she's falling apart! Life mirroring art. The Space X launch has had a little engine trouble and in life mirroring art, in this case Startrek, an engine failure and a little falling apart hasn't prevented the completion of the mission

SpaceX capsule on course despite engine failure – Light Years - CNN.com Blogs (http://lightyears.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/08/spacex-rocket-on-course-despite-engine-failure/?hpt=hp_t3)

One wonders how this will feature in NASA's ultimate selection of contractors for various projects as having a problem on the first commercial launch doesn't bode well, particularly with bigger competitors breathing down your neck

But the company said the rocket "did exactly what it was designed to do," as its flight computer made adjustments to keep the Dragon headed into the proper orbit
In other words ,the redundency built into the system worked as designed. NASA's future is not with rocket designing or human transport to low earth orbit .

Without Star Trek, Space X would be impossilbe.

In other words ,the redundency built into the system worked as designed. NASA's future is not with rocket designing or human transport to low earth orbit .

Yes Tom there was redundancy, only to be expected and you expect NASA has a future where as a good capitalist should be finding a way for all its functions to be taken over by private industry which of course is not known for its redundancy

NASA still had a science and exploration mission . Low Earth orbit ? Been there done that . I am 100 % in favor of the privatization potential of space .

Moon, been there done that, Mars, been there done that. Notice you weren't knocked over in the rush. Expecting to buy a condo by the Sea of Tranquility? Left to private enterprise no one would bother and the only reason they are involved now is the government is paying them big bucks. Tom, governments have to do some things because private enterprise won't. There is no place in the Solar System where a profit can be made, excepting Earth, right at the moment. Six hundred years ago private enterprise would not have discovered america and private enterprise will not make the next big exploration discovery.

We know cheap energy can be obtained from Moon rocks but no one is investing in this, I wonder why?

Six hundred years ago private enterprise would not have discovered america and private enterprise will not make the next big exploration discovery.
600 years ago there was no free market.. what's your point ?

My point is it is time for your system to evolve as it did from monarchy and personal favour to capitalism. Government has been behind the great explorations because generally tehre si no profit in it sufficient for the individual to take risk and except for a very few they just don't have the resources

That argument would work if you could show where I opposes government funding of exploration. But of course you can't because I haven't .

Yes, they don't have the resources and they don't have the inclination.

There is no money to me made from knowing that the outermost galaxies in our universe are moving away from us at raters approach the speed of light.

There is no money to be made from knowing that we are more than likely living in a flat universe,

There is no money to be made from building a LHC are working out how particulars actually get their mass.



Tut

Hi Tom,

Would that because you have never broached the issue of government funding for exploration?

If you haven't then it is obvious you have never opposed it.

Tut

I was opposed to the defunding of the collider in Texas. The decision to defund the Texas collider was a decision by the majority Democrat controlled Congress and Senate in 1992-1993 .

But it is unfair to say that the US has not been a major contributor in the science in discovering the Boson- Higgs (note ;I changed the name to give proper due to Satyendra Nath Bose) . The US has had operational colliders for years... The Tevatron, at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois ; and
The Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York.

Hi Tom,

Would that because you have never broached the issue of government funding for exploration?

If you haven't then it is obvious you have never opposed it.

Tut

I've mentioned it on many occasions . The problem here is too many people presuppose and presume my positions .

I've mentioned it on many occasions . The problem here is too many people presuppose and presume my positions .It is very very annoying, I agree with you. Steve does this all the time.

Hi Tom,

Firstly, If you say that you have mentioned it on may occasions then I believe you.

Secondly, I was not suggesting that the U.S. doesn't invest vast sums of money in space research. I was actually interested in you comment in relation to the complete privations of space. How do you propose to make money off the Higgs boson?

Tut

complete privations of space Never suggested that either . Without speaking in absolutes ;what I suggested is that known pure science can and should be handed off to private enterprise once discovered .
I think that the pursuit of the Boson in itself is worthy of a public undertaking . But after that ;I think the private sector is better equipt to do R &D in applied science.
As an example ;the x-ray was not discovered for application in medical care . Once discovered it was then applied. The same thing will happen with the Boson if there is indeed any practical application to it.

