Posted 10:12 PM by Floyd

I saw a Usenet post by Doug Haxton in sci.space.policy that made my eyebrows go up. Some charming folks at democrats.com object to private development of the moon -- and their reasons, are, well, very special:

While Nation Looks the Other Way on 9/11 Anniversary, Bush Gives Moon to Private Corporation for 'Industrial Development'

Like all the other international laws, Bush is now ignoring those pertaining to space. As America is distracted by 9/11 remembrances and warnings of new threats, His Heinous has turned the moon over to a private, for-profit corporation called TransOrbital that has a far-reaching, frigthening agenda for the corporate domination of space. All TransOrbital had to do was promise not to contaminate and pollute the moon - yeah, right. That's what the oil companies say about ANWR. There was no Congressional vote - not even any consultation. Bush simply acted as if the moon were his to give away. The TransOrbital venture could be disastrous for the globe - no scientist today could predict yet how adding mass to the moon via human infrastructure or removing mass, via mining, will impact the delicate gravitational interplay between Earth and its only satellite. The moon belongs to all the people of the Earth - not to George. W. Bush or his friends at TransOrbital.

Worrying about the pollution or contamination of a lifeless vaccuum is weird enough -- a classic case of environmentalism as religion. But what about this "adding mass/removing mass" nonsense? Does democrats.com have any idea how much mass can be launched into space by a rocket, and how small that amount is compared to planetary mass?

"A liberal is someone who is mathematically illiterate, and proud of it." -- Robert Heinlein.