Do you care about the Space Program?

[TheoFly]

I am sitting here watching NASA TV on the Web as they prepare to launch the Shuttle. I found myself wondering if people really care about this anymore? I have always been a science nut, and I love most any kind of flying machine.

So - what do you think? Is it worth the money and risk to send people into space?

Or - do you even think about it at all?


http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html

[Elrend]

You should stop pumping money into space and instead start focusing on the planet you live on.

[jrthebassguy]

Originally Posted by Elrend

You should stop pumping money into space and instead start focusing on the planet you live on.

Ignorant statement.


Without NASA, a lot of modern things we use would've never been invented, or would've taken much longer to create in a regular civilian environment.


In fact, the very thing you're using right now, your PC, was first created for use for the Apollo program. Before that, nobody ever dreamed of using anything other than mainframe computers with terminals. But the Apollo capsule wasn't exactly big enough for a mainframe, thus speeding the development of the PC.

Other NASA inventions: The kidney dialysis machine, CAT scan, ear thermometers, and a huge list of others you could find with a simple google search.


I used to work as a tour guide for the Johnson Space Center, and I go to college about a mile from it and all of the other space contractors. Boeing's space division HQ is quite literally next to my college.



In a word, yes, I care about the space program.

[Relic]

Absolutely.
My sons and I are sitting down watching the launch tonight.

[MyUsernameHere]

Originally Posted by Elrend

You should stop pumping money into space and instead start focusing on the planet you live on.

I completely agree. We should first use the money we waist on the space program to develop a slew of new super-weapons. Weapons so scary and powerful that our country will be looked upon by the rest of the world like some overgrown James Bond supervillain air dropping sharks with freaking lasers into the Mediterranean to take over shipping lanes.

After that's accomplished, we can extort all the money we need for the space program from other governments.

[12bass]

IMO, we need to consider not only life on Earth, but also the long-term prospect of spreading life beyond Earth. The only way to do that is to invest in active research and development, which requires an active space program. Another way to look at it is that space exploration is a requirement for the future survival of terrestrial life.

[BassActionBtard]

Originally Posted by jrthebassguy

Ignorant statement.


Without NASA, a lot of modern things we use would've never been invented, or would've taken much longer to create in a regular civilian environment.


In fact, the very thing you're using right now, your PC, was first created for use for the Apollo program. Before that, nobody ever dreamed of using anything other than mainframe computers with terminals. But the Apollo capsule wasn't exactly big enough for a mainframe, thus speeding the development of the PC.

Other NASA inventions: The kidney dialysis machine, CAT scan, ear thermometers, and a huge list of others you could find with a simple google search.


I used to work as a tour guide for the Johnson Space Center, and I go to college about a mile from it and all of the other space contractors. Boeing's space division HQ is quite literally next to my college.



In a word, yes, I care about the space program.

Yeah, but what have they done lately other than blow up multi-billion dollar satellites, rovers and a few astronauts? The space program was all and well back in the 60's and 70's but here we are in the 00's (thousands?) and we are still flying the same crap can shuttle from 30 years before.

Dan Brown wrote a book called Deception Point, its slightly off topic plot wise, but it does bring up some hard hitting questions for NASA.

NASA once was the pinnacle of achievement for the US, but now it has devolved into a bloated government agency and its only true hope of regaining its former glory is by falling into the hands of private sector (companies and corporations). Sure when that happens we will all be seeing orbiting billboards but then again we wont have to fork over our paychecks to a bunch of inefficient eggheads.

[Elrend]

Originally Posted by MyUsernameHere

I completely agree. We should first use the money we waist on the space program to develop a slew of new super-weapons. Weapons so scary and powerful that our country will be looked upon by the rest of the world like some overgrown James Bond supervillain air dropping sharks with freaking lasers into the Mediterranean to take over shipping lanes.

After that's accomplished, we can extort all the money we need for the space program from other governments.

I was thinking more like enviromentally friendly energy, wellfare and similar.

But sharks with frickin' lasers work too.

[MJ5150]

Nope, I do not care one iota.