There is no money to be made from knowing that we are more than likely living in a flat universe,


Tut

Hi Tut what you are really saying is that you are part of the Flat Earth society, the flat universe is just an extension of that. No, science has demonstrated however inaccurately that it is very good at drawing useless conclusions from gazing at what used to be and we know there is no money to be made in that. The universe may yet prove to be sausage shaped but what does it matter

It is pointless knowing that the universe is expanding and that galaxys have a finite life since our own lives are short in comparison and chasing the Higgs-Bosen particle is in the same category since there is no pratical application. Will it reduce poverty, no, will it enable us to start again, no will it enable us to contemplate our own navel, probably

Hey Tom have you noticed they have found a planet which they categorically state is at least one third diamond. As there are riches in the stars and at such close range will private enterprise now put the money into recovering these diamonds. Let's face it $15 Trillion would be better spent on this and give a greater return than the $15 Trillion the US has spent on trying to subdue Earth. I suspect diamond would become as common as Gold among the Incas. Once again life mirroring art, Lucy in the sky with diamonds, I wonder what those astronomers are on.

Think of the technology spinoffs, why diamond might even be an energy source

Diamonds would be 'as rare as gold among the Incas' if the cartels did not control their distribution. Diamonds properly cut a beauty to behold. But their only real use is in their industrial application.
However ;there may be rarer elements out there that are worth harvesting . I remind you that one of the motivations for the Enterprise's journey was to find new sources of dilithium chrystals .

Since private enterprise would assume the risks ,why should I object if someone thought it worth their investment to mine a diamond planet ?

What the hell is dilithium, I don't presume to know what it might possibly be, a fabrication of science fiction more properly named Bullshlt, look Tom I'll move over into another jundra, wormholes might be possible, might even enable human transportation, but right now no practical application. In my life time, which might last another say twenty or thirty years, the pressing problems are how to feed ten billion, not how to reach the stars. I had hoped to see the exploration of the planets, but I will not, not by mankind, but by robotkind, because that is the only way it is going to happen and all else is bullshlt!

You're the one who started this with a Star Trek reference.

I can't tell you what will be invented /discovered in the future due to space exploration. I know we would not be communicating on computers without the space race. I know I would not be watching satellite TV without the space race. I know of many medical devices like CAT & MRI technologies that would not have been developed without the science learned in space. I know right now in zero gravity up in ISS there is experiments being conducted that could be human life changing . How do you know that the answers to human hunger won't be found there ?

Answers, perhaps, solutions No, not in a very long time. We need to get our mind around the fact that we are not going anywhere anytime soon, if ever. Mining the planets is a wonderful idea, we can throw our mulloch heaps all over the universe. The Moon is inhospitable, Mars is inhospitable, we haven't found any planets yet that have more than a fleeting chance of being hospitable, and even the ones we have observed are at incrediable distances when measured by our technology. The changes we need to make to human life is how to lift billions out of poverty without destroying the planet. We have become a virus and the planet will find a cure

Answers, perhaps, solutions No, not in a very long time. We need to get our mind around the fact that we are not going anywhere anytime soon, if ever. mining the planets is a wonderful idea, we can throw our mulloch heaps all over the universe. The Moon is inhospitable, Mars is inhospitable, we haven't found any planets yet that have more than a fleeting chance of being hospitable, and even the ones we have observed are at incrediable distances when measured by our technology. The changes we need to make to human life is how to lift billions out of poverty without destroying the planet. We have become a virus and the planet will find a cure

They have already found cures and they are in the works for putting them together. The moon is just the first step along the way. Its already on the table for placing solar panels on vast acerage of the moon and beaming that energy back to earth. An elevator to the skies is in the works as that would reduce the cost per pound for shipping things into low earth orbit. More and more hurddles are being jumped as we speak. The sky has untold possibilities for the human race.

Yes pie in the sky, fantastic cost to produce very little and wait a long time for progress whereas there are places on Earth where vast solar arrays can be built right now and the best part is it provides local employment and cuts off the ability for one person/organisation/state to control the resource completely. You want solar arrays in space we can have them in Earth orbit in the form of mirrors beaming energy back in the form of heat. We need to give up the cult of space travel for the time being, realise we already have an effective model for space travel and move on.

Sky is the limit if we keep it moving in the right direction, and just keep working at it. You have to have a positive attitude.

