True but if sending people to the Moon is the goal, then funding and work on things like a earth departure stage, lunar lander, and God knows what else will have to be done. NASA is not doing it because they don't have fundng for these items. Musk doesn't talk about it because he will have to allocate money and engineers to work on this stuff (right now their busy with developing a reusable rocket).

Mars as a goal cannot be readily challenged because it is so far into the future. There is no land rush to the Gobi desert because it is plonkingly obvious it is inhospitable to live. And it's thousand times easier to settle than on Mars. We romantize of colonies on Mars because it is so far out of touch.

I wonder if they seek advice from other countries besides US. I'm thinking of places like Bulgaria have faster internet service than most of US. Then there is the higher ups in Cuba, are they willing to delegate authority? Only big transition is from Fidel to his brother Raul. Cuba could easily do business with other countries in spite of US embargo, I heard Cuban govt is terrible at doing business with other countries.

However, it will be interesting to see some Cubans wire up their 57 Chevy with internet access as JoeyRox suggested with various homebrew gadgets. At least many are mechanically creative like fabricating parts for these old cars.

Good point made. I'm saving this for other forums.

"Core mission" is probably a poor choice of words, I don't have a MBA to properly use management terms. What I was implying is Radio Shack is a store that sells radios, stereos, TV sets, walkie-talkies, microphones, headsets, various electronic parts, power supplies, etc. though not specializing in one thing. When personal computers became the rage, RS featured the Tandy computer but it never became the central item. Tandy Radio Shack thought of selling tens of thousands, Steve Jobs and also IBM and clone makers thought of selling millions (probably a good thing RS didn't try to compete with the PC market). It seems RS focused on the cellphone rage at expense of what they were originally known for so non-cellphone items took a backseat. Tough to compete selling phones.

I don't think I recall RS being a great store, many times it seemed mediocre. But now with its demise, this will be a huge loss for the tinkerers. I occasionally go to RS to get parts for some of my homebrew projects. Though there is Frys and HSC (in Sunnyvale), RS was also convenient. You don't know what you got until you lost it. It seems root of RS downfall is them chasing the cellphone market instead of staying with their core mission.

Decline and fall of the United States will be from causes within.

Because everybody knows what a black box does even those that don't. With newer cars outfitted with recorder boxes, they call them black boxes so people know it's this thing that stores data for experts to examine later when "something" happens.

Saturn rocket was way too expensive to be sustainable, NERVA was cancelled because only need for it is to go to Mars (and no money for that so need for such a rocket).

problem with space tug is amount of energy to change orbits is more than sending a spacecraft to the moon. Gemini, Apollo, Shuttle can change orbit inclinations but these were very small.

Most certain intent was to "scuttle the fleet" to motivate a development of a new vehicle much like Cortez scuttling his fleet to motivate his troops to take down the Aztec Empire. Silly analogy but according to Paul Spudis there was this kind of thinking.

as this also ties in with old TV sets, any old timers here remember when staying up late watching OTA TV, falling asleep and to wake up later (about 3 am) to the sound of 'shsshshshshshsh' and nothing but static because station went off air at 1 am (will not get back on till 6)?

or a car backfiring, it seems very rare these days. I had a 1970 plymouth, in early 80s the points/rotator was getting out of sync which caused engine to backfire occasionally. When going up a incline it backfired more, and then one of these backfires blew the muffler off and then the vehicle was really loud.

no money for a lander. That's why Moon is off limits (human landings that is). Until NASA is given money for a lander, the moon is simply not discussed. Mars is discussed even though no money for lander or habitat module while getting there, but that's far off into the future (much like fusion power plants, flying cars, etc.).

All these gadgets are nice but many (i.e. high tech light switches) cause lot of RFI on my VHF and UHF radios. I cannot imagine what HF must endure, I don't have such at my place but I've heard a lot of gripes for HF users.

but sure has a lot of time to write this article.

I recall one of those 1950s sci-fi comics of a manned Mars mission exploring surface, come across some ruins (there really was a cilivization here millions of years ago). They find this one place of various apparatus and documents (maybe it's advanced mathematical studies and high technology). After spending some time analyzing the numbers, one concludes it doesn't seem much more than just a balance sheet for a business. Another finds the equipment some kind of holographic projector and manages to get it operating. It shows a person under attack by a tenacle monster. Among other evidence they realize Martians were very humanoid and what they stumbled on was a movie theatre with feature film, "Invasion From The Third Planet."