Why hello, Scoop...

As our forces go into action from Uzbekistan and elsewhere in the FSU, I'd like to remind you that from September, 1998, to about January, 2001, I spent entirely too much of my time doing my best to hinder your hysterical attacks on Russian involvement in ISS.

Events are showing that Bush Snr's decision to take Russia up on its request to participate in ISS was the right course of action.

As for Tumlinson, Anderson, and the Space Frontier Foundation et al., I want to remind you that you never reported on their diversion of some $30 million from ISS, and their sticking Energia with a $16 million loss on top of that.
While all of these losses are perfectly understandable, given Tumlinson's complete lack of understanding of the economics of space, in the real world I'd like them to make good on that loss, every penny of it. And while Tumlison has an incredible ability to come up with slogans which hide the realities of space from those who want to "believe" that using space is much easier than it really is, I expect any good space reporter to give his readers fair warning of the inadequacies of those slogans. You never have.

Moving on to current events, I don't much appreciate the Space Frontier Foundations' current attempts to divert space tourist and other business away from ISS. Now if Tumlinson et al. want to bring business to ISS, that's okay; otherwise they're just pissing in the soup. And by not accurately informing your readers about the inadequacy and harm of Tumlinson's current efforts, you're serving them up a real dish.

To clarify things a little further, NASA's role isn't manned exploration of the frontier per se, though that's a good thing, alright - NASA's role is to maintain the United States' leadership role in aviation and space, and to see to the nation's well being. On the first point, Mars doesn't have much of a molten core, and thus doesn't have much of a magnetic field, and thus is soaked in deadly radiation, and thus will never be made into a second Earth. Never.

On the second point, the Earth, including the area which is now the United States, has regularly been pounded by asteroids and comets. As to how bad this particular problem is, think 16,000 to 600,000 World Trade Centers, the first about once every 100 years, the second about once per 1,000, pretty much guaranteed.

Goldin, while doing better, has still done too little too deal with this very real hazard, particularly when it comes to observation and detection efforts.
But I can't really criticize Goldin for his performance here while you are making unfounded and hysterical attacks upon him, and personal attacks at that.

That's about it, Scoop. Oh, wait, no it isn't - You keep telling folks I'm not a real reporter. Plain fact is that some 300 of the worlds top science reporters read my elevator briefings in the Cambridge Conference. And the reason why many of those journalists get the Conference in the first place is because I pointed it out to them.

So that's it. With current events as they are, I dont' really have more time to go into this in more depth, but that's what makes me a veteran space journalist, and you an irate former government employee with an axe to grind and absolutely no sense of perspective, or of reality, for that matter.

In closing, I'd like to thank Administrator Goldin for remaining in public sevice a bit longer. And I'd like to suggest to you that you please grow up, will you?

EP