ISSn't It Romantic?

Despite being a huge space geek and NASA fan, I don’t see much to be gained by putting people in little metal cans and whipping them into low Earth orbit. This isn’t easy for me to admit. Seriously. Other than sheer desire to be in orbit myself (translation: jealousy), I can’t rationalize any reasons for it, and believe me I want to...



I’m talking about the International Space Station. The shuttle is a whole other argument, and I think I still cheer for that. You see, there are those brief moments, when you’re certain you’ve just seen astronauts do something that only humans could do, something that proves just how adaptable we are.

But the massive costs and incredible risks of the Space Station are a tremendous price to pay for… whatever it is they’re doing. I would like to think that this is just an awkward water-wings phase for us in space – that we’re just getting used to it and we’ll eventually swim great distances – but the program is already bigger than what most people are comfortable with, and it bears little resemblance to an actual trip to somewhere like Mars. From what I can tell, the ISS is mostly an extremely expensive educational program filled with strange assurances that diseases will be cured and new products will be spawned.

I should clarify something though, I do think that humans will (and should) be spreading as far and wide as possible, but that’s a long way off. I’d be a lot happier if all our eggs weren’t in one basket.

All the real adventure these days is done by little rovers and flying giants, and it's far more conceivable that the first ground-breaking on Mars will be done by a shovel operated from Pasadena.

I'm hoping someone will tell me why I'm wrong about the ISS.