Newsgroups: sci.space
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: alien contact
Message-ID: <1989Apr2.040541.28890@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <7751@pyr.gatech.EDU> <10245@nsc.nsc.com> <7787@pyr.gatech.EDU> <1989Apr1.224541.22308@utzoo.uucp> <7806@pyr.gatech.EDU>
Date: Sun, 2 Apr 89 04:05:41 GMT

In article <7806@pyr.gatech.EDU> ccoprmd@pyr.UUCP (Matthew T. DeLuca) writes:
>>Of course, if they consider spaceflight a major sign of civilization, then
>>there's absolutely no doubt about where they will go:  Baikonur...
>You fail to realize, I feel, that by the standards of a civilization that can
>send ships to the stars, neither we nor the Russians have any claim to being
>a space-faring civilization...

True.  However, the Soviets are clearly much the closer.

>Besides, I doubt that self-respecting aliens
>would have as their sole criterion of civilization the number of cheap 
>chemical rockets that could be sent up.  Quality versus quantity, I'd choose
>quality every time.

Yup, clearly the people who can fly an entirely unmanned shuttle mission
with a crosswind landing and a launch in freezing weather, perfectly,
the first time, are ahead on quality.  Same conclusion -- they'll go to
Baikonur.

I think our hypothetical visitors would be more impressed by a pair of
small, shabby space stations in orbit than by a pair of gleaming marvels
of technology, one strewn in pieces over Australia and the other still on
paper after nearly a decade of studies.

Or by a pair of ambitious, failed Mars probes against a complete absence
of planetary missions for a decade.

Or by people who can build launchers that can go up on schedule twice a
week, year after year, against people who can't seem to launch anything
on schedule.

Or, in general, by results in cheap black ink on newsprint, against
glossy airbrushed four-color brochures full of broken promises.
-- 
Welcome to Mars!  Your         |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
passport and visa, comrade?    | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu