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Actual Costs for the Space Station
Cujo writes "This article in space.com discusses what the actual costs of the space station have been since it was first proposed by President Reagan in 1984. Depending on how you account for the cost of shuttle launches, the number is well over $40 billion in the U.S. alone. It begs the question of what else could have been done with the same money and far superior management."
Could have decreased it considerably. Or built a huge shrubbery...Nee.
"The number of Unix installations has grown to ten, with more expected." (Unix Programmer's Manual, 2nd ed.; june 1972)
1. Tell Congress to give us the money and stay the fuck away until it's time for us to ask for more money.
2. Put two Soyuz capsules up there so two people can do science while another three do maintenance. A sixth person can be any random rich person paying oodles of cash for the opportunity to scrub toilets IN SPAAAAAAAACE.
3. Let the Russians handle station operations. If that's disagreeable then hire as many Russians away from Russia as needed. They know how to handle space stations, we don't.
[o]_O
Dear Sir,
Could you please express the amount of money in a currency we slashdotters could understand? We prefer either metric assloads or libraries of congress.
Thank you,
slashdot
If you had nuts on your chin, would they be chin nuts?
Think of how many farscape episodes this could have produced!
Gets you modded up. Okay.
"The number of Unix installations has grown to ten, with more expected." (Unix Programmer's Manual, 2nd ed.; june 1972)
There is another option. Pay down the debt/reduce taxes.
"sending people to space is cool and all, but why not use the resources to find a cure for cancer or aids or do something for the homeless?"
Because an aerospace degree doesn't automatically make you eligible to cure cancer?
...if we force the trend-setters to stop wearing makeup, so "fashionable" people stop buying it, we could afford a second space station.
:-)
Looks like the old Geek vs. Jock perceptual rifts in high school values...
The ENIAC Demo Competition
Maybe it's just me, but I'd find it incredibly ironic if with another 40 billion in funding we'd be able to cure Alzheimers....
Take that, Reagan!
/^[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4}$/i
For $40,000,000,000 we could have built a B Arc and got rid of the useless third of our population.
It begs the question of what else could have been done with the same money and far superior management."
Well, with a corrupt investment manager from MSDW, Charles Schwab or Fidelity Investments, and considering the present state of the economy, I'd estimate that the $40 billion investment today would be worth, uh, about $3.50 (pronounced tree-fiddy). Maybe the space station was the best investment. At least we have the option to turn it into the solar system's most expensive Mariott and make some of that money back.
It begs the question of what else could have been done with the same money and far superior management."
.
A moon sized space station capabable of destroying rebel bases.
Assuming, of course, there isn't some OSHA regulation against telepathically strangling incompetant middle-level management
Ergonomica Auctorita Illico!
*ducks*
I'm just imagining the crew of the ISS watching the earth being destroyed below them and then turning to the nearest female crew-member and saying "Do you think we could ever be more than friends? For the survival of the human-race, of-course..."
Does this make my brain look big?
Defence Budget for 2k3
um... we are going to spend almost 10x that next year in defence alone. We could create a beowulf clusters of space stations instead!!