The Space Program In The Eva-Verse

[Ray]

Hello, my name is Ray. Been an Eva fan for a long time but only joined the site recently. Sup?

Anyway, there is one flaw in the entire plot of Evangelion that I have a hard time thinking up a solution to. The issue is, if Aliens really were invading, like the Angels in the series were with intent on merging all souls on planet earth into one. Why was no effort put into creating a means to ensure mankind's survival in the event the Angels won? Why was no effort put into establishing a viable space program?

True there were armed satellites, and even a fully functioning moonbase in the Rebuilds. But never anything beyond that. Why? Was post 2nd Impact Earth that tapped for resources?

If the Angels were only attacking earth and only wanting to destroy earth, then why was no effort put into making sure not every human was on earth? A colony on Mars, or a satellite orbiting beyond the angels reach should have been sufficient to ensure mankind's survival in the event instrumentality happened. You'd think ensuring the survival of the species would have been a priority!

Give your reasons for this conundrum below.

[TMBounty_Hunter]

Because it's a story about characters dealing with world-ending/world-saving shenanigans.

It's not actually about saving the world.

I've long wanted Eva to progress into a full-blown space opera (and Q adds delicious potential) but that'll probably never be the focus of the main work.

[ElMariachi]

True there were armed satellites, and even a fully functioning moonbase in the Rebuilds. But never anything beyond that. Why? Was post 2nd Impact Earth that tapped for resources?

Yes : half the world population is dead, they barely got out of recurrent nuclear wars, the USA are in a very deep economical crisis(see Gendo's conversation with an henchman in episode 7), they have to use military hardware from all around the world and periods to form an halfway decent military force for the UN(some of the battleships in EVA-02's escort fleet in episode 8 are from the WWII era!) and everyone is always complaining that project E is gulping a monstrous amount of resources and that the rest of the world has to tighten the belt for that.

Mankind is throwing absolutely everything it had into that war against the Angels. There aren't any funds left for any other kind of projects.

Besides even with the technology leap thanks to the Evas, mankind still isn't advanced enough to build a viable space station of Martian colony yet.

[Mr. Tines]

The only bit of interesting new aerospace kit we see is the spaceplane Gendo uses in one of his bits of off-site conspiracy. There is that convenient single unit shuttle belly that gets pressed into ad hoc service in Operation Yashima, but no sign of the rest of it.

So it's probably safe to assume an optimistic twenty year projection for aerospace, but the new Manhattan Project is Project E.

The Space 1999 bits of Ha were one of the WTFs for me when the trailers came out -- a miracle too far.

[ElMariachi]

The Space 1999 bits of Ha were one of the WTFs for me when the trailers came out -- a miracle too far.

Actually that could be interpreted as a subtle foreshadowing about SEELE's nature : their NGE counterpart were still human and didn't stop whining about how much Gendo is using their precious funds, even thought they were all working toward an impending Singularity that would render money moot, they were still humans restrained by their materialistic concerns, but in Rebuild they are immortal monoliths who lost long ago such materialistic needs, and it show in their willingness to stop at no expense to accomplish their plans, even if it means created a base with giant Angel-Sealing Pillars to imprison and study one Angel, or installing a base on the motherfucking MOON!

And when you look at that, except the Mark.06's armor everything is fairly mundane : Taghba base is just a glorified bunch of space shuttles and prefabs to dig out a giant and put an armor on it, above which they put a shield panel to protect the place from asteroids and any eventual spy-satellite. There is no elaborate space base or other James Bond worthy stuff.

[AuraTwilight]

On top of what everyone else said, the people who were basically in control of mankind's future had no interest in preserving the human species. It was SEELE that wanted to fuse all human souls into one, not the Angels.

The Angels just wanted their mom back, and were more-or-less slaughtered innocents for SEELE's religious symbolism high.