NASA and Space Exloration

[supraman]

So I seen the headline for this article and while reading it I was asking myself the question posed in the headline 'Are We Disappointed with Space Exploration?"



http://www.theatlantic.com/technolo...e-disappointed-with-space-exploration/237136/



So for me to answer the question. Yes, yes I am disappointed with space exploration. I am a sci-fi nerd I want to see space stations and space docks where we build ships in space unimpeded by the gravity of earth. I want to see monstrous ships that can be seen from the planet.



So I am disappointed. The realist in me understands that the scientific advances from the Shuttle program have been huge and important but here's the rub, they aren't sexy. No one cares because it isn't sexy.



In the 60s going to the moon was sexy as hell, today it is Mars or building a permanent base on the moon. Sending robots is just flat out boring it isn't cool. No one gives a damn.



NASA is always being threatened with budget cuts and I've heard talks about it being completely axed too. The public hates paying for NASA, but I bet in the 50s and 60s they didn't mind. Back then we pushed the boundaries now we are humdrum.



I understand the argument that is brought up of the human cost of space exploration but I think we have to accept those costs, those that sign up to do it understand the risk and they accept the risk because they want to explore new frontiers, push us as a species forward, not send some robots to take pictures but to put boots on the ground, to make history. Who's more famous Neil Armstrong or the Mars Rovers.

 

[Tater]

Obama’s new mission for NASA: Reach out to Muslim world



Chief Political Correspondent Follow Him @ByronYork

In a far-reaching restatement of goals for the nation’s space agency, NASA administrator Charles Bolden says President Obama has ordered him to pursue three new objectives: to “re-inspire children” to study science and math, to “expand our international relationships,” and to “reach out to the Muslim world.” Of those three goals, Bolden said in a recent interview with al-Jazeera, the mission to reach out to Muslims is “perhaps foremost,” because it will help Islamic nations “feel good” about their scientific accomplishments.



In the same interview, Bolden also said the United States, which first sent men to the moon in 1969, is no longer capable of reaching beyond low earth orbit without help from other nations.



Bolden made the statements during a recent trip to the Middle East. He told al-Jazeera that in the wake of the president’s speech in Cairo last year, the American space agency is now pursuing “a new beginning of the relationship between the United States and the Muslim world.” Then:

When I became the NASA Administrator — before I became the NASA Administrator — [Obama] charged me with three things: One was he wanted me to help re-inspire children to want to get into science and math, he wanted me to expand our international relationships, and third, and perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math, and engineering.



​

Later in the interview, Bolden discussed NASA’s goal of greater international cooperation in space exploration. He said the United States, more than 40 years after the first moon mission, cannot reach beyond earth’s orbit today without assistance from abroad:

In his message in Cairo, [Obama] talked about expanding our international outreach, expanding our international involvement. We’re not going to go anywhere beyond low earth orbit as a single entity. The United States can’t do it, China can’t do it — no single nation is going to go to a place like Mars alone.



​

Bolden’s trip included a June 15 speech at the American University in Cairo. In that speech, he said in the past NASA worked mostly with countries that are capable of space exploration. But that, too, has changed in light of Obama’s Cairo initiative. “He asked NASA to change…by reaching out to ‘non-traditional’ partners and strengthening our cooperation in the Middle East, North Africa, Southeast Asia and in particular in Muslim-majority nations,” Bolden said. “NASA has embraced this charge.”



“NASA is not only a space exploration agency,” Bolden concluded, “but also an earth improvement agency.”





Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/obama-s-new-mission-nasa-reach-out-muslim-world#ixzz1JLGzRvGQ







My link

 

[ginnie]

The moon landings were indeed something special, weren't they?



Well... at least for a couple of years. The last few Apollo missions weren't even broadcast live - the networks just showed a few clips in the evenings. That's how fickle the public is about such things.



Yes, I'd love for a return visit to the moon. Looks like it may be the Japanese or Chinese who do it though, not the States. It would be so cool to revisit one of the Apollo sites. The LRO took some so-so pictures the last couple of years but it would be neat to get closer than that.



I'm actually intrigued by the flights of some of our unmanned spaceships, Voyager 1 has travelled over 10 billion miles into deep space. Voyager 2 has travelled quite as far yet, but it is still operational and transmitting.



