Space Exploration (1 Viewer)

[Selador]

With the end of the shuttle era, the United States now has no manned spaceflight capability. Was dumping the space shuttle program the right decision?

The new Obama policy is to foster the development of private space vehicles. Can the private sector fill the hole left by the space shuttle?

Is manned space exploration or space exploration generally worth the expense?

 

[ClockworkSoldier]

Is manned space exploration or space exploration generally worth the expense?

We need somewhere to go when we destroy the earth (read: when). So it's probably worth it to some people.

 

[cosmo kramer]

i guess investigation into this field may be useful someday for scifi like reasons but even if it won't be i still support space programs for nationalistic and chest thumping purposes

the kind of people who whinge about stuff like the space race and say that the money could have been spent to feed some quantitity of starving african fags probably would have opposed the construction of the pyramids and the parthenon and just about anything in human history that is actually interesting and cool

 

[powlmao]

With the end of the shuttle era, the United States now has no manned spaceflight capability. Was dumping the space shuttle program the right decision?

The new Obama policy is to foster the development of private space vehicles. Can the private sector fill the hole left by the space shuttle? Is manned space exploration or space exploration generally worth the expense?

I am sure that the private sector would evenually make it better also does the development of private space vehicles include new companies which focus on space expedition for leisure?

 

[number1one]

Obamo is osamba so they both suck. nothin in space sonot point in giong there.

waste of noney, just like educaton

 

[SylviaB]

the money could have been used to reduce the need to steal so much money from whites in the future

 

[iRuler]

With the end of the shuttle era, the United States now has no manned spaceflight capability. Was dumping the space shuttle program the right decision?

Yes/No

They did get some stuff done, but didn't get enough done either.

The new Obama policy is to foster the development of private space vehicles. Can the private sector fill the hole left by the space shuttle?

In time, yes, give it 10-20 years atleast for this to happen though

Is manned space exploration or space exploration generally worth the expense?

Not really tbh, theres too much expense and not enough results which are useful to us

 

[abbeyroad]

duh of course, so many riches/minerals in space just waiting to be had.
if humanity were to survive long term as a species we would have to expand into space eventually, regardless of the existence of the state.

also, it's in the nature of humanity to want to explore and create. it's the reason we came out of the cave & africa and it's the same reason we will go to space, with or without government funding. the human species, as a whole, is a progressive one, sure you get the occasional fuck-wits who lose sight of what it means to be human and are thus reduced to stagnation and conflicts over self-interests and petty differences, but we will overcome those fools.

 

[abbeyroad]

Not really tbh, theres too much expense and not enough results which are useful to us

short sighted fool

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroid_mining

Some day, the platinum, cobalt and other valuable elements from asteroids may even be returned to Earth for profit. At 1997 prices, a relatively small metallic asteroid with a diameter of 1.6 km (1 mile) contains more than $20 trillion US dollars worth of industrial and precious metals. In fact, all the gold, cobalt, iron, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, osmium, palladium, platinum, rhenium, rhodium and ruthenium that we now mine from the Earth's crust, and that are essential for economic and technological progress, came originally from the rain of asteroids that hit the Earth after the crust cooled. This is because, while asteroids and the Earth congealed from the same starting materials, Earth's massive gravity pulled all such siderophilic (iron loving) elements into the planet's core during its molten youth more than four billion years ago. Initially, this left the crust utterly depleted of such valuable elements. Asteroid impacts re-infused the depleted crust with metals.

In 2004, the world production of iron ore exceeded a billion metric tons. In comparison, a comparatively small M-type asteroid with a mean diameter of 1 km could contain more than two billion metric tons of iron-nickel ore, or two to three times the annual production for 2004. The asteroid 16 Psyche is believed to contain 1.7×1019 kg of nickel-iron, which could supply the 2004 world production requirement for several million years. A small portion of the extracted material would also contain precious metals.

In 2006, the Keck Observatory announced that the binary Trojan asteroid 617 Patroclus,and possibly large numbers of other Jupiter Trojan asteroids, are likely extinct comets and consist largely of water ice. Similarly, Jupiter-family comets, and possible near-Earth asteroids which are defunct comets, might also economically provide water. The process of in-situ resource utilization (bootstrapping)—using materials native to space for propellant, tankage, radiation shielding, and other high-mass components of space infrastructure—could lead to radical reductions in its cost.

 

[Blastus]

just leave this here

 

[zombie omie jay]

space shittle

 

[K4M1N3]

Def a good idea. Just wait till we master carbon nano tubes, graphene and superconductors, and the space shuttle era will be well and completely useless. Also for those that believe these things are science fiction for our generation, google 'exponential technological advancements'

 

[Graney]

Manned spaceflight looks cool, but the return on investment in terms of information pales compared to unmanned spaceflight. It's typical of scientific investment in general, irrational and wasteful, probes and telescopes are where it's at.