I may be the odd man out here by supporting space & NASA (I work Orion CEV, though not a civil servant) while also being a slashdot user, but I still stand by my beliefs.
I will first start by providing a handful of links to other advocate groups, spin-off pages, etc., then go into why I personally support it, and finally go into where I see room for improvements.
Now on to why I personally support manned space: I will try to keep it short and high-level. (No particular order to the numbering)
1. Study of survival in harsh environments.
I both fear & assume that one day our planet will eventually become an extremely harsh environment to survive in. I feel that the more we know about biology and microbiology issues such as water & food purification (ISS, Shuttle Purification, Water and Food Analytical Laboratory (WAFAL)) within limited and harsh environments, the better off we could be when we reach that time in our existence. (There are also many other areas of study that go along with survival than life sciences, such as human physiology.)
2. Colonization of other moons and planets.
Essentially this goes along with #1. It would be nice to have some options and prior knowledge when Earth is nearing its end.
3. Origin of our Planets.
I believe the more we know and understand about the origin of our planets the better. If we can somehow "prove" our origin and debunk the majority of Religious views I feel we will be better off. I believe Religion to be the root cause of the majority of wars and violence on this planet. I also believe that people who are barley surviving often resort to violence to help themselves survive.
4. Costs vs Return.
Here I'm just going to sum-up this page. NASA's budget is 0.7 of 1% of the nations total. We spend about $9 Billion per month killing other humans. "In 2002, the commercial space industry contributed more than $95 billion in U.S. economic activity".
4.Spin-Offs.
While it may be a sub-set of the other advantages, I still believe the majority of Spin-offs benefit humans "down here".
Where can we improve?
(Again, no particular order)
1. Public Relations.
I believe the public needs more knowledge coming from the space community about both the benefits and obstacles of space exploration. I believe many of the reasons people have a negative attitude about it is because they are ill-informed. Stop playing with space food on TV and making everything look like a cake-walk, and show the real low-level experiments being ran up there. THIS is what will inspire people!
2. Inspire our Youth.
Again, this goes along with #1. With politicians trying to get more math and science students just by cutting funds here, adding funds there (Obama, I'm looking at YOU), you still won't be motivating people to work hard and study these subjects. The one thing that actually got me (mentally) through college was my goal of working on the space program. With no motivation and inspiration, you will loose students in these subjects, not gain them!
3. Expand Robotic\Un-manned Space.
I believe that expanding our robotic side of space exploration will have an overall benefit, but needs to co-exist with the manned
It has the functionality to play media off a media server, as well as blu-ray disks, and up-converts DVD's as well. You really aren't restricted to the blu-ray format at all.
If I were a hacker, I'd totally hack the EASIEST one simply to get the $10k and the laptop Agreed, and that is precisely what the guy did.
"It was the easiest one of the three," said Charlie Miller, a principal analyst with Independent Security Evaluators (ISE), a Baltimore-based security consultancy.
Source:
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9072959&pageNumber=1
I am working CEV, the people doing the Abort Software are 1 row over from me.
No, the crew will not be moving around during ascent.:)
In short: The software will monitor for abort conditions, at a point where any are detected the Launch Abort System (LAS) will take over and "pull" the CM in the proper direction away from the rocket.
More unofficial info (sorry, cant link to official docs): Launch Abort System Orion Abort Modes
(I also remember an animated video on NASA's site at one point, but cant seem to locate it on the new website.)
What about those of us who work on life-critical software? We have to have our product conform to very rigorous safety and performance standards. (DO-178B is one example)
There are software "screw-ups" that can get people killed.
Slashdot Mirror
Perhaps you should, they are also involved with space for example. Such as ISS support and Orion CEV avionics.
I may be the odd man out here by supporting space & NASA (I work Orion CEV, though not a civil servant) while also being a slashdot user, but I still stand by my beliefs.
I will first start by providing a handful of links to other advocate groups, spin-off pages, etc., then go into why I personally support it, and finally go into where I see room for improvements.
The Links
The Planetary Society
The Coalition for Space Exploration
Space.com
NASA Spin-off Library
NASA @ Home and City
Now on to why I personally support manned space: I will try to keep it short and high-level. (No particular order to the numbering)
1. Study of survival in harsh environments.
I both fear & assume that one day our planet will eventually become an extremely harsh environment to survive in. I feel that the more we know about biology and microbiology issues such as water & food purification (ISS, Shuttle Purification, Water and Food Analytical Laboratory (WAFAL)) within limited and harsh environments, the better off we could be when we reach that time in our existence. (There are also many other areas of study that go along with survival than life sciences, such as human physiology.)
2. Colonization of other moons and planets.
Essentially this goes along with #1. It would be nice to have some options and prior knowledge when Earth is nearing its end.
3. Origin of our Planets.
I believe the more we know and understand about the origin of our planets the better. If we can somehow "prove" our origin and debunk the majority of Religious views I feel we will be better off. I believe Religion to be the root cause of the majority of wars and violence on this planet. I also believe that people who are barley surviving often resort to violence to help themselves survive.
4. Costs vs Return.
Here I'm just going to sum-up this page. NASA's budget is 0.7 of 1% of the nations total. We spend about $9 Billion per month killing other humans. "In 2002, the commercial space industry contributed more than $95 billion in U.S. economic activity".
4.Spin-Offs.
While it may be a sub-set of the other advantages, I still believe the majority of Spin-offs benefit humans "down here".
Where can we improve?
(Again, no particular order)
1. Public Relations.
I believe the public needs more knowledge coming from the space community about both the benefits and obstacles of space exploration. I believe many of the reasons people have a negative attitude about it is because they are ill-informed. Stop playing with space food on TV and making everything look like a cake-walk, and show the real low-level experiments being ran up there. THIS is what will inspire people!
2. Inspire our Youth.
Again, this goes along with #1. With politicians trying to get more math and science students just by cutting funds here, adding funds there (Obama, I'm looking at YOU), you still won't be motivating people to work hard and study these subjects. The one thing that actually got me (mentally) through college was my goal of working on the space program. With no motivation and inspiration, you will loose students in these subjects, not gain them!
3. Expand Robotic\Un-manned Space.
I believe that expanding our robotic side of space exploration will have an overall benefit, but needs to co-exist with the manned
This is where my ps3 first impressed me.
;)
It has the functionality to play media off a media server, as well as blu-ray disks, and up-converts DVD's as well. You really aren't restricted to the blu-ray format at all.
Not to mention ubuntu on the ps3
Source: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9072959&pageNumber=1
I am working CEV, the people doing the Abort Software are 1 row over from me.
:)
No, the crew will not be moving around during ascent.
In short: The software will monitor for abort conditions, at a point where any are detected the Launch Abort System (LAS) will take over and "pull" the CM in the proper direction away from the rocket.
More unofficial info (sorry, cant link to official docs):
Launch Abort System
Orion Abort Modes
(I also remember an animated video on NASA's site at one point, but cant seem to locate it on the new website.)
What about those of us who work on life-critical software? We have to have our product conform to very rigorous safety and performance standards. (DO-178B is one example)
There are software "screw-ups" that can get people killed.
While it should be obvious that marijuana is no miracle of miracles, many argue that THC use for medical purposes may be beneficial after all.
The two ends of the spectrum: Legalize it simply because its pot, and keep it illegal simply because its pot.
Ok, I'm really a bit lost. This seems to directly conflict with an article stating that Wii titles are to be region-encoded.