[speaker001:] okay go ahead
[speaker002:] well uh a friend of mine actually works for McDonald Douglas in the uh in the space station program so I get to find out a lot of information about what's going on there and it sure sounds like
[speaker001:] oh sure
[speaker002:] that's going to be a really viable program if it continues to be funded at current levels
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] um they're they're going to be doing a lot of interesting things um I think one of the the big things that he's involved with is the micro gravity payloads and that has a direct impact on a lot of things that we really can't do down here on earth including um some new pharmaceutical techniques
[speaker001:] oh you're kidding yeah
[speaker002:] so you know there's there's a a big opportunity for us to explore uh what sorts of things you can do in a zero gravity environment
[speaker001:] hm um-hum sure
[speaker002:] so I suspect that we'll see a lot of gains from that
[speaker001:] well that's good because sometimes I wonder you know being a uh lay person out there of not uh knowing exactly exactly what's going on in space whether you know they're going ahead and doing things and whether or not we're spending too much money on the programs and not spending enough money on the earth that we have here being you know to me the all this uh space exploration that we've done thus far has told us that there's no other place like earth that uh we can't live on Mars we can't live here we can't live there I mean this is the the place that we have to live I mean there's uh no other resource for us to to look at other than here so it's kind of like to me I would like to see a lot more money being put toward taking care of the environment that we have here and not so much emphasis put on what's going out in space and what it you know not that I want everything to halt and let's forget about the space program or whatever because we're always curious and we always need to know more things but um it to me it's kind of like let's try and clean up the air that we have here let's try to take care of the lakes that are getting polluted and the other things that are going on here mainly because uh the space program has taught us that there is no other place for us I mean this is it I mean if we would've uh if we would have went into space and found Mars a livable planet uh planet we probably would have inhabited it and uh you know who would have cared about earth it would have been another planet to kind of take over and uh continue on so you know and that when I look at the space program itself I think of it you know as being in terms of it's it's interesting to learn but it's also it's it brings down the fact that this earth is it it's it for us you know what I mean
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] um unless technology makes the decision that we all are going to live in space or whatever but I would love to um go into the space shuttle some day and uh just see um you know the earth and the different planets and things like that I I think it would be very interesting to do but whether it'd be feasible to do I don't know
[speaker002:] well um and as far as the practical aspects go I suspect that the space station may actually be a good compromise between you know deep splace I'm sorry deep space exploration and uh and not doing anything because
[speaker001:] um-hum um-hum sure
[speaker002:] we have the opportunity to off load some things to the space station
[speaker001:] exactly um-hum
[speaker002:] and uh you know perhaps we can find better techniques for doing things that uh we'd normally do down here that are damaging to the environment
[speaker001:] um-hum exactly yeah that's true you know and uh I think of uh I I'm sure you probably have heard of the Genesis program that's going on currently out in the Arizona desert uh
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] there's uh you know they're trying to look at how things effect everything in trying to create you know an environment where they have an ocean and they have the lakes and then they have the desert part of it and then they have an area that's more um you know full of uh vegetation tropicals that kind of thing to kind of uh look at things and say you know the environment wise this is where we're living but what what effects it and how can we improve it and things like that and I I think in space um I don't know how many people could live up in space uh for any length of time I mean I just the way that we're affected by when it's cloudy out and it's cloudy for days and we don't see the sun and the people their moods are extreme you know it's like God if I don't get to see the sun I'm gonna be in this bad mood all this entire time I mean this is how I see people reacting you know when is the sun gonna come out
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] so I wonder how you know somebody living up in space is going to be able to tolerate never seeing the sun you know in the aspect that we see it uh and never seeing uh you know light bright days you know and uh breathing
[speaker002:] right