-Mike

[IconBasser]

Originally Posted by Elrend

I was thinking more like enviromentally friendly energy, wellfare and similar.

But sharks with frickin' lasers work too.

welfare? ICK! (pardon my libertarian bias)

[IconBasser]

yes, I absolutely care about the space program! It's friggin' AWESOME!!! space ships, rocket engines, all sortsa cool stuff.

yes, I think that all the great technologies derived from it benefit mankind, blah blah, yadda yadda. But this is secondary to my opinion that it's just really cool, so we should spend money on it.

I realize that this is a very selfish position, and honestly, I don't care. I'm a selfish geek.

[Elrend]

Originally Posted by IconBasser

welfare? ICK! (pardon my libertarian bias)

Bah, why should your bank account decide whether you live or not?

[MyUsernameHere]

Originally Posted by Elrend

Bah, why should your bank account decide whether you live or not?

I think his point is, why should his bank account decide whether you live or not?

Anyway, NASA's budget is too small nowadays to do anything meaningful to promote the socially just utopia you're hoping for.

[DigMe]

Originally Posted by jrthebassguy

Other NASA inventions: The kidney dialysis machine, CAT scan, ear thermometers, and a huge list of others you could find with a simple google search.

Don't forget Tang.

bc

[hbarcat]

Ask yourself, "What is the goal of NASA?"

You can't answer that because NASA doesn't know what their goal is either. They talk about going back to the moon and eventually sending manned missions to Mars but, objectively, this is just a PR gimmick to capitalize on the nostalgia from the JFK inspired goal from the 60's. Doing this is prohibitively expensive and even if successful, once it's achieved, it's a dead end and much of the technology used to get there will have to be mothballed.

If NASA wanted to actually accomplish something useful they would develop a robust and self sustaining infrastructure to build orbiting space stations that had specific commercial uses for high technology of all kinds, governmental as well as commercial, and even tourism.

This means specialized vehicles for different purposes like unmanned barges for lifting heavy payloads into orbit repeatedly and at low cost without risking crew members, and small and reliable shuttles strictly for bringing crew members to and from orbit as safely as possible.

Once some reliability and cost effectiveness is achieved in Earth orbit installations then it's a lot easier to stage manned missions to the rest of the solar system - and to allow the technology for Earth orbit vehicles to spread to the private sector where innovation can really take off.

[12bass]

Just finding it funny how defending the merits of political ideologies has crept into this discussion.....

[hbarcat]

Or attacking - depending on whether you're a glass full or empty type of person.



Yeah, we could do without that.

[Rattman]

Yes.... sure I still care about the U.S. Space Program. however that being said, I'm not emotionally involved with it any longer as I was during the original "space race" circa 1960's. . . but yes, it's still viable.. still important to me. Good inventions are still are being developed via the space program.

[rayzak]

Do you care about the Space Program?

Yup.

[D.Don]

Originally Posted by jrthebassguy

Ignorant statement.


Without NASA, a lot of modern things we use would've never been invented, or would've taken much longer to create in a regular civilian environment.


In fact, the very thing you're using right now, your PC, was first created for use for the Apollo program. Before that, nobody ever dreamed of using anything other than mainframe computers with terminals. But the Apollo capsule wasn't exactly big enough for a mainframe, thus speeding the development of the PC.

Other NASA inventions: The kidney dialysis machine, CAT scan, ear thermometers, and a huge list of others you could find with a simple google search.


I used to work as a tour guide for the Johnson Space Center, and I go to college about a mile from it and all of the other space contractors. Boeing's space division HQ is quite literally next to my college.



In a word, yes, I care about the space program.

The question that comes to my mind here is if the technical evolution is driven by the needs of the human being, ie. does the space program(s) (around the world) _really_ serve as a charity for the good of mankind today...

There's a lot of things needed on earth to make life better for third world countries, and that in fact could be built/produced with existing technology but that never has "hit the market", nor will, as the major motives for industrial capitalists, is to make money... lots of it ...

I wont even start talking about alternative energy..


D.Don