Here's a great picture of the surface of Saturn's moon, Titan, taken by the Huygens probe:

http://anthony.liekens.net/images/titan/titan_panorama_colored.jpg

 

[Shoots_he_scores]

I think cutting that funding is a necessity right now. it's not that I disapprove of anything NASA has done, they've contributed a ton to the world but the budget is stretched pretty thin in this country and for the time being there's much more important things we should be spending our money on

 

[JOVE23]

All this on the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's flight.

 

[Chief Walking Stick]

Exloration



I think it's pretty awesome what they're finding though.

 

[MassHavoc]

I think cutting that funding is a necessity right now. it's not that I disapprove of anything NASA has done, they've contributed a ton to the world but the budget is stretched pretty thin in this country and for the time being there's much more important things we should be spending our money on

I would say just the opposite actually. There are a shit ton of other things that should be cut first. And with the budget of NASA being well under 1% of the total budget, it's something that has already been cut to the bone.

 

[supraman]

I would say just the opposite actually. There are a shit ton of other things that should be cut first. And with the budget of NASA being well under 1% of the total budget, it's something that has already been cut to the bone.

Have to agree with this, if anything NASAs budget needs to be expanded. Kids need to dream. I mean I'd rather be an astronaut then the guy that drives the robot.



Really NASA needs two sides. One side does the real science and the other side is PR based, that still might add to the scientific community but its prime goal is to sell NASA to the public.

 

[jakobeast]

The biggest expenditure is social security, but thats a discussion for another thread.



WGN had on some physicist that said in the next hundred years, they will have contact lenses that will allow you to surf the internet, translate languages, and other things. Think the read out in the Terminators eye. It's called "Augmented Reality".



He also said they have to find alternate propulsion systems. As it is right now, it takes 10,000 dollars a pound to send a man into orbit. To send a man to the moon it would be about a million bucks a pound. They are nearing using hydrogen bombs to propel the ships. That sounds odd, don't it? They have already proven the theory and it can work, however, they can't test with real hydrogen bombs as there is a treaty that doesn't allows atomic and hydrogen and other bombs of that type to be blown up in the atmosphere. That's a good thing, in my opinion.



He said that with the use of hydrogen bombs, they can reach half the speed of light. Also, it would help get rid of the stockpile of H bombs on the planet.

 

[R K]

It's a shame we didn't get one of the shuttles today. I really thought the Planetarium was a perfect place for one of them.... They did get a flight simulator though...







Chicago Misses out on Shuttle



Chicago - Adler Planetarium was one of 21 institutions competing for a retired space shuttle from NASA, but failed to make the cut Tuesday for one of the four spacecraft.



Adler did announce that NASA would be giving the shuttle flight simulator to Chicago. It is the one on which all astronauts on the shuttles trained. Adler said it was thrilled for the acquisition and thanked the mayor, the city and all who worked on their bid for the shuttles.



NASA officials made the announcements at a ceremony to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the first space shuttle launch. It was also the 50th anniversary of the first human journey into space



NASA gave Endeavor to the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Atlantis to the California Science Center in Los Angeles, Discovery to the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. and the prototype Shuttle Enterprise to Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York City.

 

[jakobeast]

It's a shame we didn't get one of the shuttles today. I really thought the Planetarium was a perfect place for one of them.... They did get a flight simulator though...







Chicago Misses out on Shuttle



Chicago - Adler Planetarium was one of 21 institutions competing for a retired space shuttle from NASA, but failed to make the cut Tuesday for one of the four spacecraft.



Adler did announce that NASA would be giving the shuttle flight simulator to Chicago. It is the one on which all astronauts on the shuttles trained. Adler said it was thrilled for the acquisition and thanked the mayor, the city and all who worked on their bid for the shuttles.



NASA officials made the announcements at a ceremony to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the first space shuttle launch. It was also the 50th anniversary of the first human journey into space



NASA gave Endeavor to the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Atlantis to the California Science Center in Los Angeles, Discovery to the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. and the prototype Shuttle Enterprise to Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York City.

Maybe next time. Perhaps in 2020.













Wait a second....

