One of the reasons movies like Independence Day don't make factual sense, no matter how much fun they are, is that there's no reason for any group of sentient beings to go anywhere to get raw resources. Every solar system is already full of them. The same holds true here. In fact there's so much stuff floating around that we could all be kazillionaires if, and this is the catch, we could just get into space and mine the asteroids. Governments can't afford that kind of research, no matter the possible reward, you can't afford it and, God knows, my bank isn't about to toss me a line of credit so that I can go hopping into the wild blue yonder. … [Read more...]