Where Are The Space Advocates?

QuantumG writes "Greg Zsidisin appeared on The Space Show today to ask Where Are The Space Advocates?. For the first time in decades Space is once again a political issue with all four major presidential candidates having something to say about space policy and yet nothing is being heard from space advocates. As we enter a new "Space Nexus" like we did after Apollo, now is a critical time to let your representatives know how you feel about space exploration, and yet no-one has anything to say." The show itself is a podcast if you want to give it a listen. Personally I'm hoping that this election puts space exploration back in the public consciousness- Apollo inspired a generation to learn math and science. I want my kid to be inspired by something bigger than that. And as some readers have noted- there are 3 candidates left (and really only two) so the submitter is probably high.

Maybe we should declare war on it.

[Gldm]

That seems to be the way to get lots of funding these days. At least if we declared The War on Space we'd be sure to find weapons of mass destruction. There are nuclear fusion reactions all over the place in space, they don't even try to hide em!

Me, I'm to busy worrying about if I can find another job, if I can ever afford a place to live, if I'll ever have the "special" right to marry my husband like we did in his country, if riots will break out when gas hits $10/gal next year...

Yes, the four major presidential candidates!

[Alsee]

(1) Barack Obama
(2) Hillary Clinton
(3) John Mccain
(4) Cowboy Neil

-

Re:Conversly, where are the space critics?

[jtseng]

Personally, I would love nothing better than the abolish NASA and move this whole thing over to the private sector.

Does anyone know how I can buy shares in Weyland-Yutani? [wikipedia.org]

Well, I ADVOCATE Space!

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

X and Y are fine, but must stand up and speak for the inclusion of a Z-Axis!

Re:Conversly, where are the space critics?

[Anonymous Coward]

the market will reflect that too

Fuck the market. If we leave it up to the market, here's the future of space exploration:

1. Well-healed tourists cavort around in LEO, calling friends from the seatback space phones and exclaiming that earth looks like "a great big globe!"
2. Survivor: ISS
3. Girls Gone Wild, Zero Gee Edition

On the plus side, we can use the energy produced by Clarke spinning in his grave to power Sri Lanka for a few years.

Re:Space is unimportant

[jcgf]

If you think that everyone agrees on feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, or trying to spread peace you sir have not been to a republican convention.

What does having a better understanding of the universe get us, nothing.

I don't need no understanding.

It's ironic that one of your examples was purifying water. Guess who researches that?
  http://www.nasa.gov/missions/science/f_water.html [nasa.gov]

Re:Conversly, where are the space critics?

[rk]

Your hypothesis that conceit generates gravity intrigues me and I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.