Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Sorok]

Quote:
The sun will go in millions of years time - possibly

We have plenty of time to get off of here, and from a lot of peoples purely scientific minded approach we wont ever know anything about it as we shall  die and cease to exist so I just dont care.

I would personaly stop space missions for 50 years or so until we are better equiped to do this. I think we should do this, and do it right. All in favour of builind the original Enterprise say I  

I dont think we have plenty of time before our environment begins to have serious repurcussions on our general population.  I also feel that too many people "don't care" and thats half the reason we're all concerned about our future.

And Stopping til we're ready???

Was Columbus "ready" for his transatlantic voyage? (Losing much of his crew.)

Was Magellan "ready" to sail around the world?

Our "readiness" has always followed our collective motivation to explore new territories.  Without these attampts, we would never be ready.


And as far as building the "original Enterprise" is concerned,  we're not ready.  ROFL  

[MrCue]

Quote:
humans are not mammals. Every other mammal establishes a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment. Humans use up every available resource until the only way to survive is to spread. There is another organism (??) that fits this profile : a virus
The Matrix

[NJAntman]

Don't sweat it. This kind of talk comes out every time there is any setback in the space program.

Its a charge lead by people who aren't against the space program per say but are generally looking to pick up more tax dollars for their own pet programs. What type of programs might you ask? Well, here are my favorites:
- the arts (nice paintings in a funky building, we can all go there to marvel at our collective creativity as an asteroid is about tp pummel the planet)...
- most social welfare programs (we can all pat each other on the back for saving those few truly in need,  maybe the welfare for life folks could be stacked up to create a planetary sheild)....
- Congressional Pork projects, too many and some so mind boggling as to defy description (describe these in book form it would  be enough to cushion the impact of any asteroid)....
... my very favorite - Gov inefficieny on all levels, I had heard stories and thought nobody could be that apathetic; but alas, as a civilian contractor I've seen both good people go Gov and the Gov lifers, they just loose all sense of productivty and sit around waiting to retire.

Personally, I'd love to get hold of the airwaves and demand an end spending tax money whenever someone comes out of a gallery/museum without a smile, or a child grows up 2nd or 3rd generation welfare, or some half-wit political appointee gets a Gov job pushing paper at a redundant, unecessary desk in a building that should never have been built.

Barring that wonderful day I thank the powers that be I can at least crank up SFC and turn on the news to watch the slow progress of our half-assed species toward the stars.  

[TheSatyr]

Not to mention the Government funding scientific research to see if running with scissors is really dangerous.(An exageration...but not by much...considering the bizarre things that do get funding.).  

[kevlar]

One of the reasons that made henry, the navigator send mans to pass the Bojador cape, limit of the know world in 1433, was simply to know what was after that frontier. From the religious and cultural point of view of his time,  he was sending people in suicidal missions . Many believed that the world actually ended on the bojador cape, and anyone passing it would fall in a abyss. Others claimed that if the Bojador cape was the limit of the know world because God made it that way, and that trying to pass such frontier was going against God's wiil.

When I read that a couple of morons are trying to stop the space program, I can't stop  thinking that people  like Henry the navigator, Gil Eanes, Bartolomeu Dias ( the man that proved the comunicability of the Atlantic and Indic oceans and in the process gave the final blow on the ptolomaic concepcion of the world),  Colombo, Vasco da Gama, Alvares Cabral and Magalhães  are twisting in their graves.  

[Subspace]

 

Quote:
People have been known to die while having sex, so, no more having sex.
 

My wife would freek.....

 

Quote:
 And as far as building the "original Enterprise" is concerned, we're not ready. ROFL  

 we would prob be just as redneck as the crew of new or should i say old  Enterprise....  Witch is turning out to be pretty good ; even though they have already possibly destroyed the trek timeline as we know it.....    ROFL  

   

[Karnak]

I think the Space program needs to find ways to become more financially viable.  The time of experimentation is over. We have proven that we can goto the Moon, that we can build space stations, that we can maintain people in such space stations for months if not years.  But, now we should question what we are going to do with our new found potential.  Many of the setbacks NASA has suffered over the last decade can be pointed to funding cutbacks. The failed probe mission to Mars 10 years ago is a prime example.

More focus by NASA on projects that are really worthwhile should provide little trouble in being amply funded. Private corporations will be lining up to get dibs on the first patent.  One project that the gov't. could focus on which private industry would be hard put to support is advances in space flight propulsion.  If NASA would focus on turning science fiction to science fact regarding prototype Impulse Engines for meaningful intra-system flight then you have a real advancement in mankind's history.  Without cost-efficient propulsion, we cannot do anything meaningful in our own Solar System.  

