So will my plan to invest in studying ants. new ant studin technology will have value in medical fields and elsewhere. lets do the ant thing. you could throw money at any science tony and it will probably produce stuff someone can use...... What private companies are investing in asteroid mining technology? And if it has private funding then why do they need tax dollars
Has there been a history of ant studies resulting in new technologies? That's a very bad example and doesn't apply to space programs at all. Did private companies invested in creating the internet? The public sector has done many amazing things. We should balance spending and investment, but we can be smart about it and not just think public sector can't do anything worthwhile for humanity when it has done plenty. In fact, there are some areas that only the public sector can do due to the fact that its goal is not purely to make money, but to do goods for the people.
So you think without NASA, telecomms would have invested private dollars in satellites and all that money into R&D? I guess my point is that public dollars are needed for hard science which produces unforseen benefits.
when have we thrown tons of tax dollars at ant studies. lets do it. lets 'learn new things' The idea that the internet would not exist without tax payer dollars is ridiculous. Yea cause nobody needs to transfer information quickly right? yea, of course. That's how a free market works. If the need warrants the investment then the investment happens.
If you want to toss billions of dollars at a mission, sure you will get something back. But it is a zero-sum game. Those billions for space adventures can go elsewhere. I still like the college scholarship idea: kids can get some scholarship money if they have certain level of achievement in high school. Or, instead of space, we could build a station in the deepest deepest part of the ocean. I'm sure we'll get some discoveries and new tech out of it
I don't know how much we throw at it and for what reason. It's irrelevant to space programs. That's not what was the idea. The internet was staryted by public sector. Who knows if and when it would be created without the public sector. You can't go back in time and change that to know. And exactly why there are areas why the public sector can do good. It doesn't need "the need for money" to speak. It work for the public.
Maybe eventually but that technology took decades of public funding and took a space race. You greatly overestimate the free markets ability to create the internet or create GPS. Or you are merely ignorant on how much innovation we owe to public funding.
Big things need yuge capital costs and investment. Without the government setting the table, companies won't just jump into it. The idea that spacex or Tessa could make it in a libertarian wet dream is pure simple minded hogwash. American companies complaining about foreign competitors outhustling us is just code for more government interference... less taxes targeted to them and more subsidies specifically for them. They complain about favorites until they're big enough to be one. With things like space, you have to be big enough.
You don't inspire millions of people, grab daily headlines or steer far more kids into STEM fields by burning ants. You would get all of those with a real Mars mission. The number of people inspired by Apollo is the reason we are the leaders of computer science. The return for the money for actual space exploration is exponential. Doing circles around the earth doesn't.
With all due respect, your lack of imagination and your complacency are surprising. If tonight an astronomer discovered a large asteroid or comet on course to strike our planet in days, or weeks, or months, or late next year, what could we do about it? Right now, nothing, except to wait for it to hit us. It's happened before, more than once. It will happen again someday, and could possibly destroy humanity. That's one excellent reason to have a growing presence in space. Another is that humanity has never stopped expanding, has never stopped exploring, has never lost its sense of wonder and its curiosity. Our push into space will not end. If an ignorant and xenophobic America decides to withdraw from world leadership and crawl within itself, walling our country against the world in the vain hope of recreating a past more fiction than fact, others will dominate the world, and they will dominate space. If we don't build bases on the Moon, the Chinese, Russians, and Europeans likely will. If we don't explore Mars, they likely will. If we don't mine and live in the Asteroid belt, they likely will. Meanwhile, should that happen, people like you will sit at home wondering why we aren't there, assuming you live long enough. In my humble opinion.
Dont need to travel to space to do that. It also has nothing to do with SpaceX as its not what the company does........ I'm glad my tax dollars are being spent to retain humanity's sense of curiosity and wonder. Save this jargon for liberal arts students.
