I think space exploration has helped alot right here in america with invention, and other things that have helped private business. Although I beleave, exploration for military reasons should not be funded and should be cut, along with alot of other military build up and waste.
It seems to me NASA's mission is not clearly defined. It would be well to start there. It occurs to me that one worthy objective of NASA might be to research and develop a response to earth-threatening astroids. While I am veryskepticalabout the threat posed by "man-caused global warming," it is clear that earth-threatening astroids pose a clear and present danger to the mere survival of our species. Like a big earthquake striking California, it is only a question of time before a large astroid wrecks devestation on our planet. It would be a good idea to pre-emptively study and develop a technical means to deflect or otherwise avert such a species terminating impact. What a noble mission for NASA?!!! Truly, to save the planet!
I think that would be a better and more noble use of the $5 Billion that Obama has designated for ACORN as payoff for the fraudulent voter registration activities that helped get him elected...
And besides . . . there are probably some good military applications for this kind of astroid aversion technology which we could use to subjugate theforeign riff-raff sharing the planetto our national will (can you say "slaves"?!!!) before that astroid shows up! It would only be fair, we are, after all, poney-ing up to save their worthless butts, too, right?! right!
They have made great leaps in the world of science and the pictures from the Hubble aren't bad either. Other than that, I really see no other purpose for them.
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It seems to me NASA's mission is not clearly defined. It would be well to start there. It occurs to me that one worthy objective of NASA might be to research and develop a response to earth-threatening astroids. While I am veryskepticalabout the threat posed by "man-caused global warming," it is clear that earth-threatening astroids pose a clear and present danger to the mere survival of our species. Like a big earthquake striking California, it is only a question of time before a large astroid wrecks devestation on our planet. It would be a good idea to pre-emptively study and develop a technical means to deflect or otherwise avert such a species terminating impact. What a noble mission for NASA?!!! Truly, to save the planet!
Good idea. At least they would be doing something with a result in mind.
I saw some talk about another moon mission and a manned Mars mission. No really good reason for either, as far as I can see. I also think they are at a technological crossroads. They could spend several billion more on a mission that would take 10-20 years or they could concentrate on propulsion to get the same job done round-trip in 2. Even if it took 12 years to develop the tech, you would still see results faster.
Just curious here, what is your opinions on US Space Exploration and the funding it requires???
For a relatively modest amount of money NASA projects have allowed us to learn an enormous amount about the Universe. Observations with the WMAP telescope have confirmed that the Universe originated in an enormous expansion of space and time from a singularity which we know as Big Bang cosmology. Observations with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) have allowed us to pin down the age of the Universe to about 13.7 billion years and discovered that the expansion of the Universe is actually accelerating. Observations with the HST have also allowed us to see stars in the process of formation. The soon to be launched James Webb telescope will have a larger primary mirror than the HST which will centainly give us new insights into the origin and evolution of the Universe.
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RE: What do y'all think of NASA?
Space exploration???? Hell we have enough problems right here on earth. What is gained by having a space program? Lots of money going up into space and then left there to pose a problem down the road when it re-enters the atmosphere.
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Just imagine how great NASA could be if their mathematicians and scientists were rated in the Top 5 in the world (like they were 50 years ago)? Today our top NASA analysts and most US mathematicians/scientistscouldn't crack the top 15% world wide. I read in Time a while back that the average Palestinian within Israel's boarders has nearly twice the math skills at the age of 15 than a US student in public schools has. That's sad..and very scary.
Yet let's cut down the school day a few hours per week...and cut spending on science and math in our public schools.
What do y'all think of NASA?
