Don’t be sorry Robert. I enjoy reading your arguments. I find the free exchange of ideas one of the nicest parts of American exceptionalism.,

I am always sorry for people whose grasp of the facts is so tenuous that their opinions are formed on fear and rhetoric rather then reality.

As I have pointed out in the past, you dont have a clue about American exceptionalism and the sentence of yours that I quoted from your last post is yet another reinforcement of that.

You are like many people on the ideological “right” (with compliments to Simberg)…you pretend to love the country, you barely know

Robert G. Oler

Don’t be sorry Oler, it did not make much sense so no damage done.
You just don’t want anyone in space for some reason..

I always feel sorry for people who dont have any grasp of the facts. To state that “You (meaning me) just don’t want anyone in space for some reason” is as inept and misstating as your comments about HSF and the DoD.

You will find, unlike some here I ignore people pretty well and am headed for that state with you

Robert G. Oler

Rand, you complained with a blog post on your site that this forum was overrun and barely readable, yet you come here and (if I may be so crude) do what most dogs prefer not to do in their own backyard.

Don’t be sorry Oler, it did not make much sense so no damage done.
You just don’t want anyone in space for some reason. Is it because you can’t go? Resentment? Envy?

There is no reason for HSF if we are never going to live out there. Robots and science as cheaply as possible yes, HSF- no.

But we are going out there, so that makes you wrong, wrong, wrong.
Wake up.

Don’t be sorry Robert. I enjoy reading your arguments. I find the free exchange of ideas one of the nicest parts of American exceptionalism.

“Uncrewed programs have value but to get real return on your investment, it will be people and their ingenuity who bring it.:”

but this is the problem that you, Paul, Mark W and all the other drumbangers of lunar exploration by humans collapse on.

While there is some “hand on tool” work in even heart surgery, mostly these days the surgeons are manipulating machines that are doing the serious work. That trend will do nothing but continue.;..

The uncrewed vehicles we have these days allow scientist, not astronauts playing as scientist to do serious work with their machines even though they are over a data link generally in far better conditions then if the folks were actually on the Moon, working their machines. And this is the key point, you nor Paul nor Mark W nor any of the lunar goobers have been able to explain why the value of having the astronaut playing at scientist being on the Moon is worth the added cost, particularly when the cost can actually be pushed toward better tools.

Put it another way. Cx has taken 10 billion dollars. There are few questions we have today about the Moon that could not have been answered if those 10 billion had been programmed into a real lunar uncrewed exploration program…and the questions that the 10 billion dollar uncrewed lunar exploration program would have poised would be far more extensive then the astronauts playing at scientist would have provided.

Sorry Anne, this is why people like you resort to “American exceptionalism”…

Robert G. Oler

Oh, goodie. Just what we need. An organized troll invasion.

Uncrewed programs have value but to get real return on your investment, it will be people and their ingenuity who bring it. Machines are precursors, made and used by thinking explorers and settlers.

Which would you allow to give you a necessary heart transplant Robert, a top of the line programmed robot or a highly respected heart surgeon? What value do you place on your life?

There’s value and then there’s value.