse, we do live in a Republic and these decisions are made collectively.

As for the admittedly difficult — far more difficult than most space advacates realize — technological and other issues, I’ll let Rand’s statement speak for me. He is correct and you may not be.

I don’t want to live in space, but I do want a future for my species, and preferably an exciting one. It’s the same reason I vote for school bonds and donate money to education even though I do not, and never will, have children. The human world is far bigger than just me, and I want it to be there even if I am not.

— Donald

I’d prefer my tax dollars spent elsewhere.