NASA: Love is Over Barak Obama

[Atreides]

cutting the moon mission pretty much ensures that China's manned space program will surpass the US's in the next 20 or so years, which arguably was the main reason why we were doing it in the first place.

[Zeh]

I wanna see my grandkids go off to Mars... Come on man. In return Obama, I want some nano-technology that stops the aging process.

[Baha]

New generation of Hubble at Sun-Earth L2. you heard it here first.

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

I kinda wonder why all space-related government contracts aren't more international. Automated transport for ISS? Private contracts, compare it to the currently available international options (ESA, Russia, Japan) and run the numbers. But of course, all firms will want to keep their technology to themselves, which is understandable due to the cost of the research. Slower, fragmented progress for everyone. :/

Don't think any one space agency will be able to do anything that'll wow us in the next decade or two. Unless somehow they all cooperate more, don't think any will be able to balance the cost/benefit of a large scale manned mission vs "simple" low earth orbit and unmanned deep-space missions.

Spoiler: show

And even working together has obvious, large drawbacks. The ESA is already plenty bureaucratic. And while ESA-Russian joint-ventures are acceptable for both sides, US - Russia seems a bit more touchy for both sides.

Bah, I was hoping not to have to live to a hundred to be able to see some tangible manned space exploration.

[Tekki]

Not against space exploration, but NASA is one of the worst ways to approach the frontier. Im all for this, and all for more privatization of space programs.

[Zilong]

Fuck yeah Romefeller Foundation

[Day]

Lets put some guys on the moon!

[Mizango]

I hate you Day.

[dejet]

first you stop star wars now this shit? WTF YOU SHIT HEAD

[zoobernut]

Think about it, this is about delaying/cancelling a trip to the moon, which is hardly space exploration in the grand scheme.

The true exploration is done, as Sath said, through the use of probes and telescopes which can be developed perfectly fine on this planet and/or without landing people on the Moon.

I had more to type, but why bother? Sath pretty much summed up everything I was thinking of saying anyways. Good job buddy.

Most of the technology that NASA develops that we all enjoy on a daily basis isn't developed from the satellites and the telescopes it is developed from sending people into space. They do a SHIT TON more research in space than just examining space itself. There are so many experiments that are done in micro gravity.

Pretty much all the arguments against going to the moon are just ignorant. Going to the moon was going to be so much more than just saying we went there or just to examine the moon.

[Kyreth]

As for developments in the field that can't be found on paper...um...what? Let's see here, we put people on the moon, collected data that a 2x2ft robot with a shovel and a satellite dish could've collected and planted a flag. We remotely crashed an unmanned probe into the moon and discovered water ice. Yeah, our boys from the apollo program sure didn't miss anything while they were up there.

This. This this this fucking THIS.

Save the cash for manned moon missions. Build a few Mars Rover-style probes. Drop on moon. Explore for months. The data gathered by comparison to sending humans would be huge and save billions in the process.

Then once we've got all the data we want and if the moon has useful resources we can send home, manned missions are the next option. We don't need another Apollo now or anytime soon.

[Akucaen]

Why don't we divert money from the two "wars" we're fighting instead?

Regardless, this saddens me so very much.

Most of the technology that NASA develops that we all enjoy on a daily basis isn't developed from the satellites and the telescopes it is developed from sending people into space. They do a SHIT TON more research in space than just examining space itself. There are so many experiments that are done in micro gravity.

Pretty much all the arguments against going to the moon are just ignorant. Going to the moon was going to be so much more than just saying we went there or just to examine the moon.

Quoted for emphasis. This 1000 times over.

[Kryssan]

http://www.aethernavale.net/Media/images/nergal.png



C'mon, make it happen already.

I wanna see my grandkids go off to Mars... Come on man. In return Obama, I want some nano-technology that stops the aging process.

I'm down for promoting nanotech that advances life sciences before space though. More time to get there can't be a bad thing.

[Lordender]

Now all we need is a big meteor to come into orbit and have obama say "we don't have the money to send something up there to stop it and go all armageddon on that shit"

[Not Kuno]

Did anyone even read the article? Particularly this part?

In the meantime, the White House will direct NASA to concentrate on Earth-science projects — principally, researching and monitoring climate change — and on a new technology research and development program that will one day make human exploration of asteroids and the inner solar system possible.

