You should fee lost. There is a lot of rah rah cheerleading on FR for things that don't actually make any sense. A lot of the reason that the scientific community oposes manned spaceflight is that they believe it to be an extravagant stunt that drastically cuts into resources to put useful scientific instruments into space.
good points. Thanks
Yes, let's leave it to the Chinese and Russians. We can come begging to them with hat in hand if we need a ride to fix those fancy scientific instruments.
Useful scientific equipment in space can fail or need maintenance. Building an elevator up to them is just not practical. Launching a MANNED ship to do such repairs is practical as it has been done. Hubble telescope is one example.
With our communications grid switching from land line to cellular and satellite technology the need is more so. Add to that the defense satellite grid and you have NEED.
Many federal programs should be cut. NASA does a legitimate function and is related to our defense. The cost vs benefits rendered from NASA has been a major part in the technology we use today as has our defense technologies as applied to our daily lives.
...to study global warming???
I guess all the “NASA killers” in this, and other armchair astronauts forums, would love to use that to justify NASA’s existance...
That would be ok, but everything else is just a waste...yeah...This would be the smart play...
/sarc