Replies

DoughtyOne wrote: "NASA, drop dead."

Dude, Nasa didn't cut its own funding. Congress did. And besides there could never have been a mass exodus off the planet after a few years of traipsing around cislunar space. Apollo will pale in comparison to the complexity and scale of the project that we are now beginning. We weren't ready for that in 1972. I hate to use this tired analogy, but Lewis and Clark were not immediately followed by the people on the Oregon Trail. That happened 150 years later. Why have we expected different from space?

Wait, what the heck am I saying? 50 or 60 years later. Man, this is bad. I just bombed my calculus test too....

To: DoughtyOne

DoughtyOne wrote: "NASA, drop dead."

Dude, Nasa didn't cut its own funding. Congress did. And besides there could never have been a mass exodus off the planet after a few years of traipsing around cislunar space. Apollo will pale in comparison to the complexity and scale of the project that we are now beginning. We weren't ready for that in 1972. I hate to use this tired analogy, but Lewis and Clark were not immediately followed by the people on the Oregon Trail. That happened 150 years later. Why have we expected different from space?

8 posted on 03/01/2004 8:33:28 PM PST by unibrowshift9b20

For the record, I'm somewhat sympathetic with your arguements, but lets look at them.

NASA didn't cut it's own funding. Okay, I agree with that. I'd have let NASA spend more money as long as it got some bang for the buck out of it. Let's look at what NASA has done with it. I'll even let you heap praises on NASA and list the things it has done with 35 years worth of budgets. I may be a little off base here, but I believe NASA's budget has been ten to fifteen billion per year for that whole 35 years. I'll gladly concede if someone can challenge that. Let's say I'm wrong and NASA only got $7.5 billion per year. That works out to $262,000,000,000.00. Yep, that's $262 billion dollars. And if as I suspect they got $10 to $15 billion per year, we're looking at somewhere between $350 to $524 billion dollars.

Now, please tell me what we got for it.

Did we get a new space plane to replace the shuttle?
Did we get a nice space station with artificial gravity, with a nearby floating weightless platform for scientific research?
Did we develop a program for easy entry into space so private interprise could take over?
Did we return to the moon and set up a moonbase?
Have we really progressed to the point that we can now honestly plan entering and inhabiting space for a reasonable price?

Unless you know something I don't know, the answer to all these questions is "HELL NO!"

Tell me what we have accomplished, if none of this was accomplished?

I'll tell you a few things we have accomplished. We have failed to even support our own satellite launch sustems to the point that US concerns actually ship off their Satellites to communist China rather than wait for a launch capability from NASA. The braintrusts at NASA that mis-managed us into this situation facilitated transfers of space technology to China, which facilitated their perfecting nuclear delivery systems, multiple warhead deployment and pinpoint accuracy for their targeting systems. What an accomplishment NASA. You guys are marvelous.

But why stop there. NASA has also perfected the ability to launch shuttles when they aren't fit to fly, aren't fit to return to earth and then didn't take their heads out of their posteriors long enough to develop a backup system in order to save their own crew's lives. Last but not least they developed an iron-clad method of diflecting any blame on their criminally negligent staff. Let's have a big round of applause for these jackasses.

Let's use your Lewis and Clarke analogy one more time. If Lewis and Clark had taken the money to finance their expedition and burnt 75% of it, then hired a crew to help them on their journey, had left town and shot 14 of them dead before reaching their goals, I'd be a little miffed. If after 35 years they were still trying to build a boat sound enough to take them up-river, I think we can safely say they'd have been tared and feathered if they showed their faces in public again.

In today's world, we've allowed NASA to do just that. Now, were poised to given them another mandate.

I am reminded of the new employee who after working five years was unable to successfully tackle his new job. Confronted by his boss with this fact, the employee appologizes and pleads for just six more months. The manager responds by saying, you've had five years to tackle this position. You don't need six more months to prove what you couldn't in five years.

NASA, you've had 35 years. Hit the road! Your FIRED!