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New Budget NASA Space Science Missions
pertinax18 writes "The New York Times is reporting that 'Some of the most highly promoted missions on NASA's scientific agenda would be postponed indefinitely or perhaps even canceled under the agency's new budget.' This looks to directly impact the types of missions that have been NASA's greatest successes like the Mars Rovers. 'Among the casualties in the budget, released last month, are efforts to look for habitable planets and perhaps life elsewhere in the galaxy, an investigation of the dark energy that seems to be ripping the universe apart, bringing a sample of Mars back to Earth and exploring for life under the ice of Jupiter's moon Europa'"
If I was a microbe on the moon of Juipter, I wouldn't want a robot drilling into my living room. Can't you read, no soliciting.
Click Click Bloody Click PANCAKES!
Solution: Reduce the focus on having humans flying around like Buck Rogers until launch costs become reasonable.
I was watching this thing on TV about some guy named Hitler. Someone should stop him!
Dark energy?....ripping the universe apart?...I would think that would be on the top of their list to look into. Unless it's like, "Eh, why should we look into it? By the time it gets to us, we'll be long gone anyway."
=*^.^*=
investigate the dark energy that seems to be ripping the universe apart
Wasn't that an anime plot? Or maybe a Final Fantasy game... someone fetch Butz and have him check it out.
End of lesson. You may press the button.
Bad idea. Didn't you guys get the memo?
ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS EXCEPT EUROPA.
ATTEMPT NO LANDINGS THERE.
Peter, do you me to go ahead and send you another copy of that memo?
Or a beta keyword tag?
Well - the US is racking up huge bills in Iraq, with no end in sight, not to mention the enormous current account deficit, so I guess NASA gets hit with the cost-cutting.
It appears the Shuttle replacement costs (and ongoing Shuttle costs) are more than was thought. And if we're going to get rid of the Shuttle, clearly there has to be a replacement. So unless Congress wants to increase the budget to make up the difference, then these missions will just have to wait a while longer.
Life is hard, and the world is cruel
As someone who worked on the shuttle program, let me be the first to say that this announcement renders whatever science relevance NASA still had to the ash heap of history.
Dr. Donald Lamb, University of Chicago: "The bottom line: science at NASA is disappearing -- fast"
Dr. Charles Beichman, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory: "We're getting ready to fire all the people we've built up"
"Such a lengthy suspension would be a devastating blow to the program and the science community"
How can you get children to believe in Bible-Based Science$reg; when you're spending all that money promoting real science?
Finding God in a Dog
A religion driven administration cutting out funding for the search of extraterrestial life... Who didn't see this one coming? Probably the same people that think Bush's supreme court picks are just good judges.
Just hitch your wagon to the Synthetic Fuel boondoggle.
Get rid of the bloody Space Shuttle!
Between the Space Shuttle's budget, stupid wars, and highways to nowhere, the US government should be able scrape together a few million for these important missions.
Religion for nerds. Stuff that really matters
And so Dickens was right.
We have long been hoping that someday people would go back to the moon for more than just the Apollo-style touch-and-go missions, and now that looks like a reality more than it ever has since the end of the Apollo program.
And yet, it is the worst of times, too, for those who have been working very, very hard on programs that have nothing to do with the lunar program which have been very productive. I can only hope that this will pass, and that once the new vehicles have been developed and are flying we will be able to resume other science programs -- and face it, despite the setbacks like the Polar Lander and the Climate Observer, there have been a great many successes in the NASA robotic programs. The HST, the MER program, Cassini, the Great Observatories, Landsat, the list just goes on and on.
The Shuttle was and is a great idea, but the execution was flawed due to too much pennypinching during the design phase. It is an amazing idea and I hope that a safer reincarnation of the same thing returns, from either a government or from a private company. Do it right (manned flyback booster, a hardier orbiter, and so on) and put a better escape system on it.
But until things get smoothed out again, all I can do is wait, and hope that it all works out in the end. I've been a space buff for years, and I probably will be forever, and I know that the new expendables will probably be more inexpensive to operate plus the processing flow will hopefully be smoother.
