Asri-unix.686 net.space utcsrgv!utzoo!decvax!duke!chico!harpo!cbosg!teklabs!ucbcad!ARPAVAX:C70:sri-unix!REM@MIT-MC Thu Feb 4 00:08:19 1982 post script --> Space isn't just art The Voyager pictures are indeed a work of art, but not very expensive, I've heard it's about one six-pack of beer per person of this country. Most works of art are much more expensive for the number of people who can see them and appreciate them. (All we need to do is distribute prints of the best of the Voyager pictures to each and every citizen, and we'll truly have the cheapest masterpiece of art ever produced.) The rest of the space program is science, not art, mostly. We get vast amounts of crucial information that is a first step towards engineering to actually make use of space for our benefit. Science always comes first, then a lot of hard engineering, then profit. Thus I don't agree with your claim that the space program is just an expensive work of art with spinoff. It's a medium-priced science project with some artistic spinoff and also some random-product spinoff. ----------------------------------------------------------------- gopher://quux.org/ conversion by John Goerzen of http://communication.ucsd.edu/A-News/ This Usenet Oldnews Archive article may be copied and distributed freely, provided: 1. There is no money collected for the text(s) of the articles. 2. The following notice remains appended to each copy: The Usenet Oldnews Archive: Compilation Copyright (C) 1981, 1996 Bruce Jones, Henry Spencer, David Wiseman.