Certainly, when we do live
on the moon we will have to clean up after ourselves to a much greater
extent than we do here on Earth. The demanding requirements of space and
the tiny ecosystems, which we will need there, leave no allowance for pollution
or waste. In fact, I will promise that, given the opportunity, I or another
TransOrbital representative will personally clean up our mess. But to expect
the moon to remain a pristine location forever is to doom humanity to live
in the cradle of Earth forever, and this is not acceptable.
If I may, I would also like
to respond to the Navajo statement that the moon is one of their sacred
objects and should not be defiled. The moon is sacred to many peoples,
including my own. However, being of European heritage, our customs differ
from theirs. The Navajo honor their sacred sites by isolating them, we
honor ours by visiting them and meditating at them. I hardly think that
the Navajo nation can legitimately claim the entire moon; I recommend that
they visit, as soon as possible, and rope off a section, which they can
claim as theirs, to remain inviolate for eternity.
Paul Blase
President
TransOrbital, Inc.
A reader in Nepal responds
to Greg Clark's article
"Will Nuclear Power Put Humans On Mars?"
To the Editor:
It all sounds so nice. But
what about the Earth and its inhabitants? What about the fact that despite
all this great technology and plans to advance it, human beings are still
suffering from the worst kinds of diseases, poverty and ignorance that
are inexcusable, irrational and entirely preventable?
A small fraction of the money
spent on these technological endeavors and pursuits could rid the planet
of the four major diseases that ravage it.
There is nothing new under
the sun.
I am not at all impressed.
Dhammapiyo Bhikkyu
Nepal
James P. Pinkerton's opinion
piece "What Battlefield Earth Did Right" argued that the much-criticized
film deserves credit for offering a basic optimism about reason and progress.
A reader is unconvinced.
To the Editor:
In Pinkerton's article about
the Battlefield Earth movie, he admits the truth and then attempts
to make up for it by talking about the hope factor in the movie; the truth
being that the movie was just outright awful. Any movie can cloak its ending
in one of hope, but if the message to it is wrought in something that makes
the viewer squirm over the seven bucks they shelled out; it doesn't make
a difference.
Hope isn't something that
can be plugged in at the end or lazily attempted at like darts missing
the bulls eye. It takes a good message or medium to carry the viewer to
experience the hope and have faith in it. Battlefield Earth, the
movie, left me with less hope, as it is. Being a science-fiction fan, will
this slapdash attempt and failure discourage the productions of other projects?
Ross Brown
And finally, for now,
a reader comments on the subject of Robert Roy Britt's article
"Source of Earth's Hum Revealed, Space Symphony Possible."
To the Editor:
Once again, it's interesting
to see the link between Earth's many religions and science. The mysterious
hum which Earth, Venus and Mars share was referred to in early Islamic
writings as "Hu, ...a cosmic noise which the planets sing as they rotate
on their axis." In Hindu texts, this cosmic sound is said to be Om, a subsonic
sound, which is the fingerprint and voice of creation. And of course in
the King James edition of the Christian Bible, "...in the beginning there
was the word.…" All of these writings predate modern astronomical discoveries
in our incredible cosmos.
How silly to think that "religion"
and "science" aren't one and don't create and sustain each other's beliefs
and revelations!
Michael Kucsmas
Longmont, Colorado
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