Until then, though, it is the season of light and the season of darkness.
i am a soviet space shuttle
I wonder which Pork Barrel Project drove this latest reduction in NASA's budget? perhaps Alaska needed another bridge to nowhere ?
Who needs space exploration when you have have TONS and TONS of PORK, that oh sweet budget bustin' other white meat that our elected big spenders in Washington would just starve without.
All of the cancelled missions were of great scientific and exploratory importance. Sadly, the same cannot be said of the missions replacing them.
Hopefully under a new administration, sanity (and science) will return to NASA.
Considering how much of the federal budget is spent on destroying this planet we should definitely be spending a fair amount looking for other habitable planets! Or at least terraforming dead ones. I don't know about everyone else but I'm about ready to leave.
Developers: We can use your help.
At least someone is doing something:
Senator Pete V. Domenici, Republican of New Mexico, and 56 other senators have introduced a bill that would mandate a 10 percent increase per year in NASA's science budget from now through 2013, among other things.
More people ought to contact their representatives about NASA funding. Unfortunately space exploration doesn't seem to get as much press time as other "important" issues these days.
infested with jello like fishes no melotron wishes
when the bible says there isnt any. stupid sintists....
I wish I could simply mod this "Funny", laugh and move on, except so many people actually think this way. At the moment, unmanned missions are being canned, next thing we know a new government is in and cans the manned missions as economically unfeasable, and then there's no more science *or* engineering/political activities going on at NASA.
Perhaps they could just grab the 9 billion and increase their budget by 50%+.
Realistically, private space exploration is the only way any true advances will occur. The best bet is for governments to encourage this and not bother to pretend they're going to do it on their own.
Solution: Reduce the focus on having humans flying around like Buck Rogers until launch costs become reasonable.
Better solution: quit wasting money collecting fun facts about distant destinations we won't have the technology to visit for centuries, if ever, and concentrate our resources on local destinations that might actually yeild some practical use to us sometime before the 29th century.
In my book, they're setting their priorities exactly right.
Progressivism: Parasites helping parasites to help themselves - to other people's stuff.
Almost feels like the Dark Ages are approaching. U.S. governmental scientific research seems to have suffered a few blows the past few years. This is just one more.
...or so the Radical Religious Right( aka R3) would have you believe.
Of course they want to force out funding for extraterrestrial life sicences and searched. This would shatter their belief nuch like the concept that the Earth revolved around the sun.
never ending supply of newclear power. see you there?
meanwhile: corepirate nazi felons are STILL running US DOWn?
what a surprise? like corn passing through a bird's butt?
all they want is... everything. at what cost to US? not a pretty picture at all. quite infactdead from our viewpoint.
for many of US, the only way out is up.
don't forget, for each of the creators' innocents harmed (in any way) there is a debt that must/will be repaid by you/US as the perpetrators/minions of unprecedented evile will not be available after the big flash occurs.
'vote' with (what's left in) yOUR wallet. help bring an end to unprecedented evile's manifestation through yOUR owned felonious corepirate nazi life0cidal glowbull warmongering execrable.
some of US should consider ourselves very fortunate to be among those scheduled to survive after the big flash/implementation of the creators' wwwildly popular planet/population rescue initiative/mandate.
it's right in the manual, 'world without end', etc....
as we all ?know?, change is inevitable, & denying/ignoring gravity, logic, morality, etc..., is only possible, on a temporary basis.
concern about the course of events that will occur should the corepirate nazi life0cidal execrable fail to be intervened upon is in order.
'do not be dismayed' (also from the manual). however, it's ok/recommended, to not attempt to live under/accept, fauxking nazi felon greed/fear/ego based pr ?firm? scriptdead mindphuking hypenosys.
consult with/trust in yOUR creators. providing more than enough of everything for everyone (without any distracting/spiritdead personal gain motives), whilst badtolling unprecedented evile, using an unlimited supply of newclear power, since/until forever. see you there?
"If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."
Uhura: Captain, I'm getting an urgent communique' from Starfleet HQ ... you know that 'five year mission' bit? ... ... ONE ... year ... mission ... to ... seek ... ... why?? .. have our orders. And you ha.. ... new life, new planets ... boldly going ...
