[paraclete]

I'd rather spend my money on space exploration than

federal grants to study how cocaine affects the sexual behavior of Japanese quails;than spending $1,7 billion maintaining empty buildings ,or the census bureau spending $2.5 million on a 30 second Super Bowl ad. ….or the $2.6 billion for 20 additional F-35s . or for the billions of other dollars spent on Congressional pet ear mark projects .

Yes Tom there are many failings in the political system but this is because you tolerate and enshrine corruption. Remove private funding of electoral campaigns, remove lobbyists from the halls of power and you will see how quickly funding disappears from pet projects like NASA. The purpose of the space race was political, this is forgotten. There was little interest in it until the Russians one upped the US and got there first, but tell me what good did it do them, did they benefit from their investment? Only in having a system that now transports americans into space

[tomder55]

I've documented many benefits already that have come from space exploration. You have to move on beyond the 1960s . Getting to the moon was a great achievement . I am proud of the role my father played as an engineer at Grumman. Space exploration has move way beyond those days . Most of the benefits I've mentioned happened because of the lunar and Shuttle days . Just imagine how humans will benefit from future exploration. Can you ? I guess not .

[Athos]

The latest picture from that snowball 6 and a half gazillion miles out there has this weird picture of a bald guy with a long nose hanging over a shelf or something and underneath it says "Kilroy was here".

[tomder55]

Here it is if you missed it

[talaniman]

We have competition folk, and they ain't Russians.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chines...ration_Program

They are quite ambitious.

[tomder55]

Yes I have been following their progress. They did the soft landing Jan 2 . Manned missions are muck trickier and until we figure out how to keep humans physically strong in a space environment ,we won't be travelling too far. Preliminary results from ISS are not encouraging . However it all adds to the total human knowledge .

[talaniman]

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/s...ain/index.html



Still makes my liver quiver

8D

[paraclete]

Man has no business in space, it is a dangerous place for the human race, perhaps the space program going where it has is a recognition of that truth. Any challenge we undetake brings advances in technology, to suggest that we pursue space flight in order to gain mythological benefits ignores the challenges we already face requiring innovative solutions. Solve these and you may well solve some of the difficulties in space.

We need to be very suspicious of China's landing on the far side of the Moon. What purpose is served by operating outside of normal communications, testing new communications devices perhaps?

[Athos]

Man has no business in space,

Mankind has huge, basically unlimited, business in space. It has nothing to do with advances in technology, although that always is a result.

We go to space because it's there. It is mankind's destiny to travel to the furthest reaches of space and then to see what's on the other side. It is our nature to explore the unknown. Nothing will ever change that.

[paraclete]

Mankind has huge, basically unlimited, business in space. It has nothing to do with advances in technology, although that always is a result.

We go to space because it's there. It is mankind's destiny to travel to the furthest reaches of space and then to see what's on the other side. It is our nature to explore the unknown. Nothing will ever change that.

Another one who has drunk the koolaid, this is not the same as a voyage to the New World or Australia in a leaky boat. No matter how much science fiction you swallow certain things are lacking vital to our wellbeing, gravity, atmosphere, shielding, propulsion

[Athos]

Another one who has drunk the koolaid,

That Koolaid is delicious (hic) - you ought to try some.

[paraclete]

I have read much science fiction, they never solve the disconnect between reality and fiction. Someone wants us to believe that budgetary reasons are why the space program was curtailed and near Earth orbit missions are all that humans do. I'm not fooled by such explanations and am waiting for a more plausible explanation

[Athos]

They said Christopher Columbus would fall off the edge of the earth.

[paraclete]

Indeed, and but for Panama he would have. There is a vast difference between exploring the contiguous space on the surface of this little rock, and sailing a void. Columbus had a gaol and little idea of the distance involved, we on the other hand, are not ignorant.

[talaniman]

[paraclete]

Very true