If you want to know some of the technological benefits from NASA the check out http://nctn.hq.nasa.gov/ . NASA’s mission statement (found on their web sight) is located here: NASA Mission Statement Most people believe NASA is all about launching people into space and landing them back on Earth. This is not the truth. NASA also tests and develops technologies for aeronautics (that means airplanes and jets.)
Space missions are the most high profile things NASA does do. When one goes wrong, most everyone thinks that it was a waste of money. So, $100 million dollars of a Mars probe bounced off the planet Mach 7. Yes, $100 million is a lot of money but if the budget was $13.5 billion, then only 0.74% of NASA’s budget was lost. 0.74% of $50 is $0.37. I believe most people lose more than that in the sofa.
I believe that EddietheDane just has a grudge against NASA for no real reason. Before insulting and mud slinging against NASA, spend some of your free time looking them up on their web sight.
A lot of people have stated pros for NASA. A couple of these pros have destroyed the major attack on it. NASA is probably the only federal agency that turns a profit.
Benefits of NASA include:
NOAA satellites that help track storms and warn of dangerous conditions.
Satellites that bounce phone signals around making it easier to hear people across the country instead of line static.
Sunspot warnings that warn pilots of probable failure or incorrect readings of instruments.
Cable and satellite TV.
Better understanding of our environment and ecosystem by studies down through satellites and shuttle missions.
Safety from the foreign aggression because of the spy satellites.
Really neat pictures of the other planets in our solar system.
A sense of hope that humanity will not die out on Earth fighting over the few remaining recourses left.
I meant that sometime down the road, some unforseeable catastrophe could hit the Earth and wipe out all Earth-based human life. In which case, the only remaining human life would be those societies who, centuries or millennia earlier, got off the Earth and happen to be inhabiting colonies on the moon, or Mars, or the asteroids, etc., at the time the Earth goes kablooie. If we don’t have any off-world colonies when disaster strikes, that’s bye-bye to all H. Sapiens, for good.
The truth, as always, is more complicated than that.
Sorry it took me so long to get back. Lib, are you saying that people should pay fees for anything and everything that they want to take advantage of? What do we do with the sick, homeless, hungry, etc? I mean, if you don’t have the money to pay the fee, what then? Do you let people starve? What about education? Do we raise a nation of idiots because there is no public funding for schools? (Many would say we’re already on our way with that one.)
Tell you what, we’re drifting now from the topic, so I’ll start a new thread called “Libertarianism”, copy your latest post to it, and invite you there. Okay? Just give me a bit of time to catch up on the Atheist Religion.
“It is lucky for rulers that men do not think.” — Adolf Hitler
I vote to support space exploration VIGOROUSLY! It’s an opportunity for us to explore so much more than that, and touches all of us in one way or another. Lib, fair enough. Libertarians may look at it as coercion, but I feel that sometimes we all have to do things we don’t initially want to do for the betterment of the group. There are issues I have with how much of our tax money is spent. For instance, I am against capital punishment. I know my tax dollars are going toward the execution of people, and there’s not much I can do about it. But my tax dollar also goes toward things that I truly believe make me a better person and “us” a better nation, so I accept the negatives inherent in taxation. Sometimes giving up a little bit of my freedom allows someone else to gain a little more of theirs. Hope that makes sense.
God help us if a vote should be taken on whether gang rape is okay. I’ll bow out now. You may bash me in the new Libertarianism thread.
I only hope that, when you have spent another trillion dollars of other peoples’ money to satiate your own desire to explore space, you find intelligent beings out there who explain to you why what you did was barbaric.
“It is lucky for rulers that men do not think.” — Adolf Hitler
Implicit in this question is the assumption that money spent on a program like NASA is wasted. As if $50 billion were put into a rocket and blasted into the sun. Nothing could be further from the truth. Every penny spent on NASA contributes directly to our economy in the form of paychecks for engineers, scientists, etc. Innovations that result remain a part of our intellectual capital, and NASA invites all youth to join in the greatest adventure of all - the development of their mind.
In response to the OP, I respectfully submit the following:
New resources to exploit
Life - unique to earth?
The Final Frontier
New resources to exploit
Although I don’t subscribe to the immediate population crisis theory, nevertheless if mankind wishes to keep multiplying at a reasonable rate we will eventually run out of room if nothing else. In order to expand, we must expand outward and exploit the resources we find there.
Life - unique to earth?
The answer to this question is important no matter what that answer actually is. An important corollary might be the expansion of general scientific knowledge. But the “life” answer would frame how we would proceed with any future research, IMO. It might be possible to answer this question using earth-bound telescopes, but only if such life were sufficiently intelligent and nearby.
The Final Frontier
Quite simply, mankind desperately needs a frontier, particularly since the Great American West no longer fills this purpose. A frontier effectively remote from the “old world” spurs technological innovation and sociological reform. A frontier allows escape from institutions that impose uniformity and whose continued rule require continued stagnation. People become more than simply inhabitants of their new world; they become makers of it.
Ever since the time of Og (as DrF so eloquently porttrayed), mankind has burned with the desire to know what is over “the next hill”. It is my sincere wish that we always continue our exploratory nature, despite the wailings of those who prefer things to remain as they are.
***Much of this post was compiled from the excellent book by Robert Zubrin titled “The Case For Mars”. I highly recommend it.
Given our luck, we’d probably find intelligent beings who believe that the highest honor they can bestow on a new acquaintance is to kill and eat him. (Although humans will probably taste pretty bad, considering how unlikely it is that the aliens will share our protein chemistry.)
The truth, as always, is more complicated than that.
