To the editor: It’s mind-boggling to me that with all of the local weather change issues this world is dealing with for the foreseeable future, nations resembling the USA, China, Russia, India and others are losing time, brainpower and cash on missions to the moon and Mars. (“‘India is now on the moon’: A shoestring price range and can-do angle equaled a cosmic success,” editorial, Aug. 24)
For what? In order that we will ship a couple of astronauts to stroll round and kick up mud? And by the way in which, additional pollute our environment from the exhaust of all these rockets?
There are additionally personal firms spending huge sums and polluting the environment in order that a couple of rich folks can expertise a couple of minutes and even much less of weightlessness, whereas tons of of 1000’s of People are homeless.
All these billions of {dollars} and nice brainpower ought to be solely centered on applied sciences that present non-polluting jet planes, delivery vessels, vehicles, vans and trains. And we ought to be specializing in applied sciences that may truly clear our polluted air.
Herb Adelman, Del Mar
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To the editor: It’s great that India’s Chandrayaan-3 undertaking was in a position to efficiently land on the moon given a comparatively paltry $74-million price range. The keys to India’s success ought to be studied by engineering and house exploration applications worldwide.
However I feel it’s disingenuous to easily state how these scientists and engineers are in a position to do extra with far lower than their U.S. counterparts with out questioning the sum of money that the people concerned make.
For instance, what’s the revenue differential between a NASA engineer’s wage versus that of the CEOs who provide the elements for NASA spacecraft?
Whereas the U.S. house exploration price range could also be bloated in comparison with that in India, we ought to be asking during which path that bloat happens. Frugality is just “clever” when the surplus isn’t simply going to a handful of overseers on the high.
Matthew Neel, Sherman Oaks
