RE: What a goddamn waste of money...
>i just wanted to point out
>that the space program is
>a big fucking waste of
>money no matter what anyone
>says. I know there
>are some parts of the
>space program that are exremely
>valuable like missle defense and
>whatnot but, Who gives a
>shit that some computer nerd
>is driving a 5 million
>dollar tonka truck around mars
>adding to his fucking rock
>collection. if your gonna
>spend a fortune on something
>that probably wont work anyway,
>why not put it into
>something cool like the military
>so maybe one day all
>of us fallout junkies can
>run around iraq with our
>goddamn super exoskellatons and show
>saddam whos runnin the fuckin
>show.
The Simpsons summed it up pretty well when the newscast said:
"And on this flight NASA will be seeing how well ants can move screws around in zero gravity."
Or something to that effect, all I remember was it dealt with ants and screws.
Here's what I think the space program has benefited us:
- Weather Satellites
- GPS Satellites
- Outer space photos of our planet
- Communication Satellites.
- Maybe going to the moon simply to say that we went there.
What is worthless:
- Sending that old dude, John Glenn into outer space. I mean COME ON, like it *really* matters how old people are going to fare in outer space when we're not even going to have people living up there.
- Terrain mapping Mars. They've already lost two multi hundred million dollar to billion dollar satellites on that worthless planet. Do I really care if life or water for that matter was on Mars? Not really, not unless it can talk to me. Seriously, the idea is nice, but unless you've got nothing *better* to spend the money on, don't bother.
- The International Space Station (ISS). More like the United States space station. The United States will be shoving out around $95 BILLION dollars for the ISS whereas the other nations (Canada, Japan, Russia, and the European Space Agency) will be shoving out--get this--$12 billion (
http://www.cbsnews.com/network/news/space/spacestation.html). Supposedly it will cut down the costs for future missions, but look at what experiments are planned to be performed:
[blockquote]
- Protein crystal structures. Supposedly this will help in medical research to understand viruses and other such problems. The thing is, how will a protein crystal grown in OUTER SPACE accomplish anything more than what is researched in universities already? Perfect protein crystals don't even exist on Earth, why would they be useful there?
- Tissue culturing. It is supposed to allow for testing cancer treatments without risk to patients. The thing is, why does it matter that it is cultured in zero gravity? And why not do it on Earth where it is cheaper and there are more people to do it? I highly doubt zero-gravity will do anything for medicine except for people in outer space, and that isn't the case.
- Life in outer space. Unless we're going to be housing people out there, it isn't really worth the time.
- Metallurgy studies. This is probably the only worthwhile experiment because you can make better quality metals and alloys. However transporting that material up there isn't going to be a pain in the ass. Maybe they should invest in harvesting asteroids.
[/blockquote]
Royal waste of time if you ask me.
What should be done in space:
- Harvesting asteroids and other space bodies for materials.
- Global defense network to destroy nuclear missiles and other airborn weapons.
- Better communications satellites for the internet.
- Extremely high quality mapping of our OWN PLANET, not Mars.
Unless we're going to house people (normal people) in outer space, there's no use having "life in space" tests.
[font size=2" color="#CCCCFF]"You ivory tower intellectuals must not lose touch with the world
of industrial growth and hard currency. It is all very well and
good to pursue these high-minded scientific theories, but research
grants are expensive and you must justify your existence by providing
not only knowledge, but concrete and profitable applications as well."
-- CEO Nwabudike Morgan,
"The Ethics of Greed
-Xotor-
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