XPost: sci.space.policy, sci.physics   
   From: alain245@videotron.ca   
      
   Le Oct/11/2016 à 5:46 PM, jimp@specsol.spam.sux.com a écrit :   
   > In sci.physics Fred J. McCall  wrote:   
   >> jimp@specsol.spam.sux.com wrote:   
   >>   
   >>> In sci.physics Fred J. McCall  wrote:   
   >>>> Serigo  wrote:   
   >>>>   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>> there is no reason for man to go to Mars.  It is rocks and sand in a   
   >>>>> vaccum. no food, no water, no air.   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>   
   >>>> Absolutely ignorant.   
   >>>>   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>> send a robot.   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>   
   >>>> If people aren't going there's no reason to send a robot.   
   >>>>   
   >>>   
   >>> It is called research.   
   >>>   
   >>   
   >> Real research has some goal.  Why research something you're never   
   >> going to get near or use for anything?   
   >   
   > Does the term "pure research" mean anything to you?   
   >   
   >>> Absent Star Trek technology, no human is going to go to most of the   
   >>> places we send research robots.   
   >>>   
   >>   
   >> So why are we sending them?   
   >   
   > Pure research obviously.   
   >   
   > Why did people build telescopes and look at the sky in the 18th Century?   
      
   Indeed. And it is quite often surprising how fast some "pure research"   
   can become practical. The man who would later be the professor   
   supervising me for my Ph.D. in computer fluid dynamics, did his own   
   Ph.D. thesis in numerical fluid dynamics in the early 60s. At a time   
   when the most powerful computer on Earth was about 3 order of magnitudes   
   short of memory and of speed to be able to solve real computer fluid   
   dynamics problem. At the time no one knew that computers would some   
   day be able to solve those problems. So he was studying how some   
   problems could be solved if you had a machine that was maybe impossible,   
   totally theoretical.   
      
      
   Alain Fournier   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
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