NASA Suspends Contact with Russia, Except for the ISS

[RJ Dalton]

"This has been a top priority for the Obama Administration." A priority it wouldn't have if it hadn't canceled our space program in the first place.

 

[SanguiniusMagnificum]

Oh, great, that stupid dick measuring contest that some like to call "international geopolitics" is, again, standing between all of humanity and progress....

Thanks Obama...and Putin!!!!

 

[Stu35]

Without getting into a horribly tedious political debate, I just wonder why sanctions were never placed on the US or UK after their illegal invasion of the middle east.

Because when you're economically dominant it's hard for people to put sanctions on you?


I honestly don't know, that just seems like a logical answer.

I really wish there was a way we could just separate science and politics, so political scuffles like this don't result in scientists having to pick sides.

The implication being that Scientists don't have political views. I think many of them probably do... I'm not saying that's a good thing by the way.



The lack of funding for Space projects is something that really, really pisses me off. Unfortunately it'll probably just continue for the next 4 and a bit billion years until the Sun gets close to it's inevitable destruction and we really, REALLY need to get off the planet.*

An example is Indias recent space launch - I saw a large backlash against them because of the high levels of poverty still in their country (peoples argument being that solving poverty on earth is more important than some silly space project... Those people being overly-emotional fools, in my not-so-humble-and-slightly-superior-and-a-little-bit-smug opinion).



*I know how ridiculous that statement is - Humanity is never going to make it that far.

 

[Carnagath]

Poor NASA. They used to do important things. Now their festering corpse is used as a puppet for political dick waving and for vending the US's frustration because they are not in complete control of everything that happens everywhere in the world ever. In the meantime, Jill Tarter retires because she is having a hard time coming up with 2M $ a year to keep SETI running. 2M a year. Pathetic.

 

[Hawk eye1466]

And this is why we shouldn't have decomissioned all of our rockets and shuttles and cut nasa's funding to what is probably just enough to keep the lights on.

They had to be decommissioned. They were being used well past their original used by date.

True but the shuttles were really not a great idea in the first place, I just think we'd have been better off keeping the rockets and exploring rather than doing whatever we're doing now.

 

[Hawkeye21]

Well, yes and no. We ALLEGEDLY went into the Middle East to show everyone FREEDOM and stuff and also because we got our twin towers smashed.

Russia's just rolling into the Ukraine so they can resubjugate as much people as possible.

Rolling into Crimea. Which was part of Russia just 60 years ago, and more than half of population considers themeselves russians. Well, now its more like 95% of population... Also, it wasn't exactly a war, since most of Ukranian soldiers stationed in Crimia just disarmed themeselves, and switched sides, because they don't want anything to do with new Ukranian government. I believe there was exactly one casualty in all this terrible "war".

I am sure it wasn't NASA's initiative, those people are sensible, unlike US government.

 

[Jupiter065]

NASA decides to reenact the events in the 1984 film 2010 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_%28film%29] in the hopes that it will somehow spur a manned flight to Jupiter so we can finally find that damned Monolith.

 

[ZephrC]

So why is illegal war by US good and illegal war by Russia bad? Hypocrisy anyone?

Well, yes and no. We ALLEGEDLY went into the Middle East to show everyone FREEDOM and stuff and also because we got our twin towers smashed. Russia's just rolling into the Ukraine so they can resubjugate as much people as possible.

I'd say that most Ukrainians in Crimea do indeed want to be a part of Russia. If you watch any independent reports it does appear that they really are happy to be a part of Russia. Lets face it, being with Russia is probably better than being with Ukraine right now. All the Ukrainians I know (and I know several) are Russo-files and prefer closer ties to Russia than Europe. But then, my friends and colleagues are all from the East, which is an ethnically Russian area.

I'd say that Putin isn't even that interested in subjugating anyone. He just wants to secure the Black Sea Fleet and ensure that he has a naval foothold in the area. The idea that the area might end up in the hands of a US friendly Ukraine (and therefore potentially being a home to a US naval detachment) was just too much of a threat to ignore.

I just really wish Russia would pull back it's troops from the border of Ukraine. I always thought that Putin was too intelligent to go into Ukraine proper, but all this waving of military penises is getting me a little concerned.

To be fair that's all true, but the other side is that the reason Crimea is an ethnically Russian region today is that the communists killed all the Ukrainians living there back in their day, which is a big part of the reason that the rest of the Ukraine hates Russia so much.

Really the whole thing is a mess that the United States has no right to meddle with, and nothing to gain from doing so. The only rational thing to do is stay as far away as humanly possible. Unfortunately the US seems to have decided that what the world really needs is us barging in and telling people how things ought to be when we only have the vaguest idea what's actually going on.

 

[Hawkeye21]

snip

1) Russia was one of the republics withing USSR, Crimea was a region inside that republic until 1954, when Kruschev passed the control of Crimea to Ukranian republic for purely administrative reasons. Learn to history before talking smack.
2) Chechnya is one of the richest republics which has a broadest autonomy right now. Brush up on the current state of affairs as well. "mights still be prapairing"? What kind of an argument is that?
3) And where are the evidence of that?
4) Russia is multinational country. There is less racism in Russia than in France, for example. There are no evidence to suggest that crimean tatars are going to be treated any different than they were 60 years ago, when Crimea was still a region of Russia.
5) Yes, thats pretty much what happened.

New Ukranian government, meanwhile, consists of people that say stuff like "we are going to kill those fucking Moscowites with nuclear weapons".

 

[ZephrC]

Moscow killed or deported all the indigineous Crimean Tatars in 1944, and then settled ethnic Russians in their emptied homes. Which is (to paraphrase video game 'problems') #1reasonwhy
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/05/tartar-ukraine-sunni-muslims-threat-russian-rule-crimea an even http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/17bd814e-a7ab-11e3-9c7d-00144feab7de.html (so happy they are indeed).

And as I happen to live as near "as humanly possible" (and have a pretty good "idea what's actually going on", too) I'd prefer America to abandon and/or betray us again. We've lost quite a lot soldiers fighting for America in the al-Qaeda wars of Iraqistan, and so did the Georgians for the matter, even after Obama betrayed them with the 'reset' bullshit. That's me, speaking fom 'the world' over here.

I... I'm not actually sure if you're angry at me or agreeing with me from that post. Probably the former, maybe even both.

I just... clearly don't know enough about what's going on to make any kind of rational decision, and I know more than most Americans, including a lot of the ones that are making the decisions about what we're going to do. The whole thing makes me feel stupid and helpless. I tend to shut down and do nothing when I feel like that, whereas the types that tend to end up in charge usually lash out at anyone they can get away with hurting and then ignore things after that. They're both dumb and useless ways of dealing with things, but at least mine isn't making things worse.

I don't know. I just... don't know.