Kirk: Put in on the main screen
Uhura: Aya
Commander: Jim...
Kirk: Commander Wilkes! What brings us the pleasure of your visit?
Commander: Jim, I have some bad news.
Kirk: Not another shippment of tribbles, heheh
Commander: Jim, this is serious. We're
Kirk: Yes
Commander: Well, we're going to have to cut it back to one
Kirk: What?
Commander: That's right - one year.
Kirk: (dramatic) Their
Commander: That give your 3 more months to clear up this planet destroyer thingy.
Kirk: But
Commander: It's the budget Jim. Starfleet's pretty strapped these days, what with the extra patrols in the Romulan sector
Kirk: I knew we never should have taken sides in their sectarian squabbling.
Commander: That doesn't matter. It's not for us to decide. We
Kirk: What about
Commander: It's "to boldy go" Jim. I know, we all feel as bad about it as you do. Prepare to wrap this up in 3 months. That's all.
Uhura: They've dropped connection, captain.
Kirk: Sulu, lay in a course for the Altairian sector
Spock: Captain, the plant destroyer is continuing toward the heavily populated...
Kirk: Nevermind that. If we've only got 3 months budget left we're going to the planet of the Altairian slave girls...
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
Shocking! Perhaps they shouldn't have sunk so much money into the bloated shuttle program. It's no surprise they are complaining about funding as they continue to get passed up by private agencies using increasingly sophisticated technology.
They are another monolithic money-eating government program that is completely unnecessary. Just like in missile defense and advanced spacecraft, the US government can pay private companies to get the job done at less cost than NASA.
The article and the summary both specifically say that the most of the programs will simply be delayed, not cancelled completely. Space isn't going anywhere anytime soon, so what's the big deal if we bring back stuff from Mars now or in 10 years? Why not scale back a few programs and save some cash now and address scaling it up in the future when the country's budget is a little better?
Every government program complains about funding cuts and gives doomsday scenarios about what's going to happen. Those things really never happen. I personally think every government program should undergo significant funding cuts and those programs will be forced to be more efficient.
You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life. --Winston Churchill
He is scared we will find intelligent life.
Science marches on development. No tests/learning curves/experiment it stagnates. Instead, more money is reserved for wars and such destruction. Space is the only resolve man has left to do something good and keeps technology and improvement working.
This is nice, instead of real science getting done we get to keep some craft from the 70s (that are falling apart) and a money hole(iss). Awesome. NASA should shitcan the shuttle and get out of this LEO mentality, start thinking big again. Balls to the wall, as it were.
"We're getting ready to fire all the people we've built up," said Dr. Beichman, who is the project scientist for the second of the two spacecraft missions, once scheduled for about 2020. Once those scientists have found other jobs, he said, they are not likely to come back.
Anyway, this is a matter or priorities. The current leadership has decided that manned space flight is a higher priority than earth and space science.
Big ticket, no science programs like Bush II's 'man on mars' fantasy provide huge contracts to aerospace corporations that are big contributors. Programs that distribute a lot of small grants to thousands of scientists and graduate students don't produce contributions. Bush II has always been clear that job number one is taking care of the 'political base', and aerospace contractors have always been part of that.
If they cut out all the good stuff, what is left that NASA can do, other then be reduced to being a service crew on satellites? ( not that it isnt also important, but not overly ground breaking )
---- Booth was a patriot ----
shove a challenger two probe up your ass
If you lose the skillset, you won't get it back. Once the retroactive budget cuts take hold, there'll be a LOT of scientists who will find themselves burned. Even if NASA gets more money at a later date, few will take the risk of going back, knowing that the money could be taken from them after a project has been started. Why take the chance on such poor job security?
If NASA's budget isn't increased substantially (enough to cover ALL existing projects, plus enough extra to provide a buffer for overruns), the agency will cease to have any meaningful operational status within the next 10-15 years. It'll still be around for a lot longer, but they won't be able to do much more than sweep the floors of their HQ.
A trivial example - Langley will likely be shut, if there are deep real-term cuts. That means ALL of the lucrative aerospace engineering contracts - NASA's largest source of funds outside of the Government - will go elsewhere. That is going to seriously raise the cost of building the shuttle replacement, as they won't have the engineering talent in-house, they'll have to outsource.
Why would they do that? Because Langley isn't as politically sensitive as the other bases. Eliminating one of the others will have a bigger impact on NASA's representation in Congress. The impact on operations would be far less important than the impact on their ability to stay afloat the budget after next.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Space isn't going anywhere anytime soon, so what's the big deal if we bring back stuff from Mars now or in 10 years? Why not scale back a few programs and save some cash now and address scaling it up in the future when the country's budget is a little better?
Because the people who know how to do the Mars missions won't sit around not working for 10 years. All that knowledge, all the wisdom, walks away. It isn't written down (not that it can be in lots of cases), and when (or more likely if) it starts up again, they'll be working on other projects and their loyalties will lie elsewhere.
I personally think every government program should undergo significant funding cuts and those programs will be forced to be more efficient.
Just for example:
TPF - cut to zero.
nuStar - cut to zero.
Dawn - cut to zero.
LISA, ConX, JDEM - will be downselected to one and the other two zeroed.
All the money spent on those programs so far is wasted. How efficient is that?
Its origin and purpose still a total mystery.
Maybe NASA needs to try to outsource some of this to other nations. Why not to Japan or even China ? Or even private companies. Im sure that google would love to be the one that found little green men.Why are we saddling something this big on one big company ? Isn't this how ENRON and all that happend? Too big to get anything done. Scrap the orbiter missions. The ISS was a mistake. We need to go to another planet. I agree that we should be going to Mars. But we need an international co-operation, inter-nasa with funding from G8 countries.
I have mod points and I am not afraid to use them.
Way to go! Kill off the basic research as usual. How far could we have advanced if priorities were got right?
On the bright side, it still seems to be OK to pay $billions to spray coal with pine resin, though, according to the previous article...
You want information about places that might be useful? Then stop sending humans into space; robots get you a lot more information for your dollar. We could send fifty times as much scientific equipment to mars (and investigate fifty different locations on it) for the cost of the current Mars program, which is an unsustainable "lets go there a few times, stay for a bit each time, and after our budget is blown when it's all done, sink into another space slump even bigger than the post-apollo slump"
I was watching this thing on TV about some guy named Hitler. Someone should stop him!
Little B.(i)G. man.
Our government's policies are not consistent regarding science and technology, and both President Bush and Congress are to blame. Our lawmakers don't understand the human impact of their decisions regarding the budgets of agencies like NASA and the National Science Foundation (NSF). Every time they re-allocate funds from one project to another, cut programs, or fail to increase the NASA and NSF budgets sufficiently to account for inflation, scientists and engineers lose their jobs. The U.S. government is shooting itself in the foot when it comes to our global competitiveness in science and technology.
I work at JPL, and it is clear to me that if the "President's Vision" of a manned return to Mars were genuine, we would have had an incredible boost in funding, because we would need an enormous unmanned/robotic component to prepare for and support these manned missions.
What is really happening is that a grotesquely underfunded mandate has been given to NASA. We can no more go to Mars on this budget than we can win in Iraq with 160,000 troops. The result of "President's Vision" will be, as in Iraq, huge costs and mission failure.
I believe that if we don't have the commitment -- in hearts, minds, and dollars -- from the American people for a manned mission to Mars, then we just shouldn't do it. And until we have that committment, we should stick with the far more cost-effective unmanned exploration and science missions, or which JPL is a master.
This kind of realistic choice will never happen under this administration. The problem isn't Griffin, it's Griffin's boss, the President. So if you want to save NASA, the only way in my opinion, is to impeach President Bush.
According to this page, here are the science budgets for 2004-2006:
2004: $5,600M
2005 (est): $5,527M
2006 (est): $5,476M
That doesn't look like too big of a change. Does losing $50 million really do that much?
Re-read your scriptures.
The memo isn't scheduled to be sent for several more years yet.
