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NASA Expands Role of International Space Station
coondoggie writes "NASA is looking for a few good experiments to run in space. The space agency this week said it was seeking research ideas (PDF) from private entities who want to do research on board the International Space Station. NASA said it was looking to expand the use of the ISS by providing access to the lab for the conduct of basic and applied research, technology development, and industrial processing to private entities — including commercial firms, non-profit institutions, and academic institutions. NASA said using the ISS as a national lab could help develop a number of applications in areas such as biotechnology, energy, engineering, and remote sensing."
It worked for me when I was renting out a room.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Tell me we're not doing remote sensing experiments on the ISS!
Plane on a giant treadmill... in space!
Come on, we all want to know how sex in space works. Its probably the simplest experiment that would generate tons of interest.
Okay, so let's cut all government funding of NASA because you don't want to support "intellectual curiosity". While we're at it, let's cut all government grants to US higher education institutions. After all, that's intellectual curiosity, too!~ And let's stop giving out government-awarded scholarships to promising students. Why the hell should we all pay because they want to learn more, do some research and solve our problems?~ And none of this publicly-funded disease research shit. Let the big pharma corporations handle it, we all know they're open and willing when it comes to sharing their discoveries and creations.~
NASA emphasizes the utter uselessness of the ISS by asking people what interesting things can be done with it. This after spending billions of dollars and over a decade of work. This money should have been spent exclusively on robotic probes. There is no compelling case here for manned exploration.
I know, I know, the "get off this rock" crowd will now inundate us with their magical-religious space adventure cult emotional arguments.
[citation needed]
Dilbert RSS feed
I say we send one up there and plug it in and point a webcam at it.
If you didn't come to party don't bother knocking on my door. Prince '1999'
I am in complete agreement. I don't want to be forced to pay for those things. I can pay voluntarily, thus if those institutions want my money, then they shall have to take part in activities that benefit me.
'Moral good' is no justification for breaking the law, and all of such spending is in violation of the Constitution. States are free to spend as their constituents desire.
That they are just now doing what they were supposed to be doing since the beginning?
For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
What kind of work is useful to experiment on in microgravity?
I know there's some material science stuff but what else?
We'll them on the one with Rosie O'Donnell and send it to the sun.
For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
Article I, Section I: "All legislative powers herein granted..."
Nowhere after that statement is Congress granted the authority to do whatever it wishes. Congress is extremely limited in its powers. As James Madison said, "The government of the United States is a definite government, confined to specified objects. It is not like the state governments, whose powers are more general. Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government."
Sadly since I pissed off 1 to many NASA engineers in the past (blah blah Crusader project by UDLP, blah blah trying making some money... blah blah blah remote mining and processing project... sub orbital meteor mining is a stupid idea...)
Anyway they'll no likely to talk to me (ever again) so here are my suggestions. Please feel free to run with them:
1: Sex (Duh. We all want to know.)
2: Artifical ring construction via centrifical force =
Take a spinning sphere and launch a tethered satellite while still spinning. from the teathered satellite launch another teather out such that the secondary teather is long enough to have the circumfrence of the satellite's oribital circumfurance. See if you can get it to hook up back to the original satellite to create an artifical ring on which we can construct stuff. (may required 2 satellites at opposite sides.
3: Behavior of molten metal in low gravity for crystal structure analysis (see if effect is more brittle or harded.)
4: Better estimate of open space survival time of a human being.
5: Field test atmosphering re-entry capable space suit for orbital deployment of troops (GETA LL WARHAMMA 40K ON YA!)
6: Polymer extrusion and blown film line test in low gravity for polymer chain linkage testing.
7: Smoking in the cargo bay in low-G (Can you blow smoke rings in low-g)
8: Will a paper airplain with a weight of less then .5 lbs survive re-entry to Earth?
9: Subspace structural testing to see if spacial structure exists (e.g. test if space itself has an actual shape, e.g. a quantum of space itself (rather then an infinitly divisible continum))
10: Test if the bullshit in DC is so thick you can really smell it on the ISS.
Just a few...
-=[ Who Is John Galt? ]=-
I'll bet the use of your taxes to pay for public libraries really pisses you off too! You just sit there drinking your tang, typing on your computer and watching your satellite TV, bitching about all the money wasted on the space program...
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Wait, they want to turn the International Space Station into a national lab? What about all the other countries with a stake in this real estate?
Fully-laden? What do you mean, and African or European Shuttle?
"This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."
I do not need my government to give me stuff. By the pursuit of happiness, I mean of course things like keeping monopolies from abusing their positions and encouraging real competition in the market place. So I can get rich if I really work at it.
Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
Well it was before the Supreme Court fucked the citizens of the US out of their freedom with a truly horrible interpretation of the commerce clause.
Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
That's kind of redundant, isn't it?
Table-ized A.I.
Wow you're a major socialist...
I only want 3 things.
1 - to actually own the property I paid for... no your plot of land and your house are not yours, they belong to the feds,state,and city. any one of them can come and take it when they please.
2 - to actually be free to do what the hell I want as long as I dont hurt others.
3 - to get the hell off my lawn!
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Does pursuit of happiness include an education? Millions of extremely hard working but uneducated people would suggest that this is the path to being tired and poor, not rich.
The enemies of Democracy are
How do the Zerg fly in space?
The Official Site of 1337 Pwnage
If only the world would be so simple...
"Paying for the poor" helps to keep the place nicer all around, meaning you have more chance at all of "pursuing happiness". BTW, inancing first two things inevitably gives more opportunities for that pursuit to quite small group of people. And as to your ability to pursue happiness...people have shown time and time again that they generally have a hard time at moderation, a hard time not living on the credit of future generations (this graph is especially "inconvenient")
No, I'm afraid it's not so simple.
One that hath name thou can not otter
I should not be forced to pay for the intellectual curiosity of others.
Actually, it's intellectual incuriosity that I'm tired of paying for.
...supposed to be proposed before the ISS was launched?
I'm sorry, but I'm a big fan of NASA and I find this whole effort to be ridiculous. The ISS was sold as a tool that would provide all of these critical capabilities and now, all of a sudden, they have to drum up business.
Sorry, but the ISS has officially become a Solution In Search Of A Problem.
Am I confused? How an International Space Station becomes a national lab? Isn't it supposed to be International?
Does anyone can tell how much each country/space agency puts in (costs, investigation output, media coverage, etc.) the ISS?
But why do you want to get the hell off your lawn? It's such a nice lawn...
Nowhere after that statement is Congress granted the authority to do whatever it wishes.
Err, huh? Collecting income taxes is already legal under the 16th amendment. And the part you cite talks about *legislative powers*. Nothing in that text limits about how the federal government may spend that tax revenue once it's been collected.
To be more accurate, mostly unused, and that is recycling of *anything* that needs to be hauled up there. They should be exploring repurposing/reuse of any of that thousand$ a kilo stuff they haul up. All of it, no exceptions. I know they recycle astrowhizz now, but they should be doing it with everything. "Trash runs" back are silly. Space faring people will be recycling everything, so the sooner they develop the tech, the better, and that won't happen until they get a mindset change. There really should be no such thing as "space trash", it should be "temporarily not needed valuable materials which we will need later". Once it is launched, it gets used forever, one way or the other.
Heck, I am in favor of them leaving the last shuttle up there as well, see if they can keep it running and rebuild it for a real space ship. Not needing to do re-entry and expensive launch anymore, that cuts down on a ton of the maintenance already.
We do something like this on the farm with older trucks. Once they aren't really road worthy, but still driveable, they just get used exclusively on the farm. The dump truck I use hasn't been road registered for years, but will still crank and run and dump. Why waste a still functioning truck? And when a piece of gear *really* isn't functional anymore, we still scrounge parts and stuff from it to build into something else or reuse it somehow. No waste. If it is steel and cost loot in the past, it is kept and reused somehow, like a little torch and welder action, got another useful trailer. Will=way
So, why waste a still functioning shuttle spaceship, especially once it is already up there? We have enough old aero-crap sitting in museums, or tech morgues like I like to think of them, plenty to "inspire the next generation of sci-nerd-youths", whereas a space based working environment and functional space ship in orbit is more useful, or has more potential, put it that way.
They need a mindset change more than anything else to start this experiment. Too many decades of easy money methinks.
Libraries? Schools? A police force to catch your mugger?
Wow you're a major socialist...
I only want 3 things.
[items 1 and 2 deleted]
3 - to get the hell off my lawn!
You want to get off your own lawn? Be my guest.
un-ALTERED reproduction and dissimination of this IMPORTANT information is ENCOURAGED
I just want the Government to give me 3 things. A standing military... and to protect my ability to Pursue happiness.
Good luck getting those two to coexist.
The purpose of a standing military is 1) to route your tax dollars to defense contractors, and 2) to stop you from doing anything the military-defense complex doesn't want you doing.
Oh, you thought all those high-tech weapons would only ever be used against brown people in foreign countries, who don't count? And that building a highly armed totalitarian order-giving hierarchy would increase democracy in your country? You didn't want Iraq war graduates using their newfound urban policing skills in your malls and on your sidewalks?
Sorry, you might have wanted freedom, but you asked for a standing military instead, and that's what you're getting.
You are not a brain: http://books.google.com/books?id=2oV61CeDx-YC
1 - to actually own the property I paid for... no your plot of land and your house are not yours, they belong to the feds,state,and city. any one of them can come and take it when they please.
I think you forgot 'landlord' in there.
You are not a brain: http://books.google.com/books?id=2oV61CeDx-YC
It's not ad hominem, he pointed out that he's using the fruits of his tax dollars as we speak, so they weren't wasted. The proper counterargument is to argue that the space program didn't really provide these things, probably since they would have come about through private enterprise eventually. I don't actually believe that would have happened by now, but that's pretty much the only way to claim it was "waste" when you are using the fruits of that waste.
Police do not seem to do a very good job at protecting people. They are not too bad at catching the criminal that killed you. They are very good at catching a criminal that kills a cop. Protection though is not their strong point. For that what you need is a populace that may or may not at any time be carrying a concealed weapon. That will prevent alot of crime.
Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
Carrying a weapon (and lack of public police) was the standard for vast majority of human history. And it was a lot less crime then, right?...
One that hath name thou can not otter
1 - so...who owns it "originally"? Why the one you bought it from was the "owner"? Who and why decides that?
2 - who decides what does it mean "not hurting others"? You?
3 - I'm sorry, you might not want to realize this, but for the two above points, and generally for your comfy standard of living, you need the society (ohhhh, that's already close to the scary word)
One that hath name thou can not otter