02-03-2003, 01:41 PM | #61 | |
Quasi Evil
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Maryland, US
Posts: 4,634
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Re: To boldly go...
Quote:
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02-03-2003, 02:37 PM | #62 |
I am Freddie/UNDERCOVER/ Founder of The Great Continent of Entmoot
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Plainsboro, NJ
Posts: 9,431
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I think we should be working even harder to get the next generation space shuttle built, continue to develop the space station and start work on the lunar colony. I think we need to figure out how to have permanent colonies of humans in space (on the moon and/or the space station). This won't be the last group of space explorers to die and we have to realize how dangerous this is.
By the way - it doesn't seem like anyone is calling for the elimination of the space program and it seems like NASA will be receiving more money. For the past 10 years - they've had no increase in budget supposedly - not even keeping up with inflation.
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02-03-2003, 04:25 PM | #63 |
The Quite Querulous Quendi
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Oxon, UK
Posts: 638
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Mars vs shuttle
The point I was making was that I'd prefer to see NASA money (seeing as how they're given buckets of it) go on the shuttle programme, which has reasonably clearly established benefits. There's also the issue of the commercial revenue from servicing satellites etc. I agree with JD's comment about improving what we know works.
I honestly believe that sending a person to Mars would be a phallocentric folly of the most spectacular order. It seems like these kinds of projects have more to do with making the incumbent president look like Captain Kirk than with benefitting humanity. cheers d |
02-03-2003, 04:38 PM | #64 | |
Elf Lord
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Lindon
Posts: 637
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Re: To boldly go...
Quote:
As for the Mars program. To send someone to mars (I believe it is that you are referring), you will need to build a ship in orbit, therefore you will need better and larger space shuttles. The usefulness of going to Mars is unknown. Fact is, with all we know already, we still know very little about it. We are not even sure about the life factor. The simple possibility o finding the simplest alien organisms may be reason enough. Other good reason is, that despite what modern technology can achieve, no robot can be as versatile as an astronaut. A single manned expedition can bring much more information that all the unmanned expeditions up to now. In any circumstance, Mars can actually aid us to understand better our world
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**************************************** "None are more hoplessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Reality is just an illusion, albeit a very persistent one - Albert Einstein The Caffeine Mantra It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion. It is by the juice of Brazil that the thoughts aquire speed, The hands aquire shaking, the shaking becomes a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion... Elvellon Erelion Last edited by Elvellon : 02-03-2003 at 08:46 PM. |
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02-03-2003, 04:48 PM | #65 | |
I am Freddie/UNDERCOVER/ Founder of The Great Continent of Entmoot
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Plainsboro, NJ
Posts: 9,431
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Quote:
On the other hand - sending astronauts up to Mars would answer A LOT of questions about the planet that we're restricted in finding out with just probes. Probes are either preprogrammed and can't make decisions - or else they're controlled by operators on earth by using video monitors to make decisions based on the environment. Humans on the other hand - by being up there - can spot something that a probe might miss and then can make an intelligent decision to investigate. Nothing at this point can replace humans in terms of exploring. Probes lay the framework and can be used to answer basic questions, but humans are required to make the real discoveries.
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