Neil Armstrong to NASA: You Are an Embarassment

[Dark Knifer]

Snip

Fair enough, new rockets would be safer. As long as they keep the idea open to space travel then I don't mind. I get people telling me of those accidents and say we should never go to space again, but thankfully your not like that and I agree with your post.

 

[Awexsome]

It is an economic downturn and I'm upset that this is the way things have to be for a while... but I sincerely hope that it's only a temporary mindset. Private corporations may be the step to help space travel become more efficient but you won't see some private company sending out a space satellite to scout out Jupiter's moons or anything.

The government is the only group that can explore space for the sake of exploring. Something that has sadly fallen into question with all the money talk lately. People will be like, "What's in it for us that we send some Joes to Mars?" when they seem to forget that WE'D BE GOING TO MARS.

Have some ambition for the continuation of the ingenuity of our species people.

 

[mellemhund]

I agree, Space Exploration needs to be one of our major priorities especially with the Chinese getting into the game.

Really, the problem here is that the US hasn't been nationalistic enough, and all of the left wing stuff about how "oh the Ruskies and Chinese are our friends" has detracted from the reality of the situation and how far behind we've been getting. To a liberal, why does it matter if we give Russia space if they are our bestest buddies in the world?

Given the things China has been doing to our satellites (do a search for China, Satellite, Lasers, it's been an issue since like 2006) I think one way to justify the spending would be to do what few people have wanted to support before... and fold The Space Program into the military officially, and task the military with coming up with obtaining domination over space as well as land, sea, and air. While boats, Jets, and Tanks are all important, I think folding the money being used to develop some of that stuff into spacecraft could achieve the same or better results.

The way I look at it is that being #1 in defense spending, but having pathetic funding for The Space Program, if we combined the two NASA and the Air Force could more officially pool their resources towards developing something like Air/Space superiority craft, rather than just pumping the money into new fighter craft or whatever. If we could build say a space shuttle that is also a stealth bomber armed with WMD, while keeping most rival space programs landlocked without our direct approval... well guess what, that guarantees American primacy for a long time to come. Even if we never actually use it, if we're ruthless enough we won't have to.

The way I see things is that if we don't develop that kind of tech someone like The Chinese are going to, and from that point on guess whose mercy we'd be at when it comes time to exploit the astroid belts for minerals, or put science stations on Mars? Yeaaah, not a pleasant thought is it?

Basically I agree with our Astronauts more or less, but in their case they are short on solutions or direct justification. Me, I have no real problem with saying that The Chinese and Russians are NOT our friends, and that like it or not we're in a very real space race again, one that already has military aspects to it, yet we're refusing to even get off the starting block due to naive politics and being overly moral.

More military spending = awefull plan. The military is one of the best places to waste money. As long as americans sees only this area to dominate the globe, you'll spend tremendous amounts of money on making a few fatcats richer and not achieving much else. Do you know the reason why china developed anti satelite weaponery? Because the US are threatening that country.

You are so blindede by the us vs them, that you don't see, that the same people you would support are the ones sending jobs, money and technology abroad.

Nationalism is an irational feeling and those hardly ever get you to anywhere good!

 

[Baldr]

The Space Shuttle is old, fallible and downright dangerous.

I say it's time to develop something new and hopefully more reliable.

They did:
Construction of the prototype was some 85% assembled with 96% of the parts and the launch facility 100%

Then in 2001 Congress cut off funding for it.

NASA had invested $922 million in the project before cancellation and Lockheed Martin a further $357 million.

 

[Buizel91]

So what if the old shuttles are old...in the words of Buzz Lighteryear "Where's that bonding strip"?

Joke aside, i agree it was a really bad decision to shut down the shuttle programme...all it needed was updating and it would be fine, but noooooooooo.

 

[Ulquiorra4sama]

"A relic of the past" From his way of thought that's how i want to describe Armstrong now.

Space is supposed to be the final frontier, right? Why shouldn't the leading countries in the world work together on breaching it together? So they can wave their nationalist space-dicks at eachother when one goes a single step further?

If nationalism is what makes them too damn proud to cooperate then fuck it. The bad blood between political ideals really shouldn't get in the way of science.

 

[SuperWombat6]

Snip

Fair enough, new rockets would be safer. As long as they keep the idea open to space travel then I don't mind. I get people telling me of those accidents and say we should never go to space again, but thankfully your not like that and I agree with your post.

Well, I do want to work as an engineer in space travel some day, so arguing against space travel would be silly.

In all seriousness, though, such failures should be a reason to learn and move on, not to throw up one's hands and quit. While going into space is a risk -- a big one -- taking risks is the only way to grow and progress. One thing I've learned through my interest in engineering is that failure should be viewed as a lesson, not just a setback.

I do see where you're coming from in your arguments, though. While the Shuttle had its problems, it was largely a good, functioning craft, and I understand the frustration of ending that program with no alternative in immediate sight. Here's hoping that space travel continues to evolve, and that we continue to learn and explore the final frontier.

 

[Navvan]

[
Snip

China got nuclear weapons. Russia got nuclear weapons. France got nuclear weapons. These are but 3 of the countries in the world with nuclear weapons. If USA were to go to war because they don't want to pay back their debt you can bet your ass both Russia and China would be on the opposite side, and probably every European country too. If USA were to go to war against China the world would be able to survive a few months at best, and last time I checked USA is part of the world. Still I really think you should go tell Obama to be openly hostile to both Russia and China. See how long it will take before there's no money left.

I would like to point out that the majority of debt the USA government owes is to its own citizens. So even if we defaulted on the foreign debt (bad idea for every reason) we would still have the majority of our debt. Roughly 10 trillion out of the total ~15 trillion of it to be more accurate. About 5 trillion (I'm rounding up all these numbers by the way) is owed to foreigners, and of that 5 trillion China holds about 1.1 trillion. Russia owns far less at 100 billion. Japan is actually the second largest owner of foreign debt at about 915 billion.

The problem with this issue is that people look at the government debt, and superimpose concepts and ideas about a person being in a large amount of debt. Its just not that simple. Most of our debt (~50% of it actually) is actually borrowed from the government itself. That is right, almost half our debt that we owe is owed to our own government. Different sections of the government (state level and lower mostly) but our own government.

http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart-center/tic/Documents/mfh.txt

 

[genericusername64]

The Space Program has no actual use anymore, all it is, all it ever was, was a symbol of power and dominance. It was a way to show off how much money we have. Is it worth burning through resources just to show off?

 

[freakonaleash]

its too bad people don't realize they are ending the shuttle program so they can pursue more advanced technologies...

 

[Navvan]

The Space Program has no actual use anymore, all it is, all it ever was, was a symbol of power and dominance. It was a way to show off how much money we have. Is it worth burning through resources just to show off?

Exploration and discovery are considered two of the great human endeavors. The space program was an epitome of both, and it certainly wasn't "just to show off". Without the space program we wouldn't have developed a number of things. Here is a short list of inventions and discoveries beneficial to man kind that in part were helped along by the space program.

CAT scans
MRIs
Kidney dialysis machines
Heart defibrillator technology
Remote robotic surgery
Artificial heart pump technology
Physical therapy