Posted: 11/6/2007 6:12:46 PM EDT
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Benificial for humanities urge to explore, or a waste of tax payers money? I am watching Mars Rising in the HD Science channel  , and it got me thinking.My opinion is the human race has a natural drive to explore and if we have the technology, les go to mars!!  channel 284 for all you directv slaves. |
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NASA needs to die and replaced as an organization with something that will actually go and explore space with manned missions. NASA was a sight to be hold in its glory days, now it is a giant beaurocracy that is to chickenshit to do anything and wants every piece of gear gold plated to death. |
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NASA's ideas are cool, but lately how they do things has irritated me. I mean safe is safe, but what the hell? Let's get some damn birds in the air. Quit grounding the fleet everytime something happens. Beware of Foam! Space travel is dangerous, everyone knows that. And speaking of the fleet, it's time to replace those antique hunks of metal we have left known as Space Shuttles. They're thirty years old. Most people don't even keep cars for more than five years, or computers for that matter. How old are the computers on the Shuttles? Fucking old I bet. Fucking NASA couldn't develop something better, cheaper, and faster in that time? Not to mention its called a shuttle. Lets start to shuttle things. Like civilians. I want space flights every two weeks, minimum. I want people on mars. I want a real space station, not that international hunk of crap we have now. A base on the moon would be cool, too. Even better would be a fucking resort there. I'd gladly pay a lot of money to spend a week on the moon and I bet lots of other people would too. If that's asking too much, how about a quick orbit or thirty? What would that cost me? And I'm not going with the russians. If I go to space its on an american ship. |
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500 years from now the only thing history will remember about this era is that this is when mankind first took its steps out of the cradle. On a less heady note, the economic benefits from the technology developed from the space program and the engineering and science talent developed thourgh it have been huge. (The same can be said for that national lab system) |
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I think this whole post was made so that you could name drop the fact you have an HD tv. Anyway - I like NASA. Its not perfect, but the advanced technology they create or indirectly create/fuel trickles down to us. Some of it is important as WD-40. People that bitch about the tax payer cost can suck my dick. I will agree to AX their budget as soon as you kill off every other social program, get rid of income tax, and cut the DoD budget by at least half. Their budget is less than the DoDs budget for OFFICE SUPPLIES. The two things that are remembered of past civilizations are: Their Art Their Scientific advances So those are two things I do not mind us funding and advancing. |
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Private industry could produce better results. We should be efforting in this order of importance.............................. 1. Cheap reliable launches into orbit 2. Faster in space propulsion 3. More rapid earth travel via going into orbit. 4. Research of our galaxy Jettison dumb shit like earth orbiting space stations. |
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For those of you who are complaining about the cost of the space program consider this. If the federal budget was a dollar, NASAs current budget would be 2/3rds of a cent. Medicare lost more money in fraud in 2006 then NASAs entire budget. Unlike medicare fraud loss every dollar invested in NASA comes back to the economy in a big way. |
+1 |
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I agree. The goals are noble, the implementation is pathetic. They are, of course, chronically short of funding too. |
I think the key to reinventing NASA is that they have to transition from being a producer of science and engineering to a consumer. Instead of developing rockets and handing out spec sheets to contractors, they need to start purchasing launch services and payloads on a true commercial basis. (as opposed to cost-plus). The perfect example of this is the commercial orbital transportation services (COTS) program. This is the way forward. |
They DO. NASA didnt the Lunar Module, Grumman did. NASA didnt build the space shuttle, Rockwell did. Various of smaller companies make parts for the large ones. The smaller projects have even more varied companies doing work. How does this help you and I? Technology that these companies devlope for the bleeding edge of exploration will eventually trickle down to us. This is the same with technology for the Military. Obviously since the military is 100x bigger they affect us more. But the Space Program is fantastic. It is also a big reason why our ICBMs can hit any target in the world, while places in NK can't. China is spreading their wings now. Lets not cut ours off. |
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Space exploration is necessary. We need to be finding somewhere to live when we trash this planet up too much or overpopulate it. THink of space as the new world. Too many people with different ideas, not enough riches or natural resources... space is the answer. The poll answer for me though was space pie, of course. |
You're the kind of guy who eats each item on his plate one at a time. First the peas, then the potatoes, finally the meat loaf. |
Spaceship one was an absolute joke. It had maybe 1/100th of the energy needed to achieve orbit. In fact, it was almost as sophisticated as the ME-163 which flew in 1941. When a private company gets a payload into space with a rocket of their own design (not a converted ICBM) I'll be impressed. It hasn't happened yet. 
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| NASA is not only good to have, but is FUCKING AWESOME to have. However, NASA needs to quit with the teachers in space and other crap and get on with advancing technology that could make a real difference. Build a habitat on the moon for cryin' out loud! Go to Mars! Put a self sustaining colony somewhere! Take all the precautions necessary to make it a professional effort with calculated risks, but do not risk manage yourself into beaureaucratic oblivion in the process. |
+1 |