ken@birtch.UUCP (Ken B) (03/03/86)
Well, I had 16 responses to the poll about buying lottery tickets
for a ride on the shuttle (or other space vehicle).
14 Yes votes.
1 No vote.
1 Probably.
I was actually amazed at the lack of responses I received. I know it
made it from the West Coast to the East Coast (by the signature lines).
I did receive a letter from someone at NASA, saying that they (NASA)
couldn't do anything, because of the term 'lottery'.
"The only problem real problem with what you propose is that one word:
lottery. The US Government is not in an official position to do
something like that. The requirements are still somewhat stringent
(despise what you may have heard). You might just as well apply
to the astronaut corp. Seriously. I did post one call for astronaut
candidates a year ago."
I thank him for his letter, but, I disagree with what he says. If the
government wants to do something, it can and will. I don't see how
a lottery for going on the shuttle is any different from a lottery for
going to war (conscription, I.E. "the draft") But, that may not be
comparing apples to apples.
To all of you who replied, thank you.
Ken Brown
--
uucp: ...{!glacier!oliveb,!ihnp4!trwrb} !felix!birtch!ken
These ramblings are my own, and are surely not those of my employer.mojo@kepler.UUCP (Morris Jones) (03/07/86)
In article <268@birtch.UUCP> ken@birtch.UUCP (Ken B) writes: >"The only problem real problem with what you propose is that one word: >lottery. The US Government is not in an official position to do >something like that. The government had no qualms with having a lottery to choose draft priorities by birthdate. -- Mojo ... Morris Jones, MicroPro Product Development {lll-crg,ptsfa,dual,well,pyramid}!micropro!kepler!mojo
jlg@lanl.ARPA (Jim Giles) (03/08/86)
In article <526@kepler.UUCP> mojo@kepler.UUCP (Morris Jones) writes: >In article <268@birtch.UUCP> ken@birtch.UUCP (Ken B) writes: >>"The only problem real problem with what you propose is that one word: >>lottery. The US Government is not in an official position to do >>something like that. > >The government had no qualms with having a lottery to choose draft >priorities by birthdate. The difference is that there are very few available positions as astronauts and people really want to go into space. The draft lottery was employed to eliminate charges of bias in the selection process. J. Giles Los Alamos