So what the F--K happened NASA? and who will get us off this rock? Democrats, Republicans, Euros, Indians, Ruskies? or Chinese? by JAYNEZTOWN

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So what the F--K happened NASA? and who will get us off this rock? Democrats, Republicans, Euros, Indians, Ruskies? or Chinese?

POSTED BY: JAYNEZTOWN
UPDATED: Tuesday, August 16, 2022 20:07
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Saturday, October 29, 2016 3:46 PM

JAYNEZTOWN

Kennedy and the JFK vision for the Moon and beyond was probably the only time the United States and Humanity as a whole had a clear vision for space and the stars. The US President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Of course, he also wanted to go to the Moon to beat the Soviet Union and win a political war, but there were a thousand more reasons to make that trip. All of them were good. As a result of his political will, the Apollo program became the most complex, most advanced, most successful, most beneficial technology endeavor ever taken by the United States of America. Presidents that followed Nixon, Carter, Reagan would all gut NASA financially or use whatever funds left to militarize whatever pet project the admin of that time wanted, Bush Snr had some kind of announcement but was laughed at in Congress and by Accountants for being an impossible white elephant. After Clinton, Bush Jnr had a kind of space vision for Mars much like his father but later clocks up debts from wars, Cancelled the Space Shuttle after the disaster, and we had a massive global recession and bailouts.
Every time spending or budgets are mentioned every public attacks NASA firstly, but this is BS you have medic care, the Military wars, the Bailouts, Vet benefits, Pet projects by political leaders briges, buildings, roads...some of this stuff is important but almost all of it vastly more expensive than NASA. Some people may want to convince you that President Obama's decision to fundamentally kill NASA's manned space program is a great move for the future of space, however some others will to tell you that all that is bullshit and bad for the United States long term. If space was so badly done and so costly why do so many other nations in China, India, across Europe, Russia etc why do they all invest....they invest because it returns tenfold!! However I do agree NASA cut have a lot of fat trimmed and the Private Sector can come in and do great work but sometimes a big government program is needed for investment who else would be able to build a manned colony on Mars?? Obama, cancels plan Bush he was supposed to bring change not much different to Bush Jnr, Obama lays out revised space policy - doesn't seem to go anywhere these days

If anything its the Chinese slowly making moves, the Europeans with science projects like CERN, the Hubble itself a joint project between NASA and the Europeans (although I also believe Europe is screwed with debt problems, demographic problems and islamic immigrant problems now) others making footholds into space are India and the Russians have made a big comeback

How will we ever get to the stars the planet Mars, the Moon, the satellites of Jupiter, Saturn, Europa and Titan?
Bush cancelled Shuttle because its design was considered unsafe.
Obama cancelled Bush program because it was declared impossible and too expensive

Who can repeat that spirit of exploration and conquest and adventure America had seen in the 60s?
the Chinese?

Hopefully the old girl lady Liberty still has some fight and adventure and wonder left

otherwise

I weep for the future

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Tuesday, November 1, 2016 3:10 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

I hope you're not planning on space travel to solve our problems and assure our future. Because unless we learn to live HERE ... on this beautiful and bountiful planet for which we've been so successfully adapted ... we will simply take our problems with us, to places that are more restricted and more hostile.

Hillary is a WAR CANDIDATE, and that's just what we need, right? More war?

G, THUGR, MAL4: Oh BTW, please define intelligence.
http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?bid=18&tid=60903&p=4#1
018100

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Tuesday, November 1, 2016 8:57 PM

ANONYMOUSE

There are pessimistic times when I think Tasmin Archer had a point in Sleeping Satellite. There is money to be made in space - a whole gorram load o' money, more than governments are capable of imagining - but it'll take decades of investment before we see any returns. A whole infrastructure needs to be built first, and that takes time and money - lots of both. It's a 'growth curve' situation, i.e. a vast investment and no profits whatsoever until you reach the take-off point and suddenly you're in business.

