Seeing the space shuttle blast off is awesome. And it is a reminder of our history of exploration as humans. But, after reading about how many billions of dollars were spent in the past 2 years just trying to get the foam to stay stuck to the shuttle (which it still does not), I again began thinking whether it would make more sense to just give free health care, food, housing, whatever, to kids and families who don’t have it.
This is not a political rant - both administrations have spent tons on the shuttle. If I meant to be political I would have asked about sending astronauts to Mars.
I think it is important to keep sending men in little tin cans into the same low earth orbits that we have been sending them into for the last forty years. If we keep doing more and more of the same thing over and over again, we are sure to learn something new eventually.
I think it is important to keep sending men in little tin cans into the same low earth orbits that we have been sending them into for the last forty years. If we keep doing more and more of the same thing over and over again, we are sure to learn something new eventually.
Exactly. For only $3-4 each for every man, woman and child in the US we learned that spray-on foam doesn’t hold up well to multiple-mach speed winds. I had always wondered about that…
considering we know oh so precious little about the human body, I suggest we keep things a bit closer to the vest and focus on mammalian biology. (Spoken as a physiologist, of course!)
Yes to space, but not with the Shuttle program. Should never have been relaunched. 10000 federal employees (and their congressional representatives in Texas and Florida) say otherwise.
The history of man is all about discovery and traveling to new places and seeing new things. Along with our oceans, space is what’s next. I don’t see how we can stop trying to go further.
The amount we spend on research repays itself in the future. I don’t look at the space program as an expense, but an investment in future technology that will benefit all of mankind. If we don’t spend the money now we deny ourselves the knowledge, experience and hope for the future.
Look at all the engineers of today that were inspired by the Apollo space program, you cannot put a price on that. Since our space program has floundered, our lead in science and technology is quickly diminishing. Noone wants to be an engineer because it is no longer exciting.
Lastly, the amount of money spent on the space is a very tiny part of the national budget. If you really want more money for healthcare, housing, etc. there are enormous pieces of pork that pass through congress. The waste in other governments programs far exceed the amount spent on space exploration, take a look at www.cagw.org if you want to see wild government spending.
The ESA answer to that same question a few years ago was that no, it isn’t worth it, hence the cancellation of the program Hermes. I don’t know where the money was spent instead, though.
We should absolutely keep going to space. What we should also absolutely do is turn all of the space shuttles into museum pieces. We wanted the shuttles to be pick up trucks that could be flown into space 20 or more times a year as a group. But, then we put a really, really high tech engine into them. Anyone knows that if you try to drive a high performance sports car around every day of the year, it will end up in the shop all of the time. Well, everyone except the people that designed the space shuttle. And, that was before these vehicles got old and even more prone to problems.
So, my plan would be to scrap the shuttles, put satellites into low earth orbit using the relatively simple rockets that we’ve had since the 1960s, and then start serious plans to get back to the moon, where we can do much better astronomy than on earth and can also figure out whether man can live in space for extended period of time. After that, onto the planets. And other stars. It’s a big universe out there, and time to get going.
I would agree, but we haven’t gone further since 1969.
We have, just not with people. We have sent unmanned craft all over the solar system and I think I remember hearing that we blew up a comet recently. (I don’t know why.) But we have done it for a fraction of the cost of one shuttle launch. Even if two of three unmanned missions fail we still spend less. The precautions and redundancies that are required when we put a person in a ship balloons the cost way out of proportion. I’m a big fan of space exploration, but we need to do it in a cost effective manner.
I say let Richard Branson, et. al. take over the people in space business. The private sector is going to figure out how to do this efficiently. When NASA can say “You know, if we had a person up there we could ________________”, and is able to fill in the blank with something really necessary that can’t be done remotely, then they can look at manned flights again.
You are quite right on the unmanned flights. They have been extremely valuable. The Mars Rovers had more value than dozens of shuttle missions.
There are some useful manned missions. The Hubble repair is the outstanding example. Even with that, it is not obvious that even they are worth the cost.
I know. Gee. Lets send some men in a tin can to Mars. If the mission were successful, it would be an investment of only a trillion dollars for a bucket full of rocks.
So what are those things on the horizon that will be so beneficial to us here? Is there something specific you are referring to, or is it a matter of if we keep going up there, eventually we will stumble onto something that is beneficial?
I know. Gee. Lets send some men in a tin can to Mars. If the mission were successful, it would be an investment of only a trillion dollars for a bucket full of rocks.
Kinda like the trip to the moon, right?
Sometimes the value of an endeavor can’t be measured in dollars and cents, Art. (I know, I should have warned you to sit down, first. Sorry.)
I think the shuttle program is of questionable value, and I agree with the prevailing wisdom that says a lot of our scientific goals can be accomplished with unmanned technology. But there *is *something to be said for the value of human exploration for its own sake.
**But there *is *something to be said for the value of human exploration for its own sake. **
But, should the government, or more specifically, us, the taxpayers, be responsible for funding that? Let’s let some billionaire or corporation take care of that and we can all “Ooh” and “Awe” with them.
The fact of the matter, there is plenty of money to end world hunger, cure disease and create homes for the homeless. The space program doesn’t impact any of it. Government corruption, wars, greed, waste all combine to create misery on the planet earth. Solve those problems and there will be plenty of money to build a fully functional colony on Mars with trillions to spare.
but I heard that we never really went to space, that there is a special top-secret studio in Nevada where they film things to look like they are on the moon, mars, etc.
anyone else hear this? I’ll check my sources and get back to you…
