The Banal Frontier

Why the hell are we still sending people into space? Clearly, NASA is scared shitless of watching another vehicle disintegrate upon re-entry, because they've grounded the fleet and parked the shuttle on the ISS. (So much for all that high-dollar space research.)

Look, back when the Americans and Soviets were measuring their dicks by pitting their respective captured Nazi rocket scientists against each other, this was all well and good. Back when Americans didn't think Gene Roddenberry offered a glib view of the future, this was all well and good. Back when we all thought the Moon was made of some variety of cheese and worth exploring to discredit said cheese claims, this was all well and good. Back when Americans had no idea how much they'd love the Space Pen, Tang, or memory foam pillows, this was all well and good. Back when we thought throwing billions of dollars at sending shit into space was more important than -- oh, I don't know -- solving our own fucking problems first, this was all well and good.

I'm all for the quest for knowledge. Shit, I often avail myself of the latest findings in astronomy or physics. The universe is a pretty interesting place, whether or not your an atheist or agnostic looking for a raison d'etre a religion can't provide you, but why are we spending all this money to risk the lives of teams of people whose mission is to apparently provide future generations of salespersons and marketers a reason not to kill themselves?

Didn't the X Prize prove anything? Doesn't it set the tone for the future of space travel or orbital travel?

with apologies to Jeff Harrell for cramping his latest style