Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!rutgers!sunybcs!ugthomps
From: ugthomps@cs.Buffalo.EDU (Gregory Thompson)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: The dream
Message-ID: <2687@cs.Buffalo.EDU>
Date: 16 Nov 88 17:11:35 GMT
References: <61672GRV101@PSUVM> <2146@kalliope.rice.edu>
Reply-To: ugthomps@sunybcs.UUCP (Gregory Thompson)
Organization: SUNY/Buffalo Computer Science
Lines: 62


I've been somewhat distressed at recent posts concerning
"The dream".  

Henry;s signature brings out an opinion of his that the dream
is not alive at NASA.  However, he does not say that it is 
*only* alive at Baikonor (sp?) and their other two sites. 

I'm not about to rehash what has been said about the signature.
What  I would, however, like to bring to the foreground is this:


Yes, the dream is alive at baiknoour.  But it is also alive at
many other places around  the world.  There are conceived missions 
of incredible cost that no one is willing to touch because of
this cost.  Only through a cooperative effort will these "dreams" 
ever be accomplished. 

I think everyone (or most of you at least) realises that we as a human
race must cooperate more in the future if we are even to begin to
think of our existence in the 22nd century.  If every nation has to 
reinvent the wheel politically, economically, environmentally, etc
this race will perish.  

The possibility of Soviet-American-Sino-Euro cooperation in space
is a real one.  For example, the recent trade of data on Venus. 
The possibility of american cooperation in the soviet mission to
mars is at the very least a reality.  If we were to extend these
areas of cooperation into a more comprehensive effort towards keeping
man in space and expanding our horizons in space, we would probably
find a far greater modicum of success than Mir, Soyuz, Buran, Atlantis,
or Apollo was ever able to find or will ever find. 

Talking about Soviets-vs-Americans in space brings the image of 
two dogs chasing each other around a tree.  It is argueing over
and over again a useless point.  

"Our governments are at war, not us" - (from a scene in 2010).
Pro-american/Anti-soviet propaganda and vice versa in Russia
are great for getting the masses to respond to the government's
wishes.  It is high time the masses learned better.  Would you
kill a Russian if s/he sat at your dinner table?  

International negative oriented competition will crush the human
race before the year 2100.  Internatioal cooperation will allow
humans to achieve what nobody dreams possible now. 

Applause to all the fledgling space programs now in operation.
There are none that are not fledgling.  It will stay that way
without international cooperation.  But applause still, since
someone out there has the capability to dream. 

But, they have not yet begun to really dream. 


[I think this soapbox is beginning to look a little used...
  what do you think?]


                 - G
                   ugthomps@sunybcs.cs.buffalo.edu