Nasa...who Needs It?

[blacksheep]

Was talking with my folks and the subject of the space program came up. Both of them believe that the space program is probably the biggest waste of tax payers money.  Their point of argument was that why are we spending so much money trying to leave the planet when there are so many problems here on earth that need solving.  The recent mars rover launch itself cost 2.5 Billion dollars. Money that could've gone to developing a better engine for vehicles, better food production or distribution, better forms of public transportation (our contenental train system is terrible) or helping the poor. I sort of agree, and sort of disagree. Like all things goverment funded entities have the positives and negatives. NASA has developed technology that has benefited man, we were the first to land and study the moon. We can detect falling asteroids and predict their trajectory...but is it necessary to spend so much. IDK. We spent 2.5 billion to get to mars...just to study rocks??  What do you all think?

[Autumn Dusk]

We need science.  To say "feed the poor" is short sighted.  Discoveries made in space have lead to medicines and devices that have saved lives.  Contacts, invisible braces, memory foam, ear thermomiter, sattalite communication, more reliable smoke dectectors, "saftey" grooves/rumble strips that we use on highways and airports, cordless tools for both hardware and medical uses and water filters are all NASA inventions.  The MRI and CAT Scan machiens weren't invented by NASA but improved to view lunar pictures and are now used medically, diodes that can be put in the womb to save a baby and safe forecepts to deliver babies are all NASA developed tools reworked

 

Second, America has more land mass than most of Europe, nevermid a single country.  While our train system is shameful compared to theirs, if you take into account how much ground it travels it's absolutely astounding.

[PhuturePriest]

We need science.  To say "feed the poor" is short sighted.  Discoveries made in space have lead to medicines and devices that have saved lives.  Contacts, invisible braces, memory foam, ear thermomiter, sattalite communication, more reliable smoke dectectors, "saftey" grooves/rumble strips that we use on highways and airports, cordless tools for both hardware and medical uses and water filters are all NASA inventions.  The MRI and CAT Scan machiens weren't invented by NASA but improved to view lunar pictures and are now used medically, diodes that can be put in the womb to save a baby and safe forecepts to deliver babies are all NASA developed tools reworked

 

Second, America has more land mass than most of Europe, nevermid a single country.  While our train system is shameful compared to theirs, if you take into account how much ground it travels it's absolutely astounding.

 

Stop having opinions on major issues and make me a sandwich.

[Evangetholic]

Stop having opinions on major issues and make me a sandwich.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3Pwl8jTLK8

[PhuturePriest]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3Pwl8jTLK8

 

This is the most masterful piece of art I have ever laid eyes on.

[BG45]

Are you on a computer right now?  Thank NASA for needing them small enough to go into space.  Have a memory foam mattress maybe?  Developed by NASA in the 1970s. 

 

Other than that, NASA has "spinned off" about 1,800 everyday items and technologies since it's creation.  If you go to that link and go to the database and just search with nothing filled in, it gives updates about technologies they created or have advanced (by year) since 1976 with water powered tools and the gear that firefighters use.

 

 

[arfink]

Another interesting point: according to US law, everything that NASA now develops has to be released into the public domain within 10 years. Our country can afford to spend money on R&D. And the 2.5 billion it took to get to Mars with Curiosity was spread over many many years and consumed a good chunk of NASA's budget, while we spend almost 700 billion EVERY YEAR on our armies. It would take NASA over 30 years to spend that much money at their current budget.

 

Apple Computer goes through more money on R&D in a year than NASA does.

 

NASA gets a tiny drop in the ocean of the US budget. We can live with that IMO.

Edited February 27, 2013 by arfink

[Autumn Dusk]

Stop having opinions on major issues and make me a sandwich.

 

 

Sure I'll forcefeed you a knuckle sandwich :saint2:

[PhuturePriest]

Sure I'll forcefeed you a knuckle sandwich :saint2:

 

I'm partial to wheat and turkey breast, actually. Nothing else. I won't have any nasty condiments or vegetables touch my sandwich. Meat and bread will do.

[Evangetholic]

I'm partial to wheat and turkey breast, actually. Nothing else. I won't have any nasty condiments or vegetables touch my sandwich. Meat and bread will do.

 

You eat like a child mi hijo.

[PhuturePriest]

You eat like a child mi hijo.

 

I eat like a very picky person, which I am.
 

[Evangetholic]

Cool Nancy.

[Nihil Obstat]

Aw man, we need to get L_D down here. last week I think he spent about two hours going over reasons that space exploration is extremely important for humanity. He is still out of town though.

He posted this on FB the other day:

 

Modern civilization has been immensely enriched by space technology. I suppose most people take this for granted, sadly. The Apollo-era is just one chapter, and its enduring impact transcends geopolitics of the 1960s--it's an expression about the human experience. 
What do you think is highly questionable, exactly? Are you referring to basic space capabilities, scientific space exploration, human spaceflight, space-based industry, space settlement, or something else? The first three are realities of the modern world; the second is in its earliest stages but is quite plausible (at least many of the world's most successful investors seem to think so); the third is a broad topic with degrees of futuristic speculation, some that is plausible in the near-term and much that is highly speculative.

[Papist]

The question is, do we want to discover God's awesome and razzle dazzle Universe? I say yes. The more we discover (and honest about it), the more God's greatness is revealed.

[blacksheep]

Aw man, we need to get L_D down here. last week I think he spent about two hours going over reasons that space exploration is extremely important for humanity. He is still out of town though.

He posted this on FB the other day:

 

Modern civilization has been immensely enriched by space technology. I suppose most people take this for granted, sadly. The Apollo-era is just one chapter, and its enduring impact transcends geopolitics of the 1960s--it's an expression about the human experience. 
What do you think is highly questionable, exactly? Are you referring to basic space capabilities, scientific space exploration, human spaceflight, space-based industry, space settlement, or something else? The first three are realities of the modern world; the second is in its earliest stages but is quite plausible (at least many of the world's most successful investors seem to think so); the third is a broad topic with degrees of futuristic speculation, some that is plausible in the near-term and much that is highly speculative.

 

 

Well I'm just being a devil's advocate to be honest. I understand that we have made some great breakthoughs with the space program. Even at the cost of some lives if I remember correctly. But why do we need to go to space in the first place? Kind of ambitious that we try to explore the greatest of universes and a very expensive past time to say the least just sate our own curosity. I mean, when we haven't even scratched the surface of exploring the vastness of our own earth. For example the ocean.  They make up almost two thirds of the planet and still only 10 percent or so have been explored.  What mysteries still lie in our own planet still?  Shouldn't we know and learn everything we can learn about our own planet first before spending millions on trying to step foot on another one?  Wouldn't it be kind of strange that we would learn everything about the mountain ranges of mars and yet not know what lies at the depths of our own planet oceans?  Idk. I just have a mindset of getting our discovery priorities straight. Be more like "OK, we learned everything we can from this planet. Lets go see what the universe can offer us."  Although, more than likely, there will be something out there, in the dep recesses of space, that will teach us a great deal about our own planet....