Perhaps they (the Russians and the U.S.) should concentrate their efforts in cleaning up the objects currently in low earth orbit. It wouldn't make much sense to assemble a brand new space station and then have it ripped to shreds by all of the junk they put up there. The current space station makes numerous orbital maneuvers every year to avoid potential impacts.

ARM has nothing to do with going to Mars other than as an excuse to build a really big rocket. Elon Musk is planning to go to Mars and I bet he will do it cheaper and more safely than NASA. Asteroid redirect is nothing more than a very expensive stunt.

It's a tossup, but I would really like to spend a couple of weeks exploring the area in and around Meteor Crater. After all, it's the "poster child" for, "It Can't Happen Here." Next would be the Grand Canyon and I'd like a couple of years to sort that out. At least a couple of rim to rim hikes and it would be cool to retrace the steps of Colin Fletcher and the less treacherous Butchart routes. And in both locations I would like to have a 40 cm Newtonian along to see what's "out there" at night.

Inernal combustion vs. electric motor. The electric motor just runs. Internal combustion engines need maintenance. That is why the dealership exists. Remember those ink-jet printers you could buy for a hundred bucks and then pay close to that for a thimble-full of ink? Internal combustion vehicles have become more dependable over the years, but they will never beat the electric motor for reliability. Which car manufacturer was featured in a movie about killing something years ago? It name has two letters and it is involved in an extended recall mess...

There is a disconnect - there is an incredible amount of nuclear waste from our power generation plants and from weapon production. That waste needs to be safely stored for thousands of years. Somehow steel storage tanks don't address the reality of the situation.

He is a former lobbyist - M-O-N-E-Y

If they're supporting nuclear then they aren't environmentalists. Yes, the plants have a different design and they don't have the same level of risk. But they still have a certain lifetime and then you don't know what the fuck to do with the tons of contaminated metal and concrete. The real elephant in the room is conservation, but addicts don't want to give up their fix.

What's really cool is that we're consuming all of the carbon assets, armed ourselves to the teeth with conventional and nuclear weapons and we've progressed to point where we settle our differences by throwing rocks at one another. I hope our alien overlords take pity on us and snuff us in a quick and painless manner. But they'll probably want to make an example of us - ruin your home planet at your peril.

Controlled airspace is just that - by definition you must obtain permission before entering. I remember more than a few years ago hearing the unmistakable sound of a sonic boom. When I called the local airport they new exactly what the aircraft was - an SR-71 on a speed run from LA to Washington D.C. Sure the computer, being just an assemblage of silicon chips, didn't recognize that the U2 was harmless at 60,000 feet (whatever a foot is, you customary unit morons). And oh yeah, bring on the UAVs - what could possibly go wrong?

What could possibly go wrong? They'll "prove" that fracking doesn't pollute groundwater, nuclear plants and their waste products are safe and global warming is a myth. Oh yeah, the Earth is 6,000 years old and Intelligent Design is science. We, our children and our grandchildren will all profit from this!

This country pisses away billions of dollars a year funding its war machine and can't fund planetary science which serves as a legacy to be passed down to future generations. It will be very clear in the years ahead where our priorities were.

I haven't heard of any threats of Whole Foods attempting to demand any changes to textbooks while the creationists are attempting to cram their religious doctrine down our children's throats. If you don't agree with what Whole Foods is selling, don't go to Whole Foods. I'm more frightened of the growing monopolies within the food industry, a la Monsanto, Tyson and ConAgra. If you want to compare those folks and the creationists then I think you're onto something. Personally, I enjoy Science and choosing to eat healthy food.

Yes, a planetarium is a nice way to portray what goes on in the sky, but I prefer an observatory where you can look at the real thing. And yes, I am on the staff of two observatories where my greatest pleasure is turning people on to the universe.

The utility should pay a fee for being able to have power generated by their customers. After all, the customer is footing the expense of installing the solar panels. What would be really interesting is if there were some competition (gasp!) and the consumer would be able to provide power for the utility that offered the best price for their product.

The NSA is operating outside of its charter and heads need to roll. What's is really embarrasing about this mess is that other countries are (properly) telling the U.S. to knock it the fuck off. We need to go back to 9/12/2001 and restore the privacy and freedom portions of The Constitution before this country evolves into the most dangerous police state ever.