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

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

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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

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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.

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Originally Posted by tomder55

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 .

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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?

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Six hundred years ago private enterprise would not have discovered america and private enterprise will not make the next big exploration discovery.

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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.

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Originally Posted by TUT317

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

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

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

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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

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complete privations of space

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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.

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Originally Posted by TUT317

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


Tut

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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!