Also, us having not found the Moon Monolith at the scheduled time, it's likely that the memo will never be sent, and that the senders are actually fictional characters incapable of sending anything.
Europa is most definitely not off-limits at this time.
Any sufficiently well-organized community is indistinguishable from Government.
Nice reference to two of my favorite franchises! I guess no one here reads Arthur C. Clark. :-(
Bummer
# man tar
Back in the 60's and 70's there where plans to build a space station, more Moon exploration and landing on Mars using the so-called Nova rocket.
But Vietnam got in the way and budget cuts killed almost everything, only the space shuttle survived by only one vote in congress.
"The Nova rocket was a rocket proposed as a successor to the Saturn V, intended for missions to the Moon and Mars. From the late 1950s through the early 1980s, "Nova" was a generic name generally meaning a rocket larger than the Saturn V."; Wikipeda
Bad idea. Didn't you guys get the memo?
ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS EXCEPT EUROPA.
ATTEMPT NO LANDINGS THERE.
That Memo has been superceded. New memo reads:
ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
Seriously, why are we noticing the small mouse (NASA budget) eaten, when there's the large cat (Iraq War) that gobbled it up in the first place.
I predict it will continue to get worse, so long as we keep ignoring the large cat.
And taking all the dog food (social security reserves) we set aside for the guard dog (our US work force) that actually lives here.
Good thing that Europe, Japan, and China are all actively exploring Space.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Back in the 60's and 70's there where plans to build a space station, more Moon exploration and landing on Mars using the so-called Nova rocket.
But Vietnam got in the way and budget cuts killed almost everything, only the space shuttle survived by only one vote in congress.
And here we have the Iraq War, still not included in the budget, the growing non-Iraq military budget to support that useless war, and the interest we have to pay to service the debt for all of the above.
History is harsh to those who refuse to learn it's lessons.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Let me see, $250 billion and counting (not to mention interest on the debt to pay for it) Hmmm...
Yes, I'd say some of us could have been throwing back celibratory cosmos at a lunar night club any day now. What a shame.
:T:R:A:N:S:
The shuttles and the ISS should be scrapped immediately, and the US shouldn't develop a replacement for the shuttle.
Instead, money should be redirected into low-cost unmanned launch options, robotics research, and missions that actually have scientific value.
If america would stop wasting money on wars it should never have started in the first place (the situation in IRAQ is actually WORSE now than it was under saddam I believe), maybe there would be enough money to do something good (like space exploration)
I dont follow US politics, is the general push from the US people these days pro-iraq-war or anti-iraq-war? (i.e. is there pressure from the public to the administration to pull out of iraq or not?)
I personally think every government program should undergo significant funding cuts and those programs will be forced to be more efficient.
I personally think your salary should undergo significant cuts, and you will be forced to be more efficient.
Considering how much of the federal budget is spent on destroying this planet we should definitely be spending a fair amount looking for other habitable planets!
But if the US is destroying the planet, doesn't it make sense to develop the technology that will allow us to colonize other planets before it is too late? That is what President Bush's moon initiative is about. What good does it do to discover planets around other stars if all we can do is gaze wistfully at them without the means to travel to them?
an ill wind that blows no good
these days it seems like the press is pointing out the latest GWB screw-up with katrina. Yet, that has to be the most ridiculus thing. Instead, they should be paying attention to the traitors in the white house (libbey, rove, cheney, and probably bush), the Sibel Edmund Story, the slow killing off of research (NREL was cut 10%, NASA is being cut, Climate change is being cut; the only thing going up is oil processing research, by 40% ), the lose of rights (the right to privacy is GONE), and of course, the long term deficit. Much of GWB's stuff will only set us back 10 years. But his deficits will have much longer term implications. It took 2 presidents and 12 years to balance the budget (kind of). Now, it will take 15 years to bring the budget back and about 50 to reduce it down to reagan's level (and that is without paying off reagan's deficits). Between 2 presidents, they have managed to make the WWI,II, korean war, and vietnam war deficits look like child play.
Ok, so. Some people don't have any understanding of the situation, that's great. "Read a book, you're making us look like jerks." I am going to type this very slowly for those of you who need the extra time to understand...
