Costs would be over the moon

Mining the moon for rocket fuel; an ice-covered ocean on Saturn’s moon Enceladus; colonizing Mars; a human friendly planet only 39 light years away. Has science gone bonkers?

Buzz Aldrin is telling NASA to retire the International Space Station. I wonder if he means just the part we own. Some of the other owners might get lawyers.

Physicist Stephen Hawking has drawn the line. Isn’t he the event horizon guru to the masses? We want to know what makes him think humans can usurp the mass times speed-of-light all-squared thingy because this will take a lot of moon-mined rocket fuel.

Techno tycoons such as Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk have Mars fever, too. I’d just as soon they make Prime shipping a freebie for everyone.

Thinking outside the box, if humans committed those resources to social sciences, grounded in the same scientific method and peer review as the physical sciences, several pressing issues might be addressed. Why, in 100 years, we might learn control of population growth and assurance of fundamental prosperity for all.

But in the famous words of comedian Eric Idle, “People aren’t wearing enough hats!”

This story was originally published June 13, 2017 at 6:51 PM with the headline "Costs would be over the moon."