Posted on 12/01/2008 2:22:01 PM PST by Joiseydude
WASHINGTON — U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's NASA transition team is asking U.S. space agency officials to quantify how much money could be saved by canceling the Ares 1 rocket and scaling back the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle next year.
Obama pledged during his campaign to inject an additional $2 billion into NASA aimed in part at narrowing the gap between the space shuttle's retirement and the introduction of a successor system.
While NASA Administrator Mike Griffin and his senior managers are adamant that Ares and Orion are the right vehicles to fill that role, Obama did not endorse either system by name during his campaign.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Wonder how Caroline feels about her inspirational Barry now?
Sounds like the making of a NASA cluster ...
Wasn’t the shuttle supposed to launch every 6-8 weeks, quick turnaround, etc., etc.,?
Why do we still trust NASA to do manned space flight?
No problem. Other countries will be more than happy to explore space as the US abandons it`s space program. Then NASA can be used to focus entirely on global warming as libs want it to do.
Are you kidding? Getting on and off the planet is the hard part and we've already got that licked. But I'm not worried about mankind not making it into space. It looks like the Chinese will be happy to backfill for us.
Wow, something I agree with 0bama on. But let’s not spend the savings. Let’s pay off some debt. Privatize space.
Plus The One can use money that would have been spent on space exploration and spend it on freebies for illegal aliens.
40+ years ago, the Saturn 5 worked perfectly. Tell me why they can’t dig out the blueprints, and start replicating it down to every bolt, nut, and screw????
“One thing I’ve never understood is why conservatives are more supportive of space exploration than liberals. In fact, I think conservatives are even more likely to support government funding of a space program than liberals.”
because we like science as long as it produces real results.
Newt said:
And that’s something we’ve done for virtually all of American history. Remember, the first telegraph line in the world was built between Baltimore and Washington with a congressional grant. As an example, by the way, of not quite getting the right winner, the Congress passed $50,000 in aid to the Smithsonian to build the first airplane. They had the wrong model and their plane went into the Potomac and the Wright Brothers, who got no money, actually invented how to fly the same year, which made the Smithsonian really angry and they had a really bad relationship. So if you get a chance to go to the Air and Space Museum, you will see that the Wright flyer is there, but it took 35 years for the Smithsonian to convince the Wright Brothers to quit being mad at them.
So we’ve always had, and I know for some of my libertarian friends this is hard to swallow, we have always had a bias in favor of investing in science and technology that goes back to Washington, who raised animals and was continuously tinkering and imported, for example, a new breed of sheep from Spain and saw himself as someone to do that; Jefferson, who had a similar pattern of an invention; Franklin, who, of course, was one of the greatest inventors in the world and was recognized worldwide as a scientist; these folks all believed in knowledge and they all believed in a bias in favor of knowledge in general, which is why I urge conservatives to read Hamilton first, Report on Manufacturers and first report on the debt to understand that you can do it without getting involved in bureaucracy and without picking specific companies or picking specific winners.
They threw them away. Some of them were found in a dumpster not far from the Johnson Space Center. I wish I were kidding.
Well, I support the space program for the following reasons:
1. Space dominance is a key to American dominance. It is tied to our national security and technology advantages. If we secede space to the Chinese, where does that leave our national security? We are spending way to little on the space program. Our future lies in space exploitation to expand our technology, knowledge, capabilities, control, territory. We should never allow another country to get even close to us in space capabilities - it is one of our country’s competitive advantages and we have already sat way to long where we are at technologically.
2. It is time we left this planet - seriously. We have a one planet strategy, and we need to establish the human race elsewhere. Collisions between Earth and comets or asteroids have happened many times in the past and caused large extinctions. Collisions will happen again in the future - maybe next year or maybe in 1000 years, but it will happen.
3. The only way to re-establish the constitution, is to create some new colonies off planet, and then revolt. Seems like I read about 13 colonies a long time ago in the this situation?
Well there’s still 2 of them on display. Get out your micrometers and go to work.
if you want to be #1 in national security you have to be #1 in science and #1 in space: missile defense, satellites, GPS, etc.
Everyone likes the robot car challenges the internet and other cool DARPA projects. I think the problem with NASA is that it is more like a typical bureaucracy instead of DARPA. So that has to change otherwise nothing will get done.
It is time we left this planet - seriously.
where would we go? It is probably easier just to develop technology against asteroid collisions (which appear to be big piles of rocks held together by gravity and ice) than some grand Battlestar Galactica plan.
Yup
The space program should be revamped to concentrate on weaponry and technology superiority.
Obama's handlers know exactly what they will have The One do.
He is only a hologram projected for the viewing of his followers by the Marxist anti-American ones pulling his stings.
The Halo is a remarkable CGI!
How about a variation on the golgafrinchan space arks in Hitchhiker's Guide? Why not have all of the above worthless groups sent off ahead to make sure the new world was safe, fair, eco-friendly, devoid of resources, and cold. And make sure they stay there with their ark built for a one way trip and after 3/4 of the trip, their communications fail so they can't call for help.
in little more than 100 years, we went from horses, to cars, to prop planes, to jets, to landing on the moon.
Where could be in another 100 years if we tried? A Mars base is not impossible, just difficult. Humans took a long time to master the “impossible” of ocean travel, then the “impossible” of air travel, I’m sure we can eventually figure out the impossible of interstellar travel. But we have to do it the old fashion way, start with limited capabilities, keep trying and learning, not willing to stop quit, innovation, technological breakthroughs, and it can be. Never sell humans short of what they can achieve.
Just look at science fiction and how much we have already achieved. I expect, if we tried, we could begin interstellar travel the same as science fiction points to - some sort of slowing the body processes to allow for lengthy travel, or maybe, intergenerational ships. There are no limits on us except those we place on ourselves (and the laws of God).
You are completely correct in every way. Does anyone think there will be ANY real benefit from cutting the NASA budget?
It’s a rounding error in all the bailouts and actually produces real results. I knew if the democrats got in charge again the first things that’ll go are our scientific programs. clinton killed the SSC, and the LHC is a smaller, less capable version.. And the europeans get the glory for it.
It’s not unusual to hear African Americans calling into CSPIN and complaining about the money spent on NASA.
Jesse Jackson often rants against NASA.
He wants money for programs!
“Obama did not endorse either system...”
Well, he is a rocket scientist, after all.
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