Space Exploration: Yay or Nay.

[entropie]

This ?

[YOUTUBE="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMgyC5GlNxA"].[/YOUTUBE]

Or that ?

[YOUTUBE="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIyA2DzGZB0"].[/YOUTUBE]

No matter what, Madonna will now it !

 

[garbage]

Actually seems like a good way to go. Also, they're right out cancelling the Constellation project and earmarked $6 billion for commercial taxis to orbit, indicating an opening for the private sector to get in on space flight. It's basically like the government buying a ticket for their astronauts.

An interesting new direction.

This whole situation is rather strange. Under the program, all but about 15% of the funds ended up in the private sector anyway--a huge portion of the work was contracted to private companies, and NASA employees effectively provided oversight and provided requirements to them.

So the plan seems to be to basically short-circuit NASA, giving money directly to the private sector.

But then that process going to need oversight by some agency, because we can't expect the Science Advisor to do it alone. That's going to require some overhead, though.

We could call that overseeing agency, oh, a space agency. Maybe some sort of national space agency. There's a nice ring to that.

So we will probably be right back where we started--with a sizable portion of funds going to the private sector but managed by a government agency.


My source? I used to be a NASA subcontractor supporting Constellation, and I work with many who are still connected to the program.

 

[Fecal McAngry]

I'm against aggressive exploration for its own sake.

I think space exploration is a noble goal, and must eventually happen, but right now at our level of technology there isn't really any motivation. There are no resources worth getting, no other civilizations that we're aware of yet, and we don't have the ability to terraform and claim land. Any resources put towards space programs beyond local space would probably be better put in dealing with local issues.

I do think that reseach should continue, but as more of a hedge than a determined drive. Still, given choice between military spending and exploration I'd certainly take exploration. Imagine what NASA would do with a decade's worth of military spending.

We need to kill the Martians before they kill us.

 

[Munchies]

it was interesting 50 years ago... now its just a waste of money. Telescopes will get us further then any rocketship would so whats the use. i say NAY

 

[Frosty]

Yes, though I think we might be pretty far away from anything~really groundbreaking, but working towards it now would probably bring it closer in the future. But we would have to figure out how to fund it.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Yes.

 

[á´…eparted]

Being against this is just completely irrational in every way. I don't see (and have yet to see) any sound arguments to be against it.

 

[Frosty]

Being against this is just completely irrational in every way. I don't see (and have yet to see) any sound arguments to be against it.

Finances? Exploring space could end up being expensive and could take away resources for more immediate concerns.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Finances? Exploring space could end up being expensive and could take away resources for more immediate concerns.

Resources that we're spending so wisely now. Plastic surgery and edible underwear, for instance.

 

[Frosty]

Resources that we're spending so wisely now.

More than true. But I doubt that if it were to be decided to increase how much is put into space exploration to a significant enough degree, it would probably just end up meaning more taxes instead of substitutions. So it would end up being what are people willing to put into it for something that might not end up being notably worthwhile for a long time if really ever. But yes, pretty much am all for it.

 

[sprinkles]

Finances? Exploring space could end up being expensive and could take away resources for more immediate concerns.

Orbital missions are launched all the time to maintain everyone's aging fleets of satellites. Cape Canaveral alone launches crap tons of rockets. Some times two or three a month. Sending out some probes from there isn't a huge step further.

 

[Frosty]

Orbital missions are launched all the time to maintain everyone's aging fleets of satellites. Cape Canaveral alone launches crap tons of rockets. Some times two or three a month. Sending out some probes from there isn't a huge step further.

No, I wouldn't think so. But any furtherance would cost something, time, resources. It would all come down to who is willing to pay for what. How far are we willing to go. But yeah to me potential rewards and discoveries are too great to not fund this. Can't really think of any other arguments why someone would be against this except for some extremely slim hinging on slippry slope ones such as those involving ramifications from other lifeforms, the danger involved in general, it somehow being against a particular religion. But yeah I don't really know enough about the specifics of this to rea say much beyond speculation.

 

[Luke O]

If trillions of dollars of not only the US budget, the world's budget, was not spent on blowing each other up, space exploration would be much easier than it would be now.

 

[sprinkles]

No, I wouldn't think so. But any furtherance would cost something, time, resources. It would all come down to who is willing to pay for what. How far are we willing to go. But yeah to me potential rewards and discoveries are too great to not fund this. Can't really think of any other arguments why someone would be against this except for some extremely slim hinging on slippry slope ones such as those involving ramifications from other lifeforms, the danger involved in general, it somehow being against a particular religion. But yeah I don't really know enough about the specifics of this to rea say much beyond speculation.

Also remember that in the case of Americans, we're still somewhat reeling from the exorbitant cost of the space shuttle program, so people tend to think that spacefaring is prohibitively expensive due to that, when the fact is that the shuttle was not cost efficient and ended up being way too expensive due to how tricky it was to get into orbit. We use rockets now that cost mere fractions of what a space shuttle flight would cost.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

Yay.

we need solar sails and the Alcubierre Drive

 

[chubber]

Resources that we're spending so wisely now. Plastic surgery and edible underwear, for instance.

funny thing is that could be handy in space too.

space, is about R&D and that R&D eventually drifts down the ordinary plebs like us. What they find in their R&D could be used on earth as well for good (or bad).

I am for space, it creates jobs, it moves us forward. Hopefully the other crowed will keep our morals intact and hopefully not destroy earth in proses of moving forward.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

I'm just dreading when the Weyland-Yutani style megacorporations take over space.

It's already in the early stages.

 

[Mane]

Even if we agree space is where we should go, the direct route might not be the best one:
You could easily argue that investing in our future in space is better done with a much bigger portion of it without going to actual space.

For instance, the billions of dollars it would take for a one time back and forth human mission to mars would be better off invested in robotics, seed factory methodologies and 3d printing that could enable us to create self sufficient ecology of robotic asteroid mining resource refining and construction, enabling us to construct as many sampling rovers around mars as we want, or construct an entire fleet of interplanetary vehicles perfect for the earth-to-mars journey to be waiting for us pre-fueled in orbit.


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[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Even if we agree space is where we should go, the direct route might not be the best one:
You could easily argue that investing in our future in space is better done with a much bigger portion of it without going to actual space.

For instance, the billions of dollars it would take for a one time back and forth human mission to mars would be better off invested in robotics, seed factory methodologies and 3d printing that could enable us to create self sufficient ecology of robotic asteroid mining resource refining and construction, enabling us to construct as many sampling rovers around mars as we want, or construct an entire fleet of interplanetary vehicles to be waiting for us pre-fueled in orbit.


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We don't need to go to space. We have this:

 

[Kas]

Definitely yay.
Anything else would be stopping the progress of science.

But space tourism? Not really. Don’t we have enough junk on Earth, do we need to leave space junk for one’s entertainment? (well... unless I'm invited to the trip)