I have a positive attitude Tal, the only reason we went to the Moon was the US wanted supremacy over USSR, it had nothing to do with progress. Even though we might have found useful minerals there, there is no plan to exploit it because it just isn't practical or cost effective with our level of technology. No doubt you will start a space race again, this time with China. But it is all grand standing. The ISS provides some opportunities for research that can't be done elsewhere but beyond that it is an expensive toy. I recall when I was young and we had great predictions of the exploration of space, essentially what we have done doesn't amount to very much in the light of those predictions. If you look at the model we are using it is the same as it was fifty years ago

Nothing wrong with exploring and competing, and playing with expensive toys. I grew up with the hope and dream of a space station to visit. Not ready to let that go yet Clete!!

Tal neither you or I will see space tourism in the form depicted in the film 2001 and it is highly unlikely the funds will be found to build such a vessel for a very long time. Yes the space station was an early dream, as were different forms of engine which could accelerate a vessel rapidly. Interestingly I watched a report on the space shuttle yesterday and the commentator stated that the shuttle could obtain a speed of 250,000 KMs an hour, Ah! If only, but wishfull thinking. I think that typifies the general public's understanding of progress thus far. Even that vessel designed fifty years ago was progress, but no attempts to continue development have been realised, there just isn't a goal that could drive it and you have to blame small minded politicians for lost opportunity, but as I have said before, we have bigger problems to solve.

Tal neither you or I will see space tourism in the form depicted in the film 2001 and it is highly unlikely the funds will be found to build such a vessel for a very long time. Yes the space station was an early dream, as were different forms of engine which could accelerate a vessel rapidly. Interestingly I watched a report on the space shuttle yesterday and the commentator stated that the shuttle could obtain a speed of 250,000 KMs an hour, Ah! if only, but wishfull thinking. I think that typifies the general public's understanding of progress thus far. Even that vessel designed fifty years ago was progress, but no attempts to continue development have been realised, there just isn't a goal that could drive it and you have to blame small minded politicians for lost opportunity, but as I have said before, we have bigger problems to solve.

Didn't one of your countrymen have a thing or two to do with this ?


http://www.virgingalactic.com/overview/spaceport/

It is already being built.

Forgive my ignorance Dad, but which of my countrymen are you referring to? Richard Branson is not one of my countrymen even though his organisation competes very well in the Australian aviation industry as it does in other markets

Forgive my ignorance Dad, but which of my countrymen are you referring to? Richard Branson is not one of my countrymen even though his organisation competes very well in the Australian aviation industry as it does in other markets

Sorry, for some reason thought he was an Ausie :)

Must be the entrepreneural spirit, no, it's a long time since we spawned a giant in the aviation industry, but we have had the odd austronaut, there was talk of a space port on Cape York but of course that is all pre GFC & AGW

Tal neither you or I will see space tourism in the form depicted in the film 2001 and it is highly unlikely the funds will be found to build such a vessel for a very long time. .

http://www.space.com/7804-private-space-stations-edge-closer-reality.html

Private Space Stations Edge Closer to Reality | Space.com (http://www.space.com/7804-private-space-stations-edge-closer-reality.html)

Fantasy at best, it's great to fool the private investors but would you really go up there in one of those

Would I ? Absolutely ! I don't think they are in the business of killing off their customers.

Not intentionally but then nor was NASA

Skydiver breaks sound barrier - Technology & science - Science | NBC News (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/49406174/ns/technology_and_science-science/?ocid=ansmsnbc11)

Where there is a will there is a way.

Skydiver breaks sound barrier - Technology & science - Science | NBC News (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/49406174/ns/technology_and_science-science/?ocid=ansmsnbc11)

Where there is a will there is a way.

Yes a an excellent feat, not a big future in this form of travel

yes a an excellant feat, not a big future in this form of travel

Actually yes there is. When you consider what the parachute did for airplane travel. This too could provide some protection for space flight. Now in making the jump we know its possible.

I can't recall any time I was told my parachute was under my seat. Air travel would decrease dramatically if travellers made frequent use of parachutes. I doubt space travellers would want to drop from a great height without a great more protection that what is afforded by a pressure suit.

No practicall applications leave a lot to be desired