You obviously have absolutely no clue as to how vast the resources available in space, especially asteroids are and that right now several companies and research programs are dedicated to asteroid mining. This is a terrible analogy and I don't know how you even came up with it. Look up what technology was developed by NASA and its affiliated programs, some of the most important technology we have is attributed to them. Researching ants would include no technological advances at all by default, or can you name a technology that we'd develop during that process? Also, leaving Earth in the future and colonizing other planets is the ONLY way humanity can live on in case of environmental disasters or the inevitable end of our sun. You should honestly stop talking about astronomy/science if you don't comprehend its importance and several benefits one bit. You just look like an ignorant and uneducated douche.
you failed to answer either of the questions. Why do you say that? also what default are you referring to? What valuable technology do you think we will get from investing in more space travel? and if their is value, why not let private companies invest and go after that value instead of using our tax dollars?
Not our task to educate you on space, you shouldn't be that vocal and against space travel if you obviously haven't even the slightest clue. Feel free to google and then come back, not that difficult. The resources available on Earth are a tiny fart compared to what you can reasonably mine in space. Because researching ants doesn't require technological innovation, which space travel does. There's also no insight in ants to be gained that's on a higher evolutionairy and technological ladder then what we currently possess. Exploring space is viable for climate research for example, a topic essential for our lifes and the future of humanity. Maybe check past inventions to see how important NASA is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_spin-off_technologies And again, you seem to not understand that life on Earth is finite, we have to colonize other planets in order to ensure the future of humanity. NASA is an established insitution that can't be replicated just by banking on private investments. Also, NASA has been essential in cooperations with private institutions and a lot of inventions have resulted from those programs, see the link I pasted above. And for your information, there are indeed private companies working on space travel, mining etc. Really have to ask the question, do you realize how tiny the fraction of tax money is that benefits NASA? If you'd rather cut funding for a field that is the only option of saving humanity and has also brought upon the most important inventions we use nowadays, instead of reducing the ridiculous amounts of money lost on weapons, tax cuts for billionaires/millionaires, companies and other idiotic stuff that doesn't benefit us, there is something seriously wrong with your thought process and priorities.
Yeah that's about the response i expected from you. 'I dunno' how the hell would you know. nano technology couldn't be useful in getting into a ant farm? so what technology? should i chalk this up to 'I dunno' and 'not my job to educate you' What? why not? You seem to be arguing with others on this forum who claim private companies are investing and are replicating. If they see value, let them do it. Not government's job. I despise the government investing in any private companies with my money. SpaceX would just be one example. I hate the government picking winners and losers which is what this is. Crony capitalism. Dont all you lefties hate wealth inequality? What do you think it is when the government invests with tax payer dollars into rich dudes company? SpaceX fails , Elon stays rich off you. Not sure why you are asking about NASA tax funds.
I fully know, I just don't want to waste my time on an ignorant douche that yell sh** here without even knowing anything about the topic. Again, feel free to google and for god's sake only reply when you have actually read up, instead of talking irrelevant bs. How can you even develop a stance on space agencies and be vocal when you haven't educated yourself at all and don't know anything about the issues at hand? Pretty obvious you're biased and just want to talk sh** for the hell of it, nothing you say is based on any knowledge or facts on this topic. "Uhh the pioneers travelled here for resources, what resources are there in space?" How about looking it up before firing shots at the idea of space travel when you obviously have the astronomy knowledge of a toddler. You mean the nano technology that is fueled by space programs and heavily based on NASA programs? Thanks for actually doing my work and supporting NASA and space travel, sherlock. I gave you a link and won't waste my time any further, there's a ton of programs that you can look up in minutes, instead of wasting your time here saying uneducated guesses that don't help your point. Not sure why you cut off my statement there, maybe because you wouldn't have anything to say and wanted to twist my words? I'm not, I explicitly said that private companies are investing but at the same time they heavily benefit from NASA and cooperate. That's a fact. Absolutely no relevance or reply to my point on space programs being the most essential field for the future of humanity and I'm not a "leftie" either, try again.
Bottom line, public money funds technology that may not have an immediate commercial application. Lastly, other governments fund hard science too so public money is used for a competitive advantage. Even if America stopped publicly funding science, a country like China would eat our lunch in short order.
