Rocket scientist: Outer space exploration should be open

I really enjoyed this positive story about open source and space exploration. I loved reading about Paul Wooster's passion about space travel. I was reminded that it has been years and years and years since humankind last went to the moon.

I can recommend a couple of stories to you:

Victor Komen, _Kings Of The High Frontier_

L. Neil Smith, _Palas_

Smith has two more following in the footsteps of _Palas_ in the works, _Ceres_ and _Ares_. As you might have guessed, they are asteroids and the stories surround the conquests of those celestial bodies. Lots of fun.

Also if you're interested, there's the Sovereigns of the High Frontier Society, web site http://hisovs.org/ with an introductory discussion here: http://www.ncc-1776.org/tle2007/tle427-20070722-08.html

I look forward to their "Space Scout Handbook".

Space is largely a distraction from the multitude of problems that we face as a species on this planet. We have so many unaddressed social issues (poverty, hunger, health care, infectious diseases, education, racism, sexism, homophobia, police brutality, addiction to fossil fuels, nuclear proliferation, environmental collapse, etc.) and yet we pour $Bns into space exploration.

I'm not saying it's not a worthy endeavor. I am fascinated with space and I read the Astronomy Picture of the Day every day. But, space will still be there waiting for us after we get things straightened out down here. In that sense, this project is great because it focuses on sharing ideas about space exploration, not actually spending $Bns and burning tons of fuel to go there. We can use our imaginations to plan for a different world while working to improve our current one.

Not to be rude, but that applies to open source and open source activism how? I'm sure that I would enjoy engaging you in a discussion of situational ethics ... elsewhere.

Quoting:space will still be there waiting for us after we get things straightened out down here.

We will never get things straightened out down here, and there's no telling how much time we have left to get off this planet before the next extinction event takes us all out.

Certainly, do what you can to fix things here, but let's not go the way of the dinosaurs, please. Else, what's the point of anything?

> But, space will still be there waiting for us after we get things straightened out down here.

It's far more likely that the things you want to fix here will still be with us when we move into space.

I could go into copious detail on each one, but suffice it to say that if they were that easy to solve, they would have been solved millennia ago.

"Space is largely a distraction from the multitude of problems that we face as a species on this planet."

You have forgotten the benefits of the "division of labor".

While I am out mining asteroids and deflecting meteors and comets from hitting Earth, you can have one less apathetic day-dreamer getting in your way of solving the "social" issues you think need solving.

Do the KDE developers really have to care what the Apache developers are doing day to day? No, because each can focus on their respective interests.

The reason is because F/OSS interaction is _voluntary_.

It is only in an environment of coercion that I have to concern myself with issues and causes in which I otherwise would have no interest, and in which my participation may be actively destructive to the ends to which which those who are involved voluntarily are striving.

Lastly, most people who use "we" and "us" as much as you do tend to want others to participate regardless of their wishes. If you don't like _your_ money being spent on things which are unimportant to you, like space, please accept that there will be people who will not like their own money being spent on things that might be important to _you_.

>But, space will still be there waiting for us after we get things straightened out down here.

Unfortunately, we will cease to exist, because human beings are never happy with the state of the human condition, so things will never be straightened out down here, no matter how good they get.