space 'geek'

So, i admit to being a bit of a space 'geek', watching the space shuttle go up to service the hubble telescope. This stuff really appealed to me from an early age, as an extension of my fondness of aeroplanes. I didn't end up being an aerospace engineer, which suits me just fine, but i like to keep following all things above the earth.

In my mind there's two basic visions of space. One is that it's a frontier that we will go and settle, you know go to the Moon and strip-mine it to get an even bigger economy. Kind of the Star Trek way of viewing the future. The vision of humanity conquering ever more and more. I think this is unlikely. For starters the human body isn't adapted for space. Not only is there no ecosystem to support us, the radiation, weightlessness and other dangers are prohibitive to living in space long-term. Also, even if there were diamonds lying on the Moon's surface it would cost too much bringing them back! I think the frontier idea is a false analogy.

No, i think space is more about exploration, about gaining new knowledge. Say, if we went to Mars we could find out about its climate and whether there was or is life there. That would give us more insights into evolution and climate change from a comparative perspective, which has important implications for science and through that for society. It may cost $100 billion to go there, and that is a lot, but in the larger scheme of things i think it could be very useful for us.

Yea, and the space 'geek' in me would find it really cool to see humans on some far-away planet.