We need people to explore the unknown just as we always have and for the same reasons. It is who we are. It is what we are about. We do it for the same reason that the explorers crossed the seas to find and chart unknown lands (such as America) and for the same reasons that early Americans crossed the far mountains. We are seekers. It is in our nature and we are not about to let some robot do what we can do. Robots, cameras and the like have one weakness. They can't think; they can't reason. But then, apparently neither can our illustrious president.
Exploration for the sake of exploration does not create something for our society. There are things worth exploring and other things that are not worth exploring. To compare space exploration to the "new world" exploration of the 15th and 16th century doesn't work in my opinion. We will never colonize the moon for any societal gains nor will we take vacations to other planets. It's just not practical. Just how flying cars are not practical. I have seen no compelling evidence to travel to other planets in search of societal advances. I have only seen wow factor type of stuff and stuff that is genuinely very interesting. Like I said, if we want to galavant around the solar system for sh!ts and grins, that's fine. But we can't afford to do it right now and need to cut back on all non essential space activity. This includes everything that doesn't directly benefit our national security or overall well being.
Who says? We have already been to the moon. The Constellation program was just Apollo on steroids. BS. Name me any nation that is a bigger player in space than the United States or is likely to become one. You can't do it. This is more than a rhetorical exaggeration. Its absolute nonsense. This ain't about soldiers in Afghanistan. In fact, robotics has not yet reached anything close to its limits in space exploration. Human travel possibly already has. The time of travel and the logistics involved to support life for that amount of time make manned interplanetary flight far less achievable, far less cost-effective, and far less likely to ever happen. You are believing your own propaganda. :lol: Privatization is the Republican mantra and they have never once discussed any "limits" to it that are not a horrible socialist communist plot by liberal democrats. This is a prime example of Republicans criticizing the democrats for proposing something that they would ordinarily support.
Well I hope you are ashamed of yourself! You're making me do something I thought I would never do, agree with Red on a political subject.
Nobody is a bigger player right now but China and India are huge up and comers and Russia is still a force. China is putting men into orbit at a rapid rate, India is launching planetary missions and Russia is now outpacing us in rocket launches. There are a lot of countries who will fill the void if we dont continue to lead the way in space exploration and technology. Right now we are ok but I am more concerned over the high tech industries that could be lost. Its still one sector we carry a mighty industrial stick in.
Id say it simply reinforces what has become evident to the average American. Obama is not about America being a leader in anything except apologies. His intentions have become transparent. If this had come on the heels of making cuts across the board on congressional salaries then the context would be different. But it is not. Obama represents the opposite of what JFK represented. Obama is not about being a leader or making Americans proud or keeping us at the forefront. And given it is 1/300th of that asinine stimulus package, it should be last on his list. Why? Because its one of the few federal program thats not a complete failure while offering some hope (and change). It gave us wd-40 for gods sake. Plus I figure as long as we are funding the chinese space program we can do the same for ourselves.
You guys talk about O like he is dr. claw or something. You honestly think his master plan is to ruin the country? Like he sits in his lair, and laughs and evil laugh every time he comes up with an idea to screw americans. Dude believes in his policy, and thinks its the best for America, just like the numbskull before him did. They may be wrong, and bad for the country, but he isn't intentionally trying to ruin the country.
Oh I don't know about that. His wife said for the first time she was proud of her country when Obama was elected. I tried to warn people that Obama was not like any politician before and I can use his and his wife's own words to prove it. He has said that he is uncomfortable with America winning in Afghanistan. He has also said something to the fact that America shouldn't be the worlds super power. You can bet your ass he is trying to throw the economy down the crapper so that he can say capitalism no longer works. That way he can socialize the country. He is worse than Carter or any Democrat before him, why, because he doesn't believe in the same America that some of us grew up in. All you have to do is read his autobiographies and find out his hero is Saul Alinsky. I don't know what it will take for people to wake up. They act like or try to ignore the facts about Obama. Tirk is right, Obama is nothing like JFK or the Democrat party of that time, he is just the opposite of what they and most stand for in this country! Edit: Let me put it this way, simply! Obama is really the most stupid president of all time when you consider what he is doing to revive the economy or he is doing it on purpose. It has to be one way or the other, there is no middle ground here!
I don't mean permanent settlements or anything. I just mean in 20 years or so, we'll see a new expansion in the exploitation of space - militarily and commercially. Anyway - the shuttle program has been scheduled to be discontinued for a long time. This is not new. I was in 7th grade when the first one went up. It's old technology.
A lot? Russia is the only other country with a space program of comparable size, experience, and technological expertise and still they come in a far second place with few resources and an awful lot of obsolete equipment. India and China are very ambitious but they are far behind the curve. They are launching more rockets now because their rockets are far less capable than our shuttles and they are still learning WTF they are doing. They have a very high rocket failure rate as well, comparable to US and Russian efforts in the 50's and 60's. As the shuttles retire, we will be launching more rockets, too. Soooo . . . big government spending is OK if it supports a high-tech industry?
