Proud of the Dragon crew, NASA and SpaceX.. dudes have balls the size of church bells...
Bob and Doug
- Thread starter Iroh2
- Start date
It is a huge waste of money. The universe is so immense, to call what we're doing as exploring it is laughable. The surface is not even scratched and never will be.
That’s what they told Columbus
Dumbest thing I've read on this site.
Tie for the dumbest thing I've ever read here.
The U.S. already spends perhaps a $100 billion or more on R & D every year. Other countries also spend plenty for R & D. For decades now, the private sector has done quite well with R & D. Except for the very difficult problems of cancer, etc. For which going to the Moon or Mars contributes very little.
Explained by the Charlie Daniels lyrics
" ... I wonder if anybody'd think I'd flipped if I went to LA via Omaha!"
BTW - Space Force debuted on Netflix this weekend.
Try to get it's title track out of your head.
After last night, I definitely wished I was on that rocket, no coming back to this shitshow planet.
Try to get it's title track out of your head.
After last night, I definitely wished I was on that rocket, no coming back to this shitshow planet.
The idea that space exploration is a waste is nonsense. Just as an example, much of the technology in you microwave oven and refrigerator comes from NASA. Your car contains much NASA technology. I could go on. More than 15 years ago I read in an article in, IIRC, Forbes. The article compared NASA to a private business, with Americans as NASA's shareholders. I can't recall the exact numbers, but with investment in private businesses, shareholders are generally delighted with a 3 to 1 return on their investment. At that point in time Americans had received something like a 24 to 1 return on investment.
We don't need to go to the moon or even earth orbit to develop those technologies. We don't need zero G to develop software.
Wait a minute....lincoln wasted a ton of money on snow removal last winter and didn’t even remove in snow and then didn’t have any money left to remove the sheets of ice on the streets. They were able to go around and ticket people for not removing the ice off the sidewalks though when they didn’t even remove them from the streets.
lincoln logic.
B.S. The people who believe in space exploration need to be educated. It starts with critical thinking and this one is not hard one to figure out.
God help NASA if I was in Congress. As I anticipate your response, I would have no chance living in my Northern Virginia district where there are likely lots of NASA employees. My train passes two blocks from NASA headquarters. If in Congress, I would no doubt have to vote for spending bills that include space exploration but I would cherish every day I could make life hell for the space exploration supporters. An incredible waste of money.
My wife and I were laughing at the same thing everytime they would say Bob and Doug. All we could do was think of the McKenzie brothers. And then I did my best Getty Lee impersonation.... Take off!! In the great white cone. Take off, it's a beauty way to go!!Take off Hoser...
Thanks for posting
You catch your wife banging an astronaut or something? Or maybe a rocket scientist. Or an aeronautical engineer. Or she tell you the backdoor is off limits and only Neil Armstrong or some other "real man" like him could boldly go where no man has gone before?
Oh wait that's Star Trek. Your wife bang a trekkie, or ..............................................................................................................................
We spend huge amounts on cancer research and are still far away from a cure. It's not a binary choice to do cancer research or explore space. We need both.
That's exactly why we should be doing it. There's still so much we don't know. The potential rewards for making new discoveries are enormous. If we make space exploration and even colonization a priority, it's going to put us on a path where we can make monumental breakthroughs in just about any field you can think of. Energy research, AI and robotics, astronomy and physics, biology, engineering and manufacturing, are all fields that are complementary to and will benefit from space exploration. Space can accelerate the technology vectors in these areas that have direct benefits on earth. There are several other areas space exploration will either benefit or revolutionize including sociology, the arts and humanities, economics, etc.
If nothing else, when it comes to the military, space is the new high ground. First it was land, then sea, then air. Now it's space. Space will be vital to national security and defense. There's already several countries capable of shooting down satellites that people depend on for navigation and communications. The U.S. will likely try to maintain a hegemony in space so that bad actors aren't capable of causing massive disruption to our society.
Space means death. Oxygen and water exist only in negligible amounts outside earth. The same for concentrated forms of energy. Space exploration has nothing to do basic orbital needs such as for communications, weather, national security and agriculture.
