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President Obama signs $19 billion NASA funding bill into law

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout: Debate & Discussion' started by Ubiquitin, Oct 11, 2010.

  1. jonjon

    jonjon Member

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    Maybe we should dedicate more money to finding and perfecting more efficient ways to travel here on EARTH.
     
  2. FranchiseBlade

    Supporting Member

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    Here's the problem with abandoning the manned space program.

    We lose know-how when it's time to start up again. There was a great loss between the previous generation of manned space-craft, and the Shuttle crafts. It made getting the shuttle up and running that much more difficult and expensive.

    People don't train in engineering for manned space flight, when there is none. The same goes for the programming involved, design, all of it. Once we decide to use manned flights again we'd be reinventing the wheel with some of the steps involved.

    I think it's better to stay at forefront and on top of the game so that we can take the lead on things like the space station, and experiments conducted there or in space that require humans to be present.
     
  3. jonjon

    jonjon Member

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    Nice Point...
     
  4. Major

    Major Member

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    Unfortunately, "it's cool" is not a good enough reason to spend tens of billions of dollars when you have a major budget problem and other pressing needs. But beyond that, isn't sending a spaceship to Mars - and all the new technology that will be developed for that - a bit more "no one else has seen before" than sending people back to the moon?
     
  5. SamFisher

    SamFisher Member

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    What parts of the moon harbor unknown scientific mysteries that can only be discovered by men in jumpsuits?
    Can't we train robots to grow plants in space? I'm entirely serious.
     
  6. Invisible Fan

    Invisible Fan Member

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    Give google time.
     
  7. Qball

    Qball Member

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    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium-3

    The research/processing would have to be done on the moon and by Humans. Robotic technology would be a big role but human presence would definitely be required. We currently don't (nor plan to) have the robotic mining technology to make it an autonomous process.

    I believe this is one of the reasons, if not the top, China (and India to an extent) wants to get to the moon.
     
  8. SamFisher

    SamFisher Member

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    If I'm not mistaken, moon-mining has already been debunked as ludicrously unfeasible on an economic basis.
     
  9. Qball

    Qball Member

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    No we cannot. If we could, we would have robots doing minor surgeries and robots doing construction work. Though, I wouldn't mind putting $19 billion into trying to create this guy...
    [​IMG]


    Sam, we've debated this to hell. Your issue was not the how, it was the why. Didn't you say that we just don't need to do the experiments in space? Please tell me you finally see the light....
     
  10. CrazyDave

    CrazyDave Member

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    that and the fact neither have been there.

    I'm pretty sure there is enough helium-3 (which is rare but can be created per your article on wiki) to conduct fusion experiments or whatever without going to the moon just yet. Just a layman's guess.
     
  11. Qball

    Qball Member

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    Well, the United States space policy has taken this stance. But internationally speaking, the outlook on this is more positive.

    If CERN was a project proposed within the United States, it would never see the light of day. It would be seen as a waste of money.
     
  12. SamFisher

    SamFisher Member

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    No it's the how and the why. You do know that it's entirely possible to automate agriculture, right? Why not find a way to do so....IN SPACE?!?! (the ultimate qualifier to most nasa scientific rationales...you're not studying human hair, you're studing it.............. IN SPACE!!!)

    oh that's right, cause nobody gives a crap about astroculture except for people who get paid to do it, and there is no exterior commercial or scientific demand for it.
     
  13. CrazyDave

    CrazyDave Member

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  14. Qball

    Qball Member

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    You could be right or wrong. Imo, one day we'll need to get there for it. It would suck for us to be scrambling to get there while other countries are already prepared.

    Unfortunately, what we need is for the Chinese to get there and brag about as a big F U to the US (i.e. sputnik). Historically, fear/extreme competition seems to be the only way for us to get anything done.
     
  15. SamFisher

    SamFisher Member

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    Umm...yeah citing a 7 year old article in the People's Daily doesn't really make your statement true and unlaughable.
    We had one, it was called the superconducting supercolider, and it did get canceled.

    It probably was a waste - the amount of money expended in super-high end particle physics compared with the number of discoveries these days is a pretty nasty ratio. And the worst part is, maybe they could discover the higgs boson and then they are theoretically screwed: http://www.slate.com/id/2167563/pagenum/2

    The differnecne of course is that supercolliders etc are basic science that result in what are theoretically new discoveries.

    manned spaceflight, an applied science, hasn't really generated anything new and noteworthy since before you and I were born.
     
    #35 SamFisher, Oct 12, 2010
    Last edited: Oct 12, 2010
  16. Qball

    Qball Member

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    lol, the great SamFisher....it's only a fact if your opinion says it is.

    Let's not get into it again. Let the less extreme sides talk about it. We'll just be observers for now.
     
    1 person likes this.
  17. SamFisher

    SamFisher Member

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    We should just be observers, that's what I'm saying.
     
  18. rocketsjudoka

    rocketsjudoka Member

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    You must have missed the thread when some posters hinted that Obama was going to gut NASA to fund high speed rail.
     
  19. rocketsjudoka

    rocketsjudoka Member

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    Not if we use:
    CLONES!

    [​IMG]

    Also
    THAT'S NO MOON..

    Yes! beat MadMax to it!
     
  20. Deckard

    Deckard Blade Runner
    Supporting Member

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    Great post! As for Sam wanting robots to do everything in space, I suspect that they will do a huge amount going forward, but in concert with people, not instead of people.
     

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