How many jobs did Steve Jobs create by converting the Apollo capsule computer into the Apple of his eye?
How many Dish and Direct TV systems are in operation? How many cell phones are in use?
How many GPS systems are guiding us over the river and through the woods to Grandmother's house?
How many lives are saved with the new medical technology that was developed to track astronaut's health.
this stuff all came about from the funds spent in what you say is a sink hole!
Phooey!
Let private enterprise fund it. No more extorted “government” money please.
“Phooey”
LOL!
“How many jobs did Steve Jobs create by converting the Apollo capsule computer into the Apple of his eye? “
I don’t think I’ve ever used an Apollo computer. Lotsa’ IBM (all the way back to the 360), and lotsa’ Hollerith cards too. I can’t tell you the answer to your question, but manned space probes are not the nexus of all scientific advancement in the last 50+ years (some but not the majority).
“How many Dish and Direct TV systems are in operation?”
These sats are robots (unmanned). I’m not aware that any manned probes put these into low earth orbit (correct me if I’m wrong). The geosynchronous sats get into low earth orbit by unmanned rockets.
“How many cell phones are in use?”
Lots, but none of that stuff is in orbit. The cellphone systems of the World are market driven enterprises. They can exist quite nicely without manned space probes. Their technological development was (perhaps) only slightly dependent on the manned space program, and except for a tiny minority, they are terrestrially sighted.
“How many GPS systems are guiding us over the river and through the woods to Grandmother’s house?”
Lots. But again, most all of the hardware in orbit was put there by unmanned spacecraft. GPS, as you know, was and is a DOD project. It is not dependent on manned craft.
“How many lives are saved with the new medical technology that was developed to track astronaut’s health.”
Some, but you’re talking about very old technology now. Did MRI’s, or cathether based surgeries originate from manned space research? This sort of stuff is based in basic science and very terrestrial.
“this stuff all came about from the funds spent in what you say is a sink hole!”
Nope, but I do agree that much of it was/is a “sinkhole”. What money was spent may have brought some serendipitous discoveries, but directed funding in basic science and specific areas of research would have been a more efficient and responsible investment. Spending bazillions of dollars and employeeing bazillions of people is obviously going to provide some spinoff benefits, but it is not the best use for large expenditures and man-hours if more beneficial research needs are out there requiring investment dollars. The free market is far better at providing solutions to our technological needs than the manned space program ever was.
Phooey, indeed!
No, all of that stuff came from military or commercial research and development. You do the space cause a disservice by giving NASA credit for inventing and spinning off technologies that it inherited from the military or the private sector.
NASA should be doing basic research and true cutting edge space exploration that the commercial sector and even the military can't or won't do. When NASA does this, they shine. When they get bogged down in operations and competing with the private sector, they waste tax dollars and hurt the marketplace and should be rightly chastised for doing so.