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After the documentry "For All Mankind" rekindled my interest in the space program I've been following the launch of Discovery and was very happy to hear that they had a sucessful launch this morning. I'm now really excited about future projects, but it seems like things are moving so slow compared to what we were doing decades ago. However, Its good to hear people talking about it again... I have high hopes for the space program and maybe a mars mission. That would be nice.
I really think we need a new fleet of ships. The one we have now is over 20 years old and is only going to give us more trouble as they continue to age.
I also want us to go back to the moon. That'll make it easier for us to get our asses to Mars.
NASA seems to be too bureaucratic and slow-moving. Look at this guy Burt Rutan, he built a space-going vessel with a couple dozen guys and $25 million. Any design to succeed the space shuttle coming from NASA is a few billion and never gets off the ground.
I dont have much faith in NASA to take us to the next level. Couldnt they have done what Rutan did ten or twenty years ago, with all of their money and the fact that the smartest people in the country work there?
In an interview I heard on the radio they said they plan to use the current shuttles til 2010 :\ then they started to talk about the new ships, but I had to leave the car before I could hear anything about it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Melf
I believe NASA should start a government-enforced draft of scientists and get moving.
Shit, Ill go.Quote:
Originally Posted by YellerDog
Fuck, me too.
I'd love for us to be doing more in space. Space matters more to me than killing towel heads and securing oil or whatever the hell our government is doing now. They sure the fuck aren't doing anything obviously big and wonderful like doing cool shit in space.
LAWLQuote:
Originally Posted by IronPlant
Don't try to be clever by poiting out some small stupid flaw in my writing about wanting to work for NASA. Becuase in fact, pointing that out IS NOT clever, and makes you look like a FAG and a DOUCH. Dave do you really want the world to know you are a FAG and a DOUCH (not just one, but both)?Quote:
Originally Posted by dave is ok
Think long and hard about it Dave. Long and Hard. I think you know what to do.
DOUCHEQuote:
Originally Posted by IronPlant
I think he was referring more to the fact that picturing you working for NASA is laughable.Quote:
Originally Posted by IronPlant
Don't take it the wrong way, as all we can go by are the words on the screen that you provide us. We don't know you in real life.
See what I'm saying?
Anyway, if NASA asked me to work for them someday I'd glady be their bitch., no questions asked. It's the epitome of "on the cutting edge" and being involved with that stuff makes me wanna blow my load all over.
Quote:
Originally Posted by OmniGear
You know I'm weird, quirky, nonsensical, not very serious, bad with English composition, the son of a doctor and going to school and will finish an eng major or PhD.
Maybe that doesn't make for good posting skills, but I think that makes for a good scientist.
As long as you understand.
I said what I meant, and meant what I said, MR DOUCH.Quote:
Originally Posted by dave is ok
I'm sure NASA could use a skilled electrician Ironplant, so you could always go that route. I have a harder time picturing diffusionx working with a team because he's so ornery more than I do you with your brain problems. (I'm only kidding with you, don't take it seriously IP)
Anyway, the space program won't truly pick up until the commercial industry begins to take grasp of it. You don't always need the smartest people in the world to do something extraordinary. We just need people who understand these problems and know how to deal with them specifically. Anyway, there are a lot of commercial space companies popping up at the moment, so in twenty years we could end up seeing a lot more space farring travel then ever before.
There are a lot of differences between Rutan's vessel and something like the Shuttle. I know that may seem like pointing out the obvious, but really it does factor in alot of the costs. Think about the kind of roles something like a shuttle, or a deep space probe, has to perform compared to something very rudimentary like Rutan's shuttle. People like to harp on some of NASA's really moronic flubbs (meters & feet, space pen, etc) but few remark on truly amazing it is on what they've accomplished thus far.Quote:
Originally Posted by diffusionx
I will admit that NASA is far too much a sprawling (corrupt?) bureaucracy, but I'm not going to give you the classic liberal argument that it's somehow unnecessary. I think it's very necessary to the advancement of humanity as a whole, and what could be more progressive than that? Plus, some of things I've heard they've begun development on using the ISS (flawless conductive crystals, possible medicines and treatements for serious conditions like spinal defects, etc).
Comerical space travel won't pick up untill there is something in outerspace to get and be brought back to make money off of.Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew
Going to space is worthless unless it results in us getting engaged in an intergalactic war with aliens.
Umm, there's plenty already. Many planets, while uninhabitable, contain vast quantites of untapped mineral reserves. The problem would be mining them and transporting them without the costs being prohibative (which as of now they are in the extreme).Quote:
Originally Posted by IronPlant
Space may be the only safe refuge from the coming zombie invasion though, so I guess it's a 'pick your poison'.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gohron
Um duh. The entire whatever it was being worth paying for fuel, the ship, and workers kind of went unsaid.Quote:
Originally Posted by g0zen
http://www.sg.hu/kep/2004_07/0729doom3.jpgQuote:
Originally Posted by g0zen
People may be willing to pay a good amount of money to take a trip to the moon.
