Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!henry From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) Newsgroups: net.space Subject: Re: Space Station Politics Message-ID: <3216@utzoo.UUCP> Date: Tue, 27-Sep-83 16:52:28 EDT Article-I.D.: utzoo.3216 Posted: Tue Sep 27 16:52:28 1983 Date-Received: Tue, 27-Sep-83 16:52:28 EDT References: <11946@sri-arpa.UUCP> Organization: U of Toronto Zoology Lines: 17 Many things, including the space program and the proposed space station, would work a lot better if emphasis was placed on building prototypes quickly and getting hard test results instead of having to plan the perfect on the basis of theoretical pontification and computerized guesswork. (The current debate about ABM systems is a really gross example of how bad things get when there is no hard test data to support or refute peoples' arguments.) The trouble is, NASA cannot afford to make mistakes. The preferred "try it and see" attitude is impossible in a political environment where any failure is a major disaster. As long as space development has to go through NASA, and as long as NASA has to fight for every last dollar every year, there is little hope of getting fast results out of a new project. -- Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology {allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry