SUV's have nothing to do with Global Warming (or as close to). Enjoy your SUVs while you can. Oil demand is expected to increase by 10% year on year for the next 10 years. If we don't run out - boy will we be paying for it!
As an 'outsider' (european), my view is that NASA has had it's day. Sooner or later ALL state-sponsored enterprises outgrow their usefulness. They become bureaucratic behomoths where individuals are forced to work within a 'system' and as a result innovation dies. Having funding that is based on political fickleness doesn't help either. Take as an example NASA's u-turn on RSVs. The Shuttle has proved that they are viable - and yet NASA are going back to expendable spacecraft - essentially because the funding got pulled to develop a replacement for the shuttle. The only thing wrong with the Shuttle is it's age. If it's replacement programme hadn't been scrapped - we would be seeing the first launch before 2010. NASA should continue to exist - but I think that everyone realises that within 10-15 years - it will be a buyer of space vehicles, not a producer.
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SUV's have nothing to do with Global Warming (or as close to). Enjoy your SUVs while you can. Oil demand is expected to increase by 10% year on year for the next 10 years. If we don't run out - boy will we be paying for it!
As an 'outsider' (european), my view is that NASA has had it's day. Sooner or later ALL state-sponsored enterprises outgrow their usefulness. They become bureaucratic behomoths where individuals are forced to work within a 'system' and as a result innovation dies. Having funding that is based on political fickleness doesn't help either. Take as an example NASA's u-turn on RSVs. The Shuttle has proved that they are viable - and yet NASA are going back to expendable spacecraft - essentially because the funding got pulled to develop a replacement for the shuttle. The only thing wrong with the Shuttle is it's age. If it's replacement programme hadn't been scrapped - we would be seeing the first launch before 2010. NASA should continue to exist - but I think that everyone realises that within 10-15 years - it will be a buyer of space vehicles, not a producer.