re long term human missions jgladu bcm tmc edu grungy writes ward pashosh wisdom weizmann ac il ward paul wrote calculators teflon so your eggs don t stick in the pan pacemakers kept my grandfather alive from until i don t think touting contributions is a good idea world war ii produced many many beneficial spinoffs eg radar jet aeroplanes rocket technology i don t think anyone would argue that world war ii was in and of itself a good thing if you want people to back the space program it must be a good thing in and of itself i disagree with what to tout although i agree that the space program is inherently a good thing most people today only care about what will it cost me and what s in it for me and could care less about whether something is simply worthwhile in and of itself our society has become increasingly geared toward the short term which you could read as now they couldn t care less about next week much less next century they want something to show for the expenditure and they want it now i think to some extent this is a case of stooping to their level you assume that the general public can t handle the truth and then based on this assumption go for the fluff arguments then someone who can understand a good argument comes along and asks why don t you just develop the spinoffs or why can t we just get our spinoffs from some other program like the military there are some good arguments for space development without relying on its side effects i m not ignoring the value of spinoffs i simply think that the general public deserves more credit than you give them btw don t forget velcro and if you re going to use spinoffs you better make darn sure you are right teflon has been around since before nasa as i understand it velcro was conceptualized by a french doctor who went walking in the woods and took the trouble to wonder how burrs stick to your clothes certainly velcro was available on hiking equipment by the early to mid sixties i would need to see some good evidence before i believe that either of these would not be here today without nasa josh hopkins jbh uxa cso uiuc edu find a way or make one attributed to hannibal