All I'm saying is, we only got seventy years to have a huge world war, so some guy in Montana can invent the warp drive, and meet the Vulcans.
Come on, people. Starfleet isn't going to invent itself.
Thats what Rutan is working on now.Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew
fuck starfleet. Fucking communist bastards. Damn new age kitches can't even make real booze.Quote:
Originally Posted by PiotrRasputin
Sorry, I don't keep track of all the names and shit in the race. But it's definitely something people would be willing to dish money out for. Adventure is worth money, not to mention the breakthroughs in technology and science we can make simply by doing some of this stuff instead of talking about it in theory.
I've always been fascinated with the space program because it will eventually be where the G8 end up going.
LOL, I like how you want to seem like that's obvious, yet your earlier point was that there was 'nothing out there worth getting' in the first place. Nice backpedal.Quote:
Originally Posted by IronPlant
what are G8?
Um, yeah, from a business point of vew, there isn't. There is nothing worth what it currently caust to get it, in space.Quote:
Originally Posted by g0zen
Who LiveAid was trying to bilk.Quote:
Originally Posted by IronPlant
Of course there is, the bounty of uranium and other heavy metals in space is any corporation's dream. It isn't at all about there not being incentive to go up there, its just the technology to do what would need to be done hasn't been developed yet.Quote:
Originally Posted by IronPlant
In the future, we need no booze.Quote:
Originally Posted by IronPlant
We get our kicks from discovering new worlds and civilizations.
If it really worth it to go, they will pay someone to make what they need to do it.Quote:
Originally Posted by g0zen
I want no part in your stupid future.Quote:
Originally Posted by PiotrRasputin
The classic capitalist argument, the market will always fix itself. If only we could truly depend on such efficiency and forethought from the corporate infrastructure.Quote:
Originally Posted by IronPlant
NASA desperately needs to make everything look cool. Nothing looks cool anymore and it's a shame.
I can think of no greater reason to go in to space:
http://www.themakeupgallery.info/ima...ts/recall3.jpg
Yea, and thats what theyre doing now - Rutan is designing spaceships for tourism, and more will follow.Quote:
If it really worth it to go, they will pay someone to make what they need to do it.
TOUCHEQuote:
Originally Posted by dave is ok
Sorry, had to.
i just want my space elevator k? Get to work scientists.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_elevator
Quote:
Originally Posted by PiotrRasputin
I like it.Quote:
Originally Posted by IronPlant
From what I figure, we don't have the motivation to do anything with both the problems of the shuttle staying together, bush's program cuts (let's leave the hubble out to rot), and the war in Iraq, which we are more concerned with. Also without other countries setting out to one-up the us in terms of space exploration, we'll just likely sit there playing politics till something important happens.
Nasa in itself is pretty much used up in terms of ideas and it's time to get some new corporations started in order to see any form of innovation again.
I dont understand how a block of "foam" can rip tile off the space shuttle. Is it like foam you would typically think of, or something more like a large brick? I'd imagine that shuttle is pretty tough to deal with all the friction and heat so how could "foam" rip a hole in the wing?
IBTN+1Quote:
Originally Posted by diffusionx
I think it's, like, mega foam.Quote:
Originally Posted by perkyskirt
What I'm more worried about is that bird the shuttle hit on takeoff, the last thing we need is a PETA/NASA war.
I'm shaving the top portion of my head as we speak to look like Picard.
Yet another ridiculous voltz post. The Hubble telescope has always had problems, we should probably have cut our losses a decade ago, the war in Iraq doesnt affect NASA and their budget in any way (NASA's budget has expanded about $1.1 billion since 2003), and plenty of other countries are working on space programs, especially China.Quote:
Originally Posted by voltz
As for the foam, its foam that hardens, I am sure, and becomes bricklike.
Orbiting Saturn isn't innovative?Quote:
Originally Posted by voltz
Smashing into a comet isn't innovative?
A Mars rover that lasts over a year and a half, travels a handful of miles and provides evidence of long-term water isn't innovative?
I agree with part of your other statement, though. Without competition from the Soviets, there would have been little impetus for us to land on the moon in the short timeframe that we did. China, at this phase in their manned space program, is about where the US and Soviets were in the early-mid 60's, so the American public isn't concerned with it (yet). As their ambitions intensify, so will the public's scrutiny. Renewed competition could possibly drive our future efforts in space.
I haven't shaved in a few days, I should look enough like Riker.
If you set up a base capable of sustaining itself with limited supply dropoffs then mining things and sending it back via unmanned modules is super-feasible in the future. I can't wait for the Japanese to get to work on their robotic moon base.Quote:
Originally Posted by g0zen
e3 should be held on the moon in the future.