But no government is in power long enough to do this, nor do they have the courage any more. Apollo was our species' greatest achievement...yet the computing power required for the mission is now outdone by any mobile phone! If you could figure out a backwards-compatible user interface, a time traveller could run the entire Apollo mission from a mobile or laptop!

Asteroid mining would, on the face of it, be a solution to the problem of investment...except that any technology that can place an asteroid in a favourable orbit can also be used to direct that asteroid into crashing into Earth, which I wouldn't put past ISIS et al. The possibilities for space-based warfare, as Heinein pointed out in The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, are terrifying - and the primary reason why there is a UN treaty to the effect that the Moon shall never be exploited for military purposes. If it were, the nation using it would possess a totally unanswerable military advantage. :(

Which is why recent Chinese efforts have me more than a bit worried. Why isn't the US Government addressing this issue? We need to be sure they have no military intentions.

I suspect the only answer to the infrastructure problem is nanotechnology. People need rest breaks, food, water, visits home to see family, holidays, sick leave & treatment, pensions. etc. Nanites just need raw materials and programming instructions. Once large-scale nanotech is viable, it may be doable. Until then, I have a feeling we'll just need to be patient.

Unless official First Contact takes place with a benign species willing to give us a helping hand...:)

Actually, after watching Contact, it occurred to me that Star Trek has several civilisations which are hostile yet starfaring. How did they manage that without destroying themselves? Unfortunately there is a simple answer: they prevent self-destruction by redirecting their hostility towards other species...

Gorram, I'm pessimistic today. :( It might have something to do with the fact that I've discovered the UK's Telephone Preference Service is next to useless for trying to block nuisance calls about PPI, investment and who knows what else. Gorrammit!!!

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Wednesday, November 2, 2016 11:23 PM

ANONYMOUSE

Actually, private investment in space was probably suggested first by Heinlein, in The Man Who Sold The Moon - D. D. Harriman was very anxious that it be done right and not purely for profit...exactly the attitude driving Apollo.

We came in peace for all mankind - all political motivations were rightly rendered irrelevant by that simple statement on the plaque Armstrong and Aldrin, two of the bravest human beings in the entire history of our species, left on the Moon. I don't know if the American politicians meant it, but NASA and the astronauts sure as hell did.

And they were brave, that can't possibly be argued.

They plonked themselves onto what was basically a gorram huge bomb.
They launched at nine G's, when most people pass out between four and six.
They travelled further than anyone ever has - with no possibility, none whatsoever, of any kind of rescue mission, either in space or once they'd landed...in a craft that couldn't even stand up under its own weight on Earth and was hardly more than a tinfoil bag.
They launched into the utter unknown. Almost nothing was known about deep space travel or surface conditions on the Moon.

They knew all that before they set out, and they went anyway. No-one ordered them to. They wanted to go.

I was three and a half when they landed; it's my earliest clear memory, of staying up for I don't know how long and my entire family glued to the TV screen the whole time, from launch to splashdown.

I truly hope and pray we go back in my lifetime. It can be done. It should be done. As Heinlein again pointed out, there is one precious commodity freely available on the Moon for immediate shipping back to Earth:

New knowledge.

I for one am certain we'll learn something new up there. For that reason if no other, we should go back. Besides, who knows what kind of tech spinoffs we'll get this time? Without Apollo, IT in its current form probably wouldn't have happened for another 20 years. We would, by now, still be using 3.5" floppies...!

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Tuesday, August 16, 2022 8:07 PM

JAYNEZTOWN

They will militarize before they explore?

Space Force takes robot patrol dogs for a walk

https://www.zdnet.com/article/space-force-takes-robot-patrol-dogs-for-
a-walk/

SpaceX to Launch US Spy Satellites Using Recycled Falcon Heavy Boosters

https://www.cnet.com/science/space/spacex-to-launch-us-spy-satellites-
using-recycled-falcon-heavy-boosters/

Minuteman III ballistic missile launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base

https://lompocrecord.com/news/local/military/vandenberg/minuteman-iii-
ballistic-missile-launched-from-vandenberg-space-force-base/article_537ee833-6952-535f-afba-c120bfac1301.html

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