You wanted a good justification for the US's space program?

[Rob Oplawar]

Being that I work for a major contractor funded almost entirely by the US government, I get asked this question a lot: the altruistic quest for knowledge aside, what is the actual tangible benefit of spending so much money on the space program?

Here's a good example of some long-term benefits:
http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2008/07/is-helium-3-exp.html

Now, no offense to China or Russia, but neither country is known for its environmental friendliness. Not that the US is all that much better, but there is at least reason to believe that we are heading towards much better energy policies. Not that the US needs to rule the world, but I would be extremely disappointed in my country if we failed to play a major role in the determining of international policy regarding the use of our solar system's resources.

What say you?

[Bodzilla]

We need to get the control of resources back under goverment control as it was hundreds of years ago and say good bye to the private investors that reap billions off the exploitation of others.

fuck oil, and if this thing ever goes Private i'll comit suicide knowing that humanity will face another millennium of monopoly resources controlled by a handful of private people with the power and ability to buy out anyone they want.

[thehoodedsmack]

Harvesting space gas?

[Mass]

Guys, guys.

The obvious solution here is to sell the moon to Bechtel.

What are you, stupid?

[jngrow]

That sounds pretty cool, this Helium 3 stuff. With more energy efficient devices, combined with this really good fuel, things could turn out not horrible. Now only if we could get electric cars back :(.

[nooBBooze]

Guys, guys.

The obvious solution here is to sell the moon to Bechtel.

What are you, stupid?
This man speaks the thruth.

We need to get the control of resources back under goverment control as it was hundreds of years ago and say good bye to the private investors that reap billions off the exploitation of others.

lolcommunism

[Zeph]

I thought the point of space colonization was to gain access to the natural resources out there.

[Bodzilla]

lolcommunism
:PetrolPrices:

[TeeKup]

I thought the point of space colonization was to gain access to the natural resources out there.

It's supposed to be. Unfortunately we won't live long enough to seed Side 7 :phonegonk:.

[Hotrod]

Well, if this works out, then it will be amazing, though, knowing humanity, there will probably some kind of problem created out of this...

[Rob Oplawar]

I just think it's phenomenally short-sighted to dismiss the space program as unimportant. Aside from the fact that many useful technologies have come from research for manned spaceflight, don't you think this is the future of humanity? What other future do we have?

I've heard arguments that there are more important things right now and that we should simply wait a while before spending our resources in this way- I say that things can only possibly get worse in terms of how much resources we have to devote to space exploration, and that sooner or later something's gonna give and we're going to be forced to either face mass death or expand outward from this planet. Putting off spending on the space program is only going to make it more important but less feasible. Now is the time to be doing this.

If I don't see a permanent settlement of some kind on Mars in my lifetime, I will be extremely disappointed.

[Hotrod]

^I agree with this completely, space exploration is out future, we should be accepting it, not pushing it away. However, there's nothing wrong with trying to improve the Earth at the same time.

[Pooky]

Now, I think we all know this is the future for Earth http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Holy_Terra

[Hotrod]

Nah, it's obviously going to be like this http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Image:Nuked_Planet.jpg

[itszutak]

Nah, it's obviously going to be like this http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Image:Nuked_Planet.jpg
That's one of the 12 colonies, not earth :eng101:

[TeeKup]

*COUGH*
http://blog.makezine.com/AC75-1085f.jpg

[Flyboy]

I'm not worried, the amount of money that would be required vs how much you would get out of it, at least in the initial phases, would be completely out of proportion. First of all you need a rocket that can get there, then you need a ship that is capable of landing on the moon as well as being able to carry an extremely heavy load, then you need to land the thing safely without damage to the cargo and then use it. A spacecraft that could do that would be huge and would have to be able to carry out it's task at the moon without error cause if it does there are billions of dollars in the hole. The most effective way to do this is to get the gas while on the moon, decreasing size and whatnot, however that would make the time the ship needed to stay there longer, increasing the risk of error. It really isn't a very plausible thing at this time.

The best thing to do is to set up some sort of colony on the moon (no it's not crazy, very very possible) in a similar way we build the space station. If you could have something like that there then this gas would be much easier to extract, and it would make the moon almost like a shipping facility for this stuff.

Then again I'd rather be at mars by 2014 (also not crazy, very very possible as we have several plans for human exploration of the planet) but thats not going to happen in the near future huh?

