STATE-OF-THE-ART March 14th 2011

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Let's suppose NASA scientists succeed in solving the mystery of interstellar space flights in a far future... I am talking about a mystery because interstellar space flights are impossible theoretically but many people dream of them after all - trains, automobiles or airplanes must have been science-fiction as well before they were invented... Maybe you need only a small modification of actual physical theories to reach a completely different view of the creation and to see opportunities instead of borders...

And then NASA would share its knowledge with other space agencies, of course... So that the European Space Agency and its allied partners could build huge and cubic tourist spacecraft (for approx. 2000 or 3000 passengers) and NASA could build smaller and larger scientific research spacecraft (larger research spacecraft: approx. 1000 passengers, flying saucer unit of a diameter of 240 x 160 meters)...

The big question is how can you attract more scientists to the US-built research spacecraft and to scientific work than the cubic tourist spacecraft can attract holiday or business travelers? Because it would be obviously of advantage for the USA to sell and to operate, respectively many of its research spaceships economically and it would be obviously of advantage for the entire mankind to have more scientists in outer space than tourists as science should be the leading power of humans after all...

If you can build secure and reliable spacecraft then they won't be the source for adventures and you can also imagine that there are more intellectual adventures on inhabited or uninhabited planets than in the outer space because of the society of other intelligent species or just life in general... So what else can you use space for than simple journeys among planets and what is the point in space research at all? O.k., there is much starlight in outer space and you can study and interprete constellations as well - but I am afraid that so much intellectual guidance is really not enough to make space research the leading power of mankind...

I think it is high time for a brain-storming about the meaning of interstellar space research with an emphasis on mere space... What might be possibly interesting in living and working in outer space? (A little help: I also think that you can find out the meaning of space research already in the orbit of Earth - so on the International Space Station and on Space Shuttle flights - and you can also practice basic skills in the orbit of Earth that could be useful and necessary for space research everywhere in the universe...)

Best wishes, Joseph de la Mikula and Team