NEVADA DESERT: Computers, start your engines; Stanford team apparent winners in robot car race

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | October 9th, 2005 | Tom Abate

[Shuttle Shucker]

The Russian Soyuz costs nearly 30 times less, and has a much better safety rate than the Shuttle.

The bureaucrats and other statists (liberals like yourself, it would seem) counter that the Shuttle has more bells & whistles.

Fiscal conservatives in the know counter that they don't justify the exorbitant price or safety risks.

[Shuttle Shucker]

The last time I checked, the USA's a democracy. NASA has finally responded today by offering launch-related competitive prizes:

http://www.space.com/news/051009_xprize_challenge.html

What took it so long (nearly 5 decades)? Surely self-preservation had NOTHING to do with it.

[John Jamieson]

I'm confused: is it 30 or 25 times more expensive?

Soyuz cost per pound is actually higher than Shuttle.

Most experts put Soyuz launch cost at $75 million. It carries less than half as many people, and no where near the Shuttle's 50,000 pound payload.

Do some research before typing please.

[John Jamieson]

NASA has always supported university and private industry research. You don't have the slightest understanding of what you're talking about.

[John Jamieson]

Update on Soyuz Payload: Zero is the correct number if 3 crew members on board.

4 Soyuz deaths (haven't found total passengers yet). Two other failed missions.

[xzins]

I'm for you.

However, these kind of things that they test for the military and others, you have to wonder what kind of use they'll put them to in the civilian world.

[wyattearp]

The last time I checked, the USA's a democracy.

Then you've never checked. The USA is not a democracy. It is a Representative Republic.

[Wiz]

Meanwhile, the sad news would be that UGVs will need fuel to drive as their lunch, and maintenance for their sleep. These UGVs will go on strike when not enough maintenance are made. Let's hope they won't strike in middle of the battle field. By the way, the good news would be that there will be no such labour unions setup by the UGVs.

[Shuttle Shucker]

>>>NASA has always supported university and private industry research. You don't have the slightest understanding of what you're talking about.<<<

There's a difference between doling out academic pork in exchange for academic sycophantism, and putting up competitive prizes that the best academic contestants can win. NASA does lots of the former (with our tax dollars) and too little of the latter.

[John Jamieson]

Now that know that comparing the Shuttle to the Soyuz is ridiculous, I respectfully request that you change your tagline to something less misleading. That way I won't have to follow you all around the forums correcting you.

[Shuttle Shucker]

Dennis Tito paid for nearly the entire Soyuz launch for nearly 30 times less than the cost of a Shuttle launch, and he actually made it back safely. Your only "rebuttal" appears to be an unproven assertion (and a self-serving one at that). If you ever have a legitimate correction as opposed to a self-serving insult (assuaging your feelings of guilt at having profited from that mega-waste of tax dollars), I'll take your requests more seriously. Until then, your posts buttress my claims that (for example) monopolies aren't good for society, and neither are those living on retirement income derived from them. Good riddance, Sir.

[trickyricky]

"The last time I checked, the USA's a democracy."

"Then you've never checked.
The USA is not a democracy."

You're absolutely right

We are a Constitutional Republic.

And somebody ought to tell the stinking politicians in D.C.
including our fearless leader.

I've heard him call us a democracy on more than one occasion.

[wyattearp]

We are moving more and more toward democracy (aka mob rule) all the time. The constitution was amended to take the election of the presidency away from the congress. It was then amended to take the election of senators away from the states.

The election of the presidency was a beautiful form of term limits. Don't like the president? Fire your congresscritter. Same thing with senators. Don't like your state's US senator? Fire the members of your state legislature or state assembly. Term limits were natural to the original structure of our government.

Our government worked fine, as designed. Unfortunately for the citizens of this country, it didn't work fine for the scumbags whose goal was to stay in office forever. Politicians have more power in a democracy than in a republic. They WANT a democracy, that's why they SAY it's a democracy.