...and no I didn't read the article so if that was all mentioned in there...oh well.

[Mr Buckshot]

Even with all these "green efforts," NASA is overspending and having way too many failures. Private sector ftw. NASA needs a major overhaul, imho. They have good ideas and have succeeded with cool stuff like the Mars rovers and especially the Moon landing, but they have terrible efficiency. Seriously, imperial system? And SETI is just a waste of taxpayers' money.

As for China, my people were latecomers to the space program, but I believe they can succeed as much as everyone else.

[Zeph]

What do you expect for contract work? The lowest priced stuff is accepted for the government. Private sector work is expensive because they cant afford to do it wrong.

[Apoc4lypse]

Even with all these "green efforts," NASA is overspending and having way too many failures. Private sector ftw. NASA needs a major overhaul, imho. They have good ideas and have succeeded with cool stuff like the Mars rovers and especially the Moon landing, but they have terrible efficiency. Seriously, imperial system? And SETI is just a waste of taxpayers' money.


Sounds similar to the argument I had with Rob over aim heh.

Of course that doesn't mean anything, I still believe our main priority should be space exploration. Its important to the future of mankind, not to sound too cleche...

[Mr Buckshot]

I support space travel and exploration. I just don't think NASA has been very competent so far in this field.

[Flyboy]

Sounds similar to the argument I had with Rob over aim heh.

Of course that doesn't mean anything, I still believe our main priority should be space exploration. Its important to the future of mankind, not to sound too cleche...
I agree as long as your definition of space exploration is transporting human cargo to more of those giant rocks in space. Planetary orbiting is old. If they landed people on the moon in the 70's, we can damn well do it now.

And I don't think this is NASA's fault, rather a true political will. The moon launches happened in the prime of the cold war, and we were obsessed with beating Russia to win the title of having superior tech. Now we lack the necessary political drive to get a plan in motion. With enough pressure from the people and the state NASA will begin REAL space exploration once again.

EDIT - We need an official space nerd topic.

[Rob Oplawar]

I support space travel and exploration. I just don't think NASA has been very competent so far in this field.
LOL. just... lol. I was about to come up with a rebuke, but seriously, I shouldn't even waste my time. lol.


With enough pressure from the people and the state NASA will begin REAL space exploration once again.
Well, hopefully that's what Constellation is. It could go either way right now, tbh, and I think I agree with you that what it really depends on is the support of the people and the state. We need people to be as fascinated with space exploration now as they were 50 years ago.



EDIT - We need an official space nerd topic.
This. We also need this.

[nooBBooze]

We need people to be as fascinated with space exploration now as they were 50 years ago.

Agreed, but succsesfully connecting the war on terror with space exploration sure doesn't sound like an easy task.

[Hotrod]

We need people to be as fascinated with space exploration now as they were 50 years ago.
I, for one, am very fascinated with space exploration, and would do anything to advance technology, so we can go as far as we can out there. I agree with you though, there aren't enough people that feel this way, which is a shame.

[Rob Oplawar]

Agreed, but succsesfully connecting the war on terror with space exploration sure doesn't sound like an easy task.

The terrorists can't reach us in space! Come on, let's all move to the Moon!

[Flyboy]

Hell they got us into Iraq, anythings possible.

[Pooky]

Hell they got us into Iraq, anythings possible.

America, terrorism is a real threat in our world today. Terrorists can terror terrorism drop nukes on us from the safety terrorism of our own orbit! Terror! We need to get up there and shoot those Iraqis! Osama Bin Laden! Terrorism! [/bush]

[Rob Oplawar]

Right now the terrorists are secretly building weapons of mass destruction on the moon. That's the real reason for Constellation returning to the moon. I'm not supposed to say this, but the Orion capsule actually has 50 cal machine guns and heat seeking missile launchers mounted on it, and the astronauts will be trained in low gravity urban combat.

[Flyboy]

Right now the terrorists are secretly building weapons of mass destruction on the moon. That's the real reason for Constellation returning to the moon. I'm not supposed to say this, but the Orion capsule actually has 50 cal machine guns and heat seeking missile launchers mounted on it, and the astronauts will be trained in low gravity urban combat.
WIN WINW IWNWIWNADOWIN WIN WIWNAWQINWIN
'

win