[Pubbie]

I'd rather disband NASA and use the money for Tax Cuts.

Space travel won't really be profitable until somenone figures out how to make spaceships that can (Safely) travel much faster than the speed of light.

[ambrose]

Space travel won't really be profitable until somenone figures out how to make spaceships that can (Safely) travel much faster than the speed of light.

And just how is that going to happen in the absence of research and exploration? That's like saying let's not bother developing an Internet, because it isn't very practical to use at 300 baud.

[ElkGroveDan]

Space travel won't really be profitable until somenone figures out how to make spaceships that can (Safely) travel much faster than the speed of light.

Oh come on, can't we have a serious discussion here?

[zarf]

Did you say something or was that a fart?

[RightWhale]

make spaceships that can (Safely) travel much faster than the speed of light.

Nine minutes to Mars is just too darned much time to waste.

[RightWhale]

OTOH, spaceport security delay would cancel out the advantages of instantaneous travel.

[Prime Choice]

I'd rather disband NASA and use the money for Tax Cuts.

So you'd like to effectively kill the bulk of R&D in aerospace and throw the economy into a rapid tailspin with the immediate loss of highly-skilled workers in the science and aerospace industry. Nice move.

You think the private sector is going to fund R&D? Guess again. The private sector can't see beyond the next two quarters. NASA, on the other hand, plans at least a decade in advance.

And while we're on the subject, perhaps you should spend a little time learning about how NASA Spinoffs benefit business and consumer alike.

Space travel won't really be profitable until somenone figures out how to make spaceships that can (Safely) travel much faster than the speed of light.

What you're talking about is space travel via teleportation using coherent light as the means of transmission. We can't do that...yet. But that doesn't mean we should just sit on our thumb waiting for the canonical Holy Grail.

As for going faster than the speed of light, there's chatter about such things, but it's still in the realm of fanciful theory. And even if we did manage it, the whole issue of relativity that sci-fi shows conveniently ignore would become manifest in short order.

[Fledermaus]

It's not possible for space ships to travel faster than the speed of light...or even the speed of light. Don't buy into the Star Trek "warp field" theory.

E=MC2

At the speed of light, matter becomes energy.