 

[supraman]

Maybe next time. Perhaps in 2020.













Wait a second....

No we are going back to sending Penis's into space....eventually. You know as much I want NASA to do big things and push boundaries. If they are going to keep up what they are currently doing as a tax payer I say axe them. The private sector will get us farther, faster at this rate. We've been sending probes since the 60s I think. Forget with Voyager when it was launched. Shuttles since the early 80s and robots since the 90s. What was cool for the naughts, what about this decade...we are back to sending upgraded Saturn Vs into space....so we've regressed 50 years it seems. Where is the shuttle that was going to take off from a landstrip and land back at it like we were promised. Where are we in getting to mars? I was told it would happen by 2020, clocks ticking.

 

[LordKOTL]

I know that Seattle's museum and McMinneville's museums were also in the running and lost. To me though, They should have given Chicago one to spread them out across the US rather than one out west, one extreme southeast, and two in very close proximity out east.



Ahh well, Seattle still has the Concorde and McMinnville still has the Spruce Goose and the SR-71

 

[supraman]

I know that Seattle's museum and McMinneville's museums were also in the running and lost. To me though, They should have given Chicago one to spread them out across the US rather than one out west, one extreme southeast, and two in very close proximity out east.



Ahh well, Seattle still has the Concorde and McMinnville still has the Spruce Goose and the SR-71

Meh the one if Florida was a no brainer, cali was interesting, the one in houston makes sense, the one for the Smithsonian was also a no brainer as well. The florida and houston one damn near means they are keeping them themselves.

 

[IceHogsFan]

Some don't realize that there are already Shuttles on display. Take this one for example that I just drove by on Monday of this week in Huntsville, AL. There is a NASA museum there.

 

[TSD]

I am extremely disappointed. Earth based technology has advanced be leaps and bounds since the 60's. Funny thing is our "space" technology really hasn't advanced a whole lot since the 60's-70's. The earth in sense is more space age than space.



I do agree that space exploration should be a multi-national mission. An international "NASA" should be established. When it comes down to it, in space were all Human, not American, not Chinese, Russian, British, Saudi etc etc. If we encounter some goddamn aliens, do you think they give a shit what country you are from, they would view us all the same no matter where we came from on earth.



For all the fear of a global government, everything we've gone through as a species has been catapulting us to that point. It will happen and it must happen. Its the nature of the beast. Most single nations that exist today were created out of a hodgepodge of rival tribes or city states (usually through conquest, but the means are irrelevant, it will happen).



The further we look outward the more petty our differences seem.



and hell if we don't find a way off this rock, we're pretty much doomed as a species anyway. The sun will one day burn out.

 

[Tater]

I am extremely disappointed. Earth based technology has advanced be leaps and bounds since the 60's. Funny thing is our "space" technology really hasn't advanced a whole lot since the 60's-70's. The earth in sense is more space age than space.



I do agree that space exploration should be a multi-national mission. An international "NASA" should be established. When it comes down to it, in space were all Human, not American, not Chinese, Russian, British, Saudi etc etc. If we encounter some goddamn aliens, do you think they give a shit what country you are from, they would view us all the same no matter where we came from on earth.



For all the fear of a global government, everything we've gone through as a species has been catapulting us to that point. It will happen and it must happen. Its the nature of the beast. Most single nations that exist today were created out of a hodgepodge of rival tribes or city states (usually through conquest, but the means are irrelevant, it will happen).



The further we look outward the more petty our differences seem.



and hell if we don't find a way off this rock, we're pretty much doomed as a species anyway. The sun will one day burn out.

Actually, it's a fact that Canucks fans will be looked at with disdain and disgust if/when aliens arrive.

 

[supraman]

Actually, it's a fact that Canucks fans will be looked at with disdain and disgust if/when aliens arrive.

Thats it as I mod I should be able to up rep as much as I want so i can give tater +1000

 

[IceHogsFan]

I do agree that space exploration should be a multi-national mission. An international "NASA" should be established.

Kind of like the U.N.? You see how well that has worked out...

 

[MassHavoc]

Thats it as I mod I should be able to up rep as much as I want so i can give tater +1000

As a better mod, I know exactly how to do that, and I should reduce your rep -1000 for not knowing how.