Rocket science dreams

I spent part of the day talking to a rocket scientist for some background on a book I'm writing. Actually, I mostly listened while he talked . . .

I won't bore anyone with the technical stuff - I'll save that for the book - but one of the things that struck me was how relatively inexpensive space travel could become if some of his (and others') ideas are followed up on . . . for far less than we're spending on bailing out the car industry, we can get a dependable family of boosters on line, making possible things like an orbiting solar energy generator that would radically change the energy equation for years to come.

Among his many points was the difficulty of getting taxpayers to fund the programs. Basically, he believes it's doable if we capture people's imaginations with a dream - like a program to land men (and women) on Mars.

Doable within a decade?

Even before.

Maybe dreaming is the real solution to our current economic problems, and a lot else . . .