It ain't Skylab

Is the Space Station a Money Pit? Thursday, Jun. 14, 2007 By JEFF KLUGER There are bad ideas, and then there are true historic stinkers. Put the International Space Station in that second category. (Time On-Line)

I am a big fan of space exploration. There is just so much out there that we, as a race, need to see and experience. But I have to agree that the space station is little more than space junk. Sure, it was a good idea in the 1980s when it was thought up, but then, we also assumed that the payload vehicles would be bigger and stronger and more powerful than the Shuttles that they had to work with. And clearly, Russian engineering has not really improved all that much since the end of the cold war.

With $100 Billion dollars, the United States could actually fund the war in Iraq, although I would advocate that the money can and should be better spent training new scientists to look for alternate fuel sources. Not only so we can be sure to get to work on time, but so that the next space station is more in line with what Asimov or Clarke would have designed, instead of what we have today.