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Space Station cutbacks

Steeplerot

Steeplerot

Lifer
Reuters
I was very hopeful hearing Bush speak of Mars missions.
Doesen't look that way now though.
Why must we have these endless wars?
10's of thousands of ICBMs that could have been space modules. (Resourse-wise)
Our flagship Space Shuttles are about as old as the typical car in the trailer park on blocks.
We had such a bright future with our Know-How. But all it seems we know how to do is kill one another.
Where is our Space Elevator?
We haven't even tried to get to Mars yet?
I would love to see a "Space President" leading America and the world into the future.
When you were younger did you think we would be on Mars yet?
Did you ever want to be an astronaut and changed your mind becasue of how slow our space program has been while you were growing up?
Do you younger guys (And girls if there are any here) think space is important?
Just looking for your opinions of our space program since it is as far as I am concerned one of our most important missions to lead the world with.
 
I find space exploration interesting (or because I am playing EVE Online). We have to look at the facts, what do we get out of going into space?
 
I would love to see a "Space President" leading America and the world into the future.
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I think Jerry Brown would have made a good "space" President. Oh wait, that was the other meaning of space. 😀
 
Mining the asteroid belts just waiting for us outside of mars woudld be VERY profitable with the right technology. (A whole planets worth of ore waiting for us)
But then you really need to get out there and TRY to figure out how. -Technology breeds technology.)
I do think it would be worthwhile (And mining a barren 'roid sound a lot more appealing then scooping out mountains here on earth that we have to live on for the moment.)
I think their is a lot to be gained. It's just a big job and I think we get sidetracked by problems here.
Thoughts?
(Just trying to back off from the politics for a bit to look at the big picture.)
 
I have to agree..........................space exploration is extremely exciting and all.................but dollar for dollar, VERY expensive. Add that to the fact we have a lot of problems (besides wars) to solve down here that we need to address and dump some money into....................
 
Originally posted by: ToBeMe
I have to agree..........................space exploration is extremely exciting and all.................but dollar for dollar, VERY expensive. Add that to the fact we have a lot of problems (besides wars) to solve down here that we need to address and dump some money into....................
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Which is why liberals got pissed off when Bush declared his space exploration proposal in the first place. We knew it would be near impossible the way things are going and I bet he knew it too. He just wanted to 'propose an idea' to get the average Joe fired up again. I mean, heck, this is NASA's SECOND budget cutback since then and we're losing the Hubble thanks to him.
 
Just makes me sad thinking how many billions go into war here. (While NASA is on a skeleton crew!)
Maybe it would take someone like a "Space president" to set the worlds sights upwords once again.
Maybe with people thinking of these things they would be less inclined to fight over the more trivial aspects of life here on Earth.
And who knows living in a inhospitable enviroment would be boring and I can't see what else to do in a bubble on Mars but to try to figure out something to make life easier. (New technologies.)
Who knows maybe there is a mineral in some of those asteroids that would give us cheap power (fusion anyone?)
And eliminate the needs for war for resourses on the planet. (now the religious thing is another story)
Yes I know I am going far out there but this stuff is fun to me 🙂
 
Bush was never serious about Mars. He only pledged like ~$12Billion to the project when the Apollo mission cost $500Billion on an inflation adjusted basis.
 
I am asking about the future and what you'd like to see and how you feel about how it has/can go.
Plenty of Bush threads out there.
 
C'mon I want to see the enterprise Aircraft Carrier when it gets retired retrofitted with boosters. /joke
Any ideas for the space program?
I want to see a BIG American ship laser guns warp drives the whole deal. (lol)
Even if it just goes around our 'hood here checking out Jupiter and harvesting some gases for industrial uses and keeping a sensor out for 'roids heading for earth at least.
Helping haul minerals. zero-g science experiments (In deeper space)
Now that would be something for America to be proud of!
How do we know if that 6 month old african baby dying of AIDS could have been the next Einstein who discovers fold drives. (But we will never know) But a more affluent planet with people actually having food has a LOT better chance nuruting young scientists and thinkers if they don't have to worry about their belly.
 
Most Americans don't care about science anymore. Not many Americans even care to concentrate in sciences or engineering when they're in college, and even fewer for advanced graduate degrees. I hope you're not one of them.
 
Originally posted by: steeplerot
If it was possible to be a astronaut without having to be in the military i'd be the first to sign up.
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A lot of scientists & engineers are astronauts, too. Why don't you be an engineer or scientist? You're thinking of the early days of the space program. Nowadays the space program has evolved from piloting to science & engineering.

Plus, there must be a slim chance to become an astronaught. If you were a scientist or engineer, you could directly help the space program much more easily with higher chances of doing it!
 
You have a good point maybe next year I will go back to school. whoknows.... This AA degree isn't getting me sh1t but my CompUSSR job :thumbsdown:
 
Originally posted by: steeplerot
You have a good point maybe next year I will go back to school. whoknows.... This AA degree isn't getting me sh1t but my CompUSSR job :thumbsdown:
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Best of luck! :beer:
 
You have a point. Too much money wasted on too much bullsh*t. I would love to see a huge international science project on the scale of Manhattan or Apollo, with many dedicated governments. But that's just wishful thinking, look at where ITER and ISS are now: ISS was supposed to be finished in 2002 and might now never be finished, while France and Japan are still arguing over the location of that poorly supported project.
 
The space stations are cool and all but I'd like to see something a big more far-reaching we've almost always had _something_ up there even if it was orbiting tin can falling apart with a drunk Russian guy.
 
Initially space exploration is extremely expensive, but look at the technology that it returns. Look at what the Apollo program gave us. With the private sector's growing interest in space it will be interesting to see where it takes us in the next 20 years or so, and who will be leading the way.

About the war thing though, yeah it sucks that is what we spend our money on but unfortunately that is the way the world works. Remaining the world leader in military technology (and learning how and when to employ it) remains a higher concern for me than space exploration, as vile and nasty as it sounds. On the plus side, military research also yields great new technologies as well.
 
Originally posted by: zephyrprime
Bush was never serious about Mars. He only pledged like ~$12Billion to the project when the Apollo mission cost $500Billion on an inflation adjusted basis.
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Somehow I don't see how Apollo costing $500 billion is possible. NASA only had a budget of $17 billion (adjusted for inflation). Getting enough money to pay for a $500 billion mission would have taken decades.
 
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