I'd rather have them doing this then going to the moon.

[BerenTebogo]

Most of the technology that NASA develops that we all enjoy on a daily basis isn't developed from the satellites and the telescopes it is developed from sending people into space. They do a SHIT TON more research in space than just examining space itself. There are so many experiments that are done in micro gravity.

Pretty much all the arguments against going to the moon are just ignorant. Going to the moon was going to be so much more than just saying we went there or just to examine the moon.

And yet this topic has been addressed 2-3 times already in this thread. In the grand scale the technologies developed from the apollo program are neither unique nor do they require manned expeditions to the moon.

The article states that more funding will go to the ISS, which will be to conduct more experiments in micro gravity. Dangerous missions that cost cumulatively over 100 billion dollars and human lives that give us fucking Teflon are not cost effective. I challenge you to find a single development from the apollo program that would never have been developed had man never went to the moon, and I remind you that in the past 15~ years private industry, again, has been making far more advancements in technology with applications to space travel and exploration than NASA has in the 40+ years total since the apollo program.

Some examples off the top of my head at 7:00AM are fuels, life-support systems, research into increasing bone density, creating self-sufficient artificial ecosystems, etc. Has NASA played a part in one way or another in all of these? Sure, but they are in no way the pioneers of the field or even the most prominent.

This is not, "The world will never again venture into space!" This is, "The US government will, for now, cease to fund manned missions to the moon because it's a waste of money and focus!"

There's being wrong and then there's being REALLY wrong. Guess which one you are?

[BerenTebogo]

Also, for a bit more emphasis:

The total estimated cost to develop the Ares I through 2015 has risen from $28 billion in 2006 to more than $40 billion in 2009.[35]

The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), known as Curiosity, is a NASA rover scheduled to be launched on 15 September 2011 and would perform the first-ever precision landing on Mars.[1][2][3] It is a rover that will assess whether Mars ever was, or is still today, an environment able to support microbial life. In other words, its mission is to determine the planet's habitability. It will also analyze samples scooped up from the soil and drilled powders from rocks.

Mars Science Laboratory is part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program, a long-term effort of robotic exploration of Mars, and is a project managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The total cost of the MSL project is about $2.3 billion USD.[5]

It seems to be early for me, how many times does 2.3 billion go into 40 billion?

Edit:

1. Determine the nature and inventory of organic carbon compounds.
2. Inventory the chemical building blocks of life as we know it: carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur.
3. Identify features that may represent the effects of biological processes.
4. Investigate the chemical, isotopic, and mineralogical composition of the Martian surface and near-surface geological materials.
5. Interpret the processes that have formed and modified rocks and soils.
6. Assess long-timescale (i.e., 4-billion-year) Martian atmospheric evolution processes.
7. Determine present state, distribution, and cycling of water and carbon dioxide.
8. Characterize the broad spectrum of surface radiation, including galactic radiation, cosmic radiation, solar proton events and secondary neutrons.

Hm, given that a few billions years ago it is theorized that Mars may have had a surface and atmosphere very similar to earth could it be possible that ALL OF THOSE THINGS hold practical applications for how we look at our planet? But by all means, going to the moon accomplishes so many things we couldn't just test in the ISS. I hear there is a theme park on the otherside with moon whalers.

[Acturus]

I just want to know, if we don't send another mission to the Moon, then how the hell will we get Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, Gary Sinese, Ed Harris, and Bill Paxton back into a movie together (with a small part for Clint Howard, of course)?

This news report does suck from the point of view that going to moon was a big ol' back of "America, Fuck Yeah!" for a long time, but I'm hopeful that trashing the budget for sending people back to the moon doesn't necessarily mean that NASA is getting shit-canned completely.

Long-term, though, as a planet we need to get our shit together before we start colonizing outside of the Earth. The fact that America is concerned about China getting up there means that we've got bigger problems down here.

The only thing that'll make this tolerable for the Florida, though, is that Obama is supposed to hand us a check towards our high-speed rail thing soon.

[Fhloston]

screw the moon, nothing but trouble up there...

http://hvo.typepad.com/photos/uncate...nap1224547.jpg

amirite?

[Day]

would have went with

http://bp0.blogger.com/_qnh5Wdrj5xE/...ninites8nw.png

[Fhloston]

that works too.