Posted on 08/03/2023 11:48:16 AM PDT by Jan_Sobieski
A leading space scientist has called to question the validity of human spaceflight, suggesting that sending astronauts outward from Earth is outdated, too costly, and the science returned is trivial.
The human space flight critic is no stranger to space -- in fact he's a pioneer in the space science arena from the premier days of satellite orbiting Earth.
James van Allen, Regent Distinguished Professor at the University of Iowa, is the noted discoverer ofradiation belts encircling Earth. His seminal finding -- labeled the Van Allen radiation belts -- stemmed from the scientist's experiment that flew on Explorer1, America’s first satellite to successfully orbit the Earth back on January 31, 1958.
Van Allen's appraisal of manned space missions -- "Is HumanSpaceflight Obsolete?" -- is carried within the pages of the Summer 2004 volume of Issues in Science andTechnology.
The quarterly policy journal is published by the Cecil and Ida Green Center for the Study of Science and Society at the University of Texasat Dallas in cooperation with the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C.
"My position is that it is high time for a calm debate on more fundamental questions. Does human spaceflight continue to serve acompelling cultural purpose and/or our national interest? Or does human space flight simply have a life of its own, without a realistic objective that is remotely commensurate with its costs? Or, indeed, is human spaceflight nowobsolete?" van Allen writes.
Van Allen's call for discussion is prompted in part by NASA’s grounding of the remaining space shuttle fleet following the Columbia accident, while the agency takes steps to improve their safety. Also, the scientist notes that President Bush has put on the table "a far more costly and far more hazardous program" to return humans back to the Moon…
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
Simple: The taxpayers should not spend one dime on this.
Bezos, Musk, etal can spend as much of their own money and that of willing volunteers as they want with no government restriction.
A leading space scientist has called to question the validity of human spaceflight, suggesting that sending astronauts outward from Earth is outdated, too costly, and the science returned is trivial.So let's just sit right here that is guaranteed to be near an imploding star.
DID YOU EVEN READ THE ARTICLE THAT YOU POSTED????
No.
You clearly did not.
James Van Allen said nothing about the "validity" of manned spaceflight.
James Van Allen expressed doubts about the continued UTILITY of manned spaceflight.
Furthermore, he was talking about the Space Shuttle and the ISS, neither of which is anywhere near a Van Allen radiation belt.
You are not engaged in honest discussion.
Interplanetary radiation makes roundtrip spaceflight to mars difficult (heavy) as plain old water is the shielding of choice. A Case for Mars said 5000KG of water to protect against interstellar radiation and the nuclear submarine reactor that you need to make return fuel and energy from the surface of mars.
Space X challenge is to re integrate light weight 500KW-1MW nuclear power back into the surface mission on mars. Solar power is fine for a 4 astronauts kept warm by a toaster oven on mars, but very quickly a mars base is going to want to make ceramic materials to build things to build into the surface to get away from lack of radiation protection provided by the very tiny mars atmosphere.
Hunter Biden was engaged in corrupt influence peddling with Russian, Ukrainian, and Communist Chinese government interests, to benefit himself and his perverted pedophile father.
Joe Biden used his former Vice Presidential office to cover up his son’s corrupt financial dealings with foreign interests.
Joe Biden illegally kept classified documents, in an insecure garage at his home, from both his time as a senator and his time as Vice President.
“So let’s just sit right here that is guaranteed to be near an imploding star.”
Before it collapses it will become a red giant and cook us.
You are not engaged in honest discussion.
____________________________________
You do know you’re arguing with a mad woman who believes the manned moon trips were all staged, don’t you?
Contrived on a Hollywood back stage.
Which is part of the process.
I didn’t know the individual was a woman. Are you sure? Are you a biologist? Have you cleared that with Ketanji Brown-Jackson? ;’}
As to the rest ... This has been going on for a couple of days, now ... there’s a handful of these clowns here.
I think they’re trolls, trying to distract from the Biden Crime Family scandals.
It’s not just about science. It’s about EXPANSION.
No, he questioned if manned flights should continue due to the human lives lost in that last shuttle disaster.
It seems to me you’re disingenuously insinuating that he is questioning whether or not we actually sent astronauts through the radiation zones named after him.
What is the source of your motivation to attempt to discredit the Apollo moon landings?
What he said: https://issues.org/p_van_allen/
They are trolls and they try to distract, interrupt, misinform, and generally add nothing to the subject at hand, other than demonstrating their total ignorance of the subject. They are to be found all across FR which seem to have become their natural habitat.
It like saying that no one should settle the West, based on the last Indian attack which killed dozens on a wagon train.
"The more people believe in conspiracy theories, the worse they perform on critical thinking tests, a new study has confirmed..."
"...Critical thinking is the objective analysis and evaluation of a situation – and requires a number of cognitive skills.
These include the ability to think systematically, see other perspectives, change your mind when new evidence arises, identify relevant versus irrelevant information, identify and discard logical fallacies, be aware of biases and avoid them, and look beyond the obvious.
None of this is particularly easy.
What the researchers found was a strong association between lower critical thinking skills and an increased tendency toward believing conspiracy theories.
The Cure for Belief in Conspiracy Theories
How intellectual humility is an antidote to belief in false conspiracies.
Intellectually humble people have an appropriate level of awareness of their intellectual weaknesses.
People who hold the above beliefs fail to appreciate their intellectual limits appropriately and accurately assess what those limits are.
Intellectual humility is a crucial virtue for avoiding irrational belief in conspiracy theories...
...Many who believe and then propagate false conspiracy theories are also failing to own their intellectual weaknesses....
More than the thin atmosphere, Mars has no electromagnetic field like Earth does to shield if from the Solar Wind and all the other nasty particles and radiations that are sleeting death just over our heads. Any outposts on Mars will have to be deep underground. Hell of an engineering project.
I think we should do it, though. Take the $ out of our UN, welfare and federal employee salary budgets
The earth (and the universe) will be re-created before this ever happens.
I haven't yet worked out a plausible reason why the Russians would have aided the US's hoax space program, but I found some magic mushrooms in the garden today, and I have high hopes they'll do the trick.
The US also hoaxed the launch of their own rocket in 1968 (OV1-13) with a fake radiation instrumentation package. After a 13-month hoax mission to measure and map the Van Allen belts, they hoaxed having the certain knowledge how to pass an astronaut through the belt unharmed.
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