[DaBoogyMan]

Well, the US is definatly leading the way, but the entire world will eventually gain from the progress made.   It would be nice to see more world finantial support.

[D. Boon's Ghost]

Perhaps it would be best if we focused on the problems of this world, before seeking out others.
 

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Quote:
Perhaps it would be best if we focused on the problems of this world, before seeking out others.
   

Until when? Until our world is perfect?

That may take a while....  

[kevlar]

Quote:
Perhaps it would be best if we focused on the problems of this world, before seeking out others.
   

Independently of whatever opinion we might have about the subject of space exploration, we are on the verge of choosing between two completely different strategical options:

1)   Focus on the current problems and saying that what might be done in future, should be done in the future


2)   Concentrate efforts on closing the gap to future achievements.

I am not a religious person in the sense that I don?t believe in reincarnation and such. I truly believe that we only have one shot a life and when she is over we don?t get a ticket back or the chance to send postcards.  Because of my conception, the safety of human biological life is simply the ultimate good.  Nevertheless I would be willing to depart from such valious merchandise for a major advance on space exploration.

I am not a US citizen, so my euros aren?t financing the Nasa, but if I were, I would prefer knowing that my taxes went to the Space or the SETI Programs than many other things.

In the Middle Ages, mankind decided to look to the earth (their immediate problems) and not to the horizon. They didn?t solved their problems ( that was the genesis of the Expansion) and they also clearly compromised technical evolution.
As a consequence many classify the Middle Age as a period of stagnation.

We can focus on the current problems and search solutions for them, but the last 2000 years of History proved that viable solutions are only found with colossal and costly  jumps in the unknown.  

No one can deny that mankind ultimate goal is to travel among the stars, to close the circle of life that started with the Big Bang , quoting the late Carl Sagan and not Moby, since we are all made of stars and we must return to then

Closing the Space Program for 1, 5 or 10 or more years is the typical medieval solution. I personally don?t find fancy to live in an era where we choose, use and abuse of archaic solutions to delay the inevitable.
 

[yellow_fang-L7]

Are folks trying to stop the space program or the shuttle? I haven't heard many folks saying the space program needs to go, but a lot of folks are banging the drum to get rid of the shuttle.  

I think the shuttle needs to go. Let's build a new shuttle. Base on 2003 tech instead of 1970's tech. Something that uses modern computers and material science to best advantage. Maybe a "space plane" program for people and a disposable heavy launch vehicle for "stuff". There is a good anti shuttle article at the new republic here http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=20030217&s=editorial021703. I think the shuttle is in the way of a better space program...  

[Subspace]

I was talking to my mom about this topic & she said .( it doesnt matter  the second coming we be the end of us anyway )

I wanted to shoot myself in the head ,,,,, can any1 kill me now Please !!!!!!

WTF ???

 

[Cruis.In]

Quote:
I mean the dam sun is going to go 1 day ... What then ???????

you'll be dead by then don't worry.

for me, i just hope they have a cure for old age symptoms by the time im 40. grand illusions of space exploration are too far off for me to even care about. not to say that if i had a choice of living in this time and living in a 24th century galaxy hopping universe i wouldnt make a switch.........sounds like fun.

[Lieutenant_Q]

The timeline that we know of (although its vague right now) is not being messed up at all.  Producers were very clever to include the temporal cold war in there as a way for allowing continuity to be preserved.  Whatever gets screwed up on the series can be claimed to having been the Suliban's fault and of course can be fixed by the rival factions.  Personally, i have no idea why the Federation would even allow this kind of technology to be pursued.  The Prime Directive would become obsolete once time travel technology gets out of Star Fleet's hands.  The same would go for every sane galactic power.  If this technology were to become available to the public, whats stopping a radical element from going back into time and altering history to the point that your empire is eliminated.  Even a Ferengi would pause a second before auctioning it off to the highest bidder. (What If the person I sell this to goes back in time and steals the profit I make off this device)  

[Mr. Hypergol]

Quote:
 Perhaps it would be best if we focused on the problems of this world, before seeking out others.

I thought that is what the space program was doing?

 I find that most people who don't support space exploration usually also know nothing accurate about it.  Especially when it comes to how much is spent on space.

NASA gets 15 billion of a 2.3 trillion dollar federal budget annually.  That's less than 1% of the budget or about 1 cent for every 100 dollars of tax payer money.  The shuttle gets about 2 billion of that 15 billion.

Can anyone explain to me how cancelling the space program will make any difference to the amount of money spent to "fix the problems of this world"?

The reality is that space exploration has done more to change people's lives for the better than most endeavours....all at a bargain price.