Armstrong, Cernan Testify Against Obama Space Plan 411
MarkWhittington submitted a story about the first man to walk on the moon testifying yesterday that President Barack Obama's plans to revamp the human space program would cede America's longtime leadership in space to other nations.
So what? (Score:1, Interesting)
Really, so what if it does? It's time to scale back government's involvement in space. Forcing people to pay for something should be seen as a temporary crutch, not a permanent solution. The permanent solution arises when people start to volunteer their money for these things, and if you look around, that's exactly what's starting to happen.
Re:So... (Score:3, Interesting)
Me personally, I give a flying fuck about space. (For now, and here's why)
We're fighting 2 wars we can't win due to the rules of engagement and the enemy's "tactics".
We're HUGELY in debt, each and every one of us.
The government's solution is to spend even more fucking money.
So yeah, Space can piss off right now, IMO. Let some other fucking country "take the lead" while we fix this broken fucking country.
this is why the govt will always get bigger (Score:1, Interesting)
Come on, what is the value of this 'space leadership' bullshit? If he is talking about military applications, the United States and Soviet Union looked into this stuff for a long time. As for actual weapons, it is cheaper to use a semi ballistic missiles. It is of military value to be able to shoot down satelites, which the missile defense program has already demonstrated/could be made better. As for science, robots, with the help of humans on earth, is much cheaper, albeit slower.
I think Obama did the right thing by hurting a large portion of the manned space program.
One lone protester (Score:5, Interesting)
As I came back from lunch today, I saw a single retiree-looking gentleman standing on the corner of Saturn and NASA Rd. 1 with a sign protesting the Obama plan. That's here at JSC, home of the astronauts.
I dunno, maybe more people will join him once work lets out. As someone who works in this industry, I still remain on the record saying that the current plan is the best one NASA has had since the Shuttle was a dream given form*.
* Not quite the form it should have been, though.
Re:So... (Score:3, Interesting)
Perhaps if the teachers unions were willing to part with some of their plush benefits that no other industry receives (what other job can you work in and have a lifetime guarantee that nothing short of felony conviction can get you fired?) the public would be willing to pay them more money.
I would have no objection to teachers making six digits or more if they operated under the same reality as the rest of us. If I do a shitty job I can be fired. If a tenured teacher does a shitty job she gets to keep on doing it until retirement.
Re:and? (Score:5, Interesting)
You've got it backwards,
A NASA Space/Mars Colony if anything would help us live better with smaller carbon footprint here on Earth.
During the last 40 years NASA has spent lots of R&D money on high efficiency solar Panels, Fuel Cells, Water Recycling/Pufification, all technologies required to live lightly on the land, or in the very finite resources available to Astronauts in space or on the Moon/Mars.
On Earth you have people who choose not to recycle, choose to keep using gas powered vehicles, pollute the water, and spew emissions into the air.
In space these are not choices you can make, you need to keep and recycle everything, polluting your environment is not an option, even small imbalances will be noticed quickly, and probably kill you.
It is not within our current technology to build a rocket large enough to carry all the food necessary for astronauts on a trip to Mars, so they will need to grow their own food on the way there. If you can grow enough food in an aluminum tube the size of a small passenger liner to feed all of the crew, you can do intense fertilizer free or biochar fertilized farming in urban areas here on Earth. All with zero impact on the environment.
Re:So... (Score:5, Interesting)
Give me a one-way ticket to Mars and I'd take it in a heartbeat. No joke.
I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way.