Space Stasis (Neal Stephenson)
Reading this article raises a question that I ask as devil's advocate (mostly): why do we need to get into space?<p>I can think of three reasons:
1) We need to put up comsats.
2) Military superiority
3) Because we can and it's cool.<p>To the first, as the article stated the sky's already getting a bit full as there are only so many comsat "slots"<p>To the second, SDI never really worked and that threat doesn't exist anymore.<p>To the third, well...is it worth the brajillions? I personally think it is because we don't know what's out there, but that's a really poor sales pitch. :)<p>Perhaps it's my limited imagination and understanding, but I'm unable to conjure the reward that offsets the risks/costs.