The FUNDING has not changed. In fact it has steadily increased over the course of Bush's administration. The BUDGET - as designed by NASA and NASA's administrators, has been changed. It has been repurposed AWAY from SCIENCE, to HUMAN spaceflight.
So smile. People are going to the moon and other planets to see for themselves. What, you want robots to have all the fun?
kulakovich
I've gone through this entire thread and haven't found a single argument for that first A, Aeronautics. I've been working with NASA for years on the Small Aircraft Transportation System program. We were just informed that there is going to be no funding support for it this year.
.001% travel into space, but the budget is so lopsided that that almost 98% of the funding is going to Space flight? We're not done innovating in the atmosphere yet! We need to get the national airspace system up to date so it can handle the future needs/growth of air flight. We need to make smaller airplanes safer... we need to do a lot and NASA is the governments only arm that is doing this type of research.
Why is it that 99.999% of NASA's "customers" travel by air and
NASA is the only government agency that is tasked with doing three things... Space Science, Space Flight and Aeronautical Research. I think we need to break it up in to 3 distinct organizations along those lines. That way we could focus on what each one does best without killing the others.
Bill
It's my Sig and you can't have it. Mine! All Mine!
MagPulse wrote:
>
> According to this page, here are the science budgets for 2004-2006:
>
> 2004: $5,600M
> 2005 (est): $5,527M
> 2006 (est): $5,476M
>
> That doesn't look like too big of a change. Does losing $50 million really do
> that much?
What those figures don't tell you is that next year they'll only be funding creation science.
What, like the back of a Volkswagen?
You've hit the nail on the head.
He thinks that every time he walks out the door.
:)
Homonyms are fun!
You're driving your car, but they're riding their bikes there.
i want my goddamn nuclear lightbulb, and i want it right now. why are we fucking with this CRV chemically launched bullshit again? the truth is that for practical space it's nukes or nothing. if we had a government with a healthy surplus of balls and brains we'd be building that bastard tomorrow. unfortunately, the balls match the brains on this heap of human waste ruling us (that is to say, atrophied into nonexistence).
...they have the Stargate! =)
It's all a big conspiracy I tells ya!
Homonyms are fun!
You're driving your car, but they're riding their bikes there.
What world leader wants to seriously support the development of a sustaining off-world colony? It's not a government's responsibility to build a new world unless the government owns that new world and can profit from it. The involvement of a corporation changes that argument a bit, but the results remain pretty much the same. Think Civilization meets Alien:
1. Are there resources that can immediately be harvested, mined, collected or gathered? No one wants to spend a colossal amount of money (directly translated from manhours or products sold to generate said money) if that money invested in a colonizing operation won't see an immediate financial return on the investment. Think about the people on Earth working to fund the development of an off-world colony - how are the people going to feel if the effort they produced to get the colony started doesn't show some kind of return that that will impact their daily lives?
2. Is there a way for these resources to be returned to the government (or corporation) that funded the operation? If the resources collected remain at the colony, again the financial investment to create the colony is a waste of resources for those who funded it's conception. Nearly every colony that has been used for its resources has eventually resisted or attempted to overthrow the governing body enforcing or regulating the use or collection of the resources gathered. Historically, there has always been an uprising.
3. Where will the loyalty of the new colony reside? It doesn't make a lot of sense for a government or corporation to fund a colonizing expedition only to have the colony defect or rebel. It sounds silly, but every terrestrial colony has attempted or been involved in seperatist activities. A self-sustaining colony will more than likely be a military base or space station. In a similar way to government funding, the massive amound of cash and resources involved would necessitate the protection of that investment with a security presence.
This guy is right on the money (pun intended). Bush is only taking care of his base via NASA. It's simply money laundering under a different name. In fact, if you follow ALL the pork in government, you'll probably find the exact same thing.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
Called Iraq. We invaded, destroyed the infrastructure, the government and took over. Now we are rebuilding the infrastructure and government and it's costing us over $300 billion so far with no discernable result. We're paying for it, but we won't get any return on our investment. We will never get to tax the Iraqi people so that they can pay for what we payed for, we will never get to enjoy the fruits of what we created because, once truly independent of us, they will no doubt turn against us.
