Posted on 02/02/2003 6:15:31 AM PST by RKV
These people weren't even doing that. I'm not sure yet what they were doing and if their lives were spent on anything significant. The moon can't be colonized in any important way and Mars is too cold. One thing we've learned is there are physical limitations, we've learned there is no oxygen in those places.
Ok, Child of the Right, now you can say NASA kills more Jews.
You are a sick puppy, son.
Then those of you who want what the rest of us DONT may feel free to pass the plate amongst yourselves, and spare the majority of us your expensive hobby toward a condo on Mars.
Classic. The key to human colonization in space is finding the product/service that will pay the way. So far it hasn't been successful. Space Cadets, continue to wear your thinking caps.
Are we really spending all this money for some people to have an alternate place to live? I don't care where people want to live but I think all government spending should be to advance science. If we're looking for other "homes", then we can rule out the moon and Mars already with what we know, we can send robots out for now to other galaxies to find something humans could inhabit.
Communications satellites do not require visits by people. They are in geosynchronous orbit, much higher than the space shuttle or other manned craft in use today can reach. The constellations of low earth orbit satellites for mobile phone, e.g. the Iridium project by Motorola, turned out to be economically impractical. But they also don't require manned spaceflight.
Emotional crapola! For one thing we are not rebuilding the shuttle. We couldnt even if we wanted to. The technology no longer exists. We would have to go out and scavenge used parts bins, etc to find parts to rebuild with.
I believe we all well understand your view and your opinions. To me it seems to be money, mostly your money. In that vein, I have to agree, the government spends lots of money on ventures with which I cannot agree.. Space exploration and its attendant research and development is one in which "ALL MANKIND" will benefit, including you, therefore I see no rational argument against it on a dollar basis.
Accomplished more what? Science? It's arguably a draw, but the science performed by the astronauts could more easily have done without the astronauts.
But I can't yet go so far as saying we've actually been to Mars yet, because we haven't.
Now you're getting back to my question: what is space exploration for? In my response you quoted, I was talking strictly about the science. Here you are talking about the subjective experience of being on another planet, which is a completely different purpose with a different set of requirements. That's not to say it isn't a good or desirable purpose: as a matter of fact, it is.
We've sent a camera and a thermometer, etc., that's all...
That's a hell of a lot. That's what does the science, whether people are there or not.
I'm not an aerospace contractor but I lived in SoCal and worked in for a metal processing business from 1973-1988. We serviced hundreds of SST subcontracting customers employing a handful to hundreds of personnel in the San Fernando and San Gabriel Valleys, LA and the South Bay. Thanks to the SST program, businesses flourished enabling thousands to buy homes, send kids to college, and enjoy a secure lifestyle. Some made millions I'm sure but many many more made simply comfortable lives for themselves and their families.
The big primes are gone now or significantly downsized and/or consolidated, these bald black-suited bogeymen of the Op/Ed political cartoons, and if pornography is not the biggest business in the SFV now, I don't know what is.
I don't have a problem with women going on missions where necessary, but I have some difficulty calling women who leave their children for weeks and months at a time because they want to experience some kind of thrill "heroes". The true hero women are those staying home with their children or at least spending as much time as possible with them. It's not that the mothers on board have been killed, they abandon their children for weeks on end just preparing.
Make sure you don't miss him John.
Please read more carefully.
"An immediate focus of the investigation was possible damage to the protective thermal tiles on Columbia's left wing from a flying piece of debris during liftoff on Jan. 16.
It says possible damage. Where does it say when the flying debris came to the attention of NASA? All it says is that the debris flew on liftoff.
The space agency said the first indication of trouble Saturday was the loss of temperature sensors in the left wing's hydraulic system."
Those temperature sensors were lost during reentry shortly before the Shuttle disintegrated. There is no evidence that there was any damage to that wing before that point in time.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.