Editor's Note:

I am reposting this OpEd that Dr. Michael Martin-Smith from the United Kindom submitted to 100 newspapers worldwide recently. Though it is regarding a movie that I don't personally consider a positive influence for space develoment.

Dear Editor,

Mr Spielberg's film, "Deep Impact", shows the disastrous: potential of an impact on Earth by a comet or asteroid--indeed, it is most likely an understatement. The end of civilization, perhaps Humanity, would most likely result. Events like "Deep Impact", or greater, have occurred often in Earth's history, and will happen again.

Detection by dedicated telescopes and compositional study by space probes is essential reconnaissance and should be established without delay. Despite this, some will give us months' warning at best, and so are not amenable to Earth based nuclear strikes. Lunar based lasers could react more rapidly , but the only true insurance for Humanity is the timely development and settlement of Space by self sustainable populations, supported from these same threatening asteroids and comets. It is wiser to consume an enemy for profit than to destroy him. Impact is the only disaster threat offering such a huge potential pay-off!

We can and should move out into the new ecological niche before us. Those who question the value of Human Intelligence and science now have a clear answer; we exist to take Life and Mind out into Space, as surely as lions exist to eat wildebeestes - or face deserved extinction!

Yours sincerely,

Dr Michael Martin-Smith,BSc,MRCGP,FBIS President ,
Space Age Associates,
[http://www.astronist.demon.co.uk/index.html]
Spaceguard-UK
[http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/terrace/fr77/]

After being posting the above commentary to the Houston Chronicle Space Forum web forum [http://www.chron.com/content/interactive/space/forum/], it received a few responses, including one from Keith Cowing of NASA Watch [http://www.reston.com/NASA/watch.html]. (visit HCI Space Forum for
that response.)

My response: Because all of the warm fuzzies of spirit of adventure and the intellectual quest to understand the cosmos, won't get humanity off of this rock in any sufficient numbers. Like it or not somebody has to make a profit in order for our dreams of space settlement and space resource utilization to happen.

The obvious economic lesson asside, would you entrust your or humanity's fate and future to a government agency or it's henchment contractors (who abuse the first ammendment rights of their employees like Tom "Bitflip" Hancock)? They can't even manage to build a space station or return to the surface of the Moon.

Now it is fine for you to enjoy a movie like "Deep Impact" for it's artistic, cultural and/or scientific value, but don't confuse fandom with building a future in space. The values coveyed in this film are that of a passive noble defeat - of accepting the inevidible. Well, mankind has not risen to the top of the foodchain by being passive in the face of adversity. It may not play well at the box office, but it is the faceless masses scrambling to get ahead (and eventually off this planet) that make mankind resislient to catastrophe. Life will find a way, not because it is inevidedable, rather because it is too damn stubborn to give up.

While you condemn capitalism, remember that Speilberg and his other investors didn't make this movie for art's sake, the betterment of mankind or to give everyone a lesson in cometology, rather for the $6.50+ that you paid to see it.

As an addendum, I came up with the following after actually seeing the film this evening:

BTW, I just saw "Deep Impact" and it wasn't as awful as I though it would be (not that it didn't have it's flaws. ;)

This movie, the NSS promotion, submitting your name to be placed in a comet, or even NASA's mission to the comet won't do a darn thing to bring any of us closer to actually going into space ourselves. It is just entertainment folks. Not that there is anything wrong with entertainment, but we shouldn't confuse our enthusiasm for all things space, with actually participating in mankinds evolution to a spacefaring species.

So sit back and enjoy the show, put a message in JPL's cosmic bottle,join a space fan club, but don't dillute yourselves that you are more than a passive extra in the crowd scene called Earth. For as we all know stars belong in space.