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Obama Would Redirect NASA Funding to Education
QuantumG writes "In a recent article on The Space Review, Greg Zsidisin reveals that Barack Obama plans to delay Project Constellation for at least five years, using the redirected funds to nationalize early-education for children under five years old to prepare them for the rigors of kindergarten and beyond, if he is elected president. It is feared that if this happens the Vision for Space Exploration will flounder and that may be the end of human spaceflight altogether."
This story is based on someone's personal blog, who wrote this story based on a personal anecdote and a PDF that's hosted on some site I've never heard of. Meanwhile, I checked Obama's site and found no mention of any plan to make this particular cut. I think the author of the original story is making things up.
Finding God in a Dog
However if this is true or not, I think, it's a good idea and should be at least taken in to consideration! Just ask yourself: What would be more useful for the world and U.S. citizens?
Note: NASA employees themself are recruited from people with the highest education level! So why not better educate our children, so that they have the chance to dream about space exploration, too?
Honestly I don't think this is a bad idea. NASA has lost its focus. Right now it's major scientific project is a space station to give the retiring space shuttle a place to go.
I think we've all been disappointed that the flying cars and weekend trips to mars envisioned by TV and authors in our childhood have not materialized. But the government was never a good way to go about space exploration. It's too risky, and governments are risk averse. A better way to do it is in the private sector. They're more tolerant of risk. The X-Prize has been phenomenally successful, and should be emulated. But government over-regulation, and subsidized competitors has prevented the private sector from flourishing. For a sad read, go over to Beale Aerospace's page.
NASA needs to refocus its effort on science by contracting launch services from the private sector. Congress should rearrange the regulatory atmosphere to allow this to happen (particularly with respect to human spaceflight and liability), and to enable a competitive launch industry rather than the the fat-cat subsidized government contractors we have now.
I want to go to the Moon and Mars too, but no more "flags & footprints". It's long past time we got serious about human spaceflight and did what it takes to make it an everyday occurrence. As long as all human spaceflight is in NASA's hands, nothing will change.
1^2=1; (-1)^2=1; 1^2=(-1)^2; 1=-1; 1=0.
"Quickly pulling out of Iraq will create an Iran which is double the size of present. There will be a Kurd fragment in the north (with a tiny bit of oil) which may or may not end up being eaten by Turkey, an arab fragment in the west (with virtually no oil, just camels) which may or may not be eaten by Saudi and a Iraq-Iran shia state in the south, west and center.
All of that with nukes. No thanks. Dealing with the strategic consequences of that in the long run may actually outweight [sic] current investment in the Iraq war."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_states#Undeclared_nuclear_states
Iran is accused of having nukes like Iraq; it isn't confirmed. Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Turkey, and the Kurds don't have nukes, yet. Even if/when they all do, we can handle them diplomatically. If we don't make new decisions (e.g. weaning off of ME oil, letting Israel protect itself, and employ Iraqis) then we will continue to bear the strategic consequences (i.e. getting ass-fucked without lube). Please stop spreading FUD so we don't continue nation-building the entire middle east.
"Anyone thinking that "we can pullout fast" is delusional."
No, doing the same thing for five years and expecting different results is delusional. The longer the U.S. stays, the more EVERYONE will pay. I mean part of my family was lost because a shrub decided to civilize "The Cradle of Civilization".
Signed,
a token Assyrian American.
America-centric bollocks. If NASA were razed to the ground and all its employees rounded up and shot, it still would not spell the end of human spaceflight... as John F. Kennedy knew perfectly well when he launched the race to the moon.
Nothing could please the Russians more than to have lost the battle for the moon, but to have won the war for space.
I piss off bigots.
Humans are, fundamentally, abysmally unsuited to survival in space. Plus, we insist on bringing astronauts BACK, which makes every manned mission FAR more complex and expensive.
Human spaceflight may be romantic and inspiring, and a human may be far more flexible and adaptable than any robot, but humans also have outrageous supply and environmental demands. It's simply impossible for manned missions to do more than a tiny fraction of what far cheaper automated probes can do.
And every time NASA shoots a Shuttle into low orbit to feed the ISS so that it can be dropped into the ocean on schedule, they do almost zero to advance human knowledge, and spend enough money to send a whole new robot-rover mission to Mars and then run it for three months.
People who insist that manned spaceflight is worth the price do not, I think, usually comprehend the magnitude of the difference between that price and the price of unmanned probes. They also seem to have a pretty poor grasp of what space science actually entails, and how little of it even theoretically can be done by people.
This idea Obama has here might be stupid, but it pales in comparison with the sheer stupidity of the Clinton campaign.
Clever signature text goes here.
Also, all three are senators. There's something about the US Senate which tends to detach you from reality. The longer you are there, the worse it gets. By now Ted Kennedy must be wondering when he's going to get his sainthood declared.
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
Great points! My home schooled 13 year old can out read, is more articulate and far more interested in advancing her education then most adults let alone children of her own age. Add to this the fast track enrollment opportunities at some of the most prestigious universities just for home schoolers and you can see why the state sponsored schools are working overtime to banned home schooling in California. They fear what basic education can do, create people who can think for themselves! This is were the guns come in HAHA!
Si vis pacem, para bellum! For evil to succeed good men need only do nothing!
It seems to me, if memory serve me correctly, that presidential leaders with actual war experience as a soldier tend to keep us out of war longer then those without. Even Roosevelt, a war hero, kept us out of WW2 until it became impossible to ignore. Sure we sent supplies and munitions to our allies but we didn't send our boys to "die" until after pearl harbor. Ike sent advisers to help the French train the south Vietnamese in Vietnam but they were only trainers at that point.
Perhaps you might want to rethink part of that. Then again, maybe you don't.