If anything, Iraq shows that your statement is true.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
Like the stem cell researchers who made news the other week for packing off to China, it looks like this budget would give China an opportunity to buy a planetary exploration team or two if they were interested.
or so the Radical Religious Right( aka R3) would have you believe.
Of course they want to force out funding for extraterrestrial life sicences and searched. This would shatter their belief nuch like the concept that the Earth revolved around the sun.
Umm if your hope in finding some green man that is not there gets you to spend the money to explore God's Universe.. then ok...
Does anyone else notice a pattern here ? Ever since the George Deutsch fiasco I've been watching closely and now this. It seems to me that the missions that have to do with discovering life on other planets have been delayed/posponed? Is this because this is not a priority of the "Intelligent Design" crowd?
I chose my words to illustrate the falacy of the earlier argument that the search of habitable planets was somehow a plan to visit one.
and then convince the mindless masses that I'm all into this whole space thing, I've got a vision, trust me...
I think President Bush does not have your contempt for the views of your fellow countrymen. Is returning to a real space program, like the US had during Apollo, really that controversial? Is pumping cash into aerospace corporations any less noble than pumping it into research universities? You aren't thinking clearly.
an ill wind that blows no good
Nobody except the government stays in business after failing on billion dollar budgets! In the startup years there were rumored that the byproduct of sending people into space was lots of technology that could be useful here on Earth. I suspect this is not as profitable anymore. What is the new return on investment in looking for other intelligence in the Galaxy ? If we can't get to it or it to us what is the point except on the heads of the scientists that want job security ? That budget needs to be refocused on solving problems here on Earth. Solve the energy problem - safe and abundant power, the environment problems, global warming, rocket propulsion that doesn't explode , etc. I am sick of hearing about the crybaby scientists and managers at NASA worrying about their stupid pet projects! I think all government programs should have ROI (return on investment) calculations applied & published.
MoO II is my favorite game ever.
I still play it at least once a week.
I prefer to use a Lithovore Creative custom race, with 10 points of disadvantages, and pickup Telepathic when I research Evolutionary Mutation.
I also like to use a Unification Creative Telepathic custom race.
Exam 4/C again. Maybe I'll do better this time.
Follow the logic of NASA and simply connect the dots. If you want to find out if ET is there and do not know it, then you do research. If you KNOW that extraterrestrials DO exist, then you do other actions, like try to spot them close to home! This is exactly what the military is doing in Mexico. They are building the largest space telescope ever built except Aricibo which is in a valley. This telescope is fully articulated like the ones in the array at Green Bank, West Virginia, but much larger. It has been built at an altitude of over 16 thousand feet so that it can be above the atmosphere for 'precise measurement of small objects at distance without atmospheric distortion. The Mexicans are suspicious of this inasmuch as it is not funded by NASA who would be the logical builders and operators of such equipment pointed at deepspace and not earthly targets. It is funded by the US military. The American government knows something that we do not, and they are not telling us. Just who did the leadership of the American government piss off? This time? What did we do to piss them off, and when did we do it? Inquiring minds want to know. We certainly are not keeping it secret from foreigners to our world, as they would probably have agents here already. If asked, government paid propaganda purveyors (public relations officers) would probably tell us the same 'you saw Venus' or 'weather balloons' or 'crash dummies' stories that have been handed to weak minorities of people by armed authorities for generations. Only in the courts will intimations of the real truth come out. How hard the government resists telling the truth and the ludicrousness of the lies offered will give good clues to the seriousness of the situation. Rest assured if there are people 'out there' with a bone to pick with our government, they will make themselves known in no uncertain terss on some sunshiny day. Maybe soon, and no power on earth will stop them and no lies from stuffed shirts will then blind us to their presence.
Again, this telescope is pointed at deepspace and way too large and expensive to be just used to spot small earth satellites that we know about anyway. Somebody thinks somebody or something is coming, and not to dinner. Hopefully we are not the main course.