I dare you to find a promising technology that must be done in space that would benefit mankind. And throwing crap against the wall to see what sticks is wasteful.
For all the dollars we spend on space exploration, we could find many uses for the money. I would start with the FBI and the DEA. Our FBI building in downtown D.C. is a disgrace. We have enormous infrastructure needs. More support for hospitals especially those in rural areas would be a plus.
Everyone will always need money, but a quick google search will show you the benefit of NASA. Yes, there is waste, but there are quite a few great things that NASA has developed. One major one being baby formula.
I believe that’d be all the money spent on sports, but we all watch that, so it’s justified?
I did a quick internet search of all the federal government agencies (magnify that with each of the 50 states and their agencies). From the usa.gov website, below are just the agencies that start with A. I would much rather cut out agencies that no one has ever heard of and only benefit an extremely small number of people / groups.
A
A
- AbilityOne Commission
- Access Board
- Administration for Children and Families (ACF)
- Administration for Community Living
- Administration for Native Americans
- Administrative Conference of the United States
- Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts
- Advisory Council on Historic Preservation
- African Development Foundation
- Agency for Global Media
- Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
- Agency for International Development (USAID)
- Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
- Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS)
- Agricultural Research Service
- Agriculture Department (USDA)
- Agriculture Library
- Air Force
- Air Force Reserve
- Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau
- Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Bureau (ATF)
- Alhurra TV
- American Battle Monuments Commission
- AmeriCorps
- Amtrak (AMTRAK)
- Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS)
- Antitrust Division
- Appalachian Regional Commission
- Architect of the Capitol
- Archives, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
- Arctic Research Commission
- Armed Forces Retirement Home
- Arms Control and International Security
- Army
- Army Corps of Engineers
- Arthritis, Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, National Institute of
Tax dollars on sports is something I don't believe in either.
Correct, but it is a byproduct of what we are doing in space, as is a lot of the technology that gets developed. I guess I am curious why you are so against new technology being developed? There needs to be more Elon Musk types in this world that continue to move us forward. Replacing infrastructure is fine if it is needed, but I would rather see stuff like Elon is doing more forward to benefit our society.
I never came close to saying new technology shouldn't be developed. I am saying;
1) There is no reason to go to the moon or Mars
2) Most important technologies have already been developed. Now government can allow the private sector to develop new technologies based on free market desires. Yet the government still spends $100's billions per years on things the private sector can't afford. Such as Medical research.
3) Research should be viewed also as identifying technologies that won't work either for technical or economic reasons. You can't change the laws of physics. Nor can you change the laws of economics.
I'll disagree that the most important technologies have already been developed. We continue to find all kinds of new technology that is doing all kinds of good and will continue to push the envelope. While I agree going to Mars or the Moons may not do much good, the technology that is developed by doing these things is what I am looking for. We need super smart people to continue to try and move tech forward.
It is a good debate.
There is probably still a lot to be learned about radiation and the earth's magnetism that can only come from space "exploration". Those kinds of things can lead to advancements in understanding which can benefit people on a personal level.
If you can't identify what technologies might be in the pipeline, at least identify our needs?
I doubt we can learn much more than what we already know. Regardless, how would a colony on Mars or the moon help in this regard?
I guess you've got it all figured out. No new technology will ever be created because we already have it or can't improve it. We also have no human needs that can be solved by new advances in technology, some that will be created by NASA and some some of the other smartest people on earth... Got it...
This is one of the most ignorant posts you've added. We come out with new, amazing discoveries every day. How can you see no value in having space exploration or NASA in general? We as a society need to keep progressing. Why cut funding to NASA instead of the trillion dollars spent on an airplane that will never be built? Or the over-inflated defense budget? Or the trillions we threw at the stock market so that big companies can buy back their stocks at low prices only to resell them later for a profit?
There are so many other factors in play than just "hurr durr NASA bad cuz they smart".
Colony on Mars? Nothing. I'm talking about learning about the earth. Same thing goes for deep ocean exploration.
