The Problem Space Flight is Looking For?
Listening to: Storm Coming - Gnarls Barkley
A little while back I linked to an article about space flight being a solution looking for a problem.
Last week, in a moment of procrastination, I watched the interview with Aaron Russo. Russo’s latest project is a movie called America - Freedom to Fascism… a movie about the IRS and various topics that have sat on the fringes of the conspiracy culture. I honestly don’t know enough about the topics he’s talking about to really hold an educated opinion, but he represented a glimmer of a problem that might be the tractor app for space flight.
Russo brings to light a disturbing level of dissatisfaction amongst a group of people in society. Generally, dissatisfied groups go through a series of steps to try and address the problems they have identified. Over time they succeed or they don’t. Certain groups reach a point where they decide that remaining in the society is not worth the effort and that it is best that they start their own society. The real extremists realize that the best way for humans to conquer the unknown is by creating a “no return” scenario. The human race has a history of that sort of behavior.
In a world where sovereignty has been well established (i.e. there is no longer a place that you can truly carve out a new land) and it’s pretty much impossible to unhook yourself from society completely… the only real option is to pack your bags and head over the horizon. The next horizon sits at the top of the gravity well and Space, beyond a certain point, represents the best “no return” scenario.
It’s amusing to speculate about a leftist leader who provides launch facilities from his oil rich nation close to the equator. A group of wealthy “pioneers” create their own launch vehicles based on commercial vehicles built to meet the needs of an aging NASA and a sustaining tourism market and escape to live on the new frontier.
