Ooo

I'm a sci-fi geek at heart, and all you need to say to me is space elevator to get me thinking of a glistening future of powerful technologies. The fact that NASA is seriously looking into building a moon elevator is great news.

Sure, it's not as useful as an Earth elevator would be, but that's not really the point. What was the point of going to the moon (except for the new technology it incidentally opened up to us)? The journey to the moon had far more power as a symbol than as a genuine feat of advancement. The fact that NASA has, for decades, been content to deal with only those aspects of space that are nearest to our reach, is a constant frustration. Of course there are 'better' uses for money than funding great voyages of exploration through our solar system... but we as a race become spiritually impoverished if our wings are clipped.

Kennedy said First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth., and that was the starting pistol for a decade of inspiration. People tend to assume that NASA stopped reaching because people lost interest - really though, I suspect the inverse is true... people lost interest because NASA stopped reaching.

Even if it's a fanciful, far-fetched notion... I suspect building a space elevator on the moon would be enough to make people sit up and take notice again.