Andy Chase

News aggregators are very cool. First I read over at Wil Wheaton Dot Net that what was at first presumed to be a delay in communications due to an Australian thunderstorm appeared to be a much more grave problem, and then a few hours later (from the same WWDN post) I got the update that Spirit has responded and is commandable.

Well, that's pretty spectacular, and I can't imagine anyone being anything but excited at the news... but you know the people who can't imagine why we should have a space exploration program at all. They're actually going to be disappointed. I can hear the eye-rolling armchair rocketry now...

Oh, a billion dollars and it stops working because of a thunderstorm. Oh, that's great. Why don't we worry about our finding Osama bin Laden before we go send a billion dollar robot to look at a bunch of rocks?

These are the same people who, having completely dismissed the notion that maybe it might be a good idea for us as a species to have an exit plan, will then drive off to fill up their 5 Mpg Canyonero so they can go to Costco and buy 15 gross of disposable diapers to take back to their shiny new 15,000 foot McMansion built on what used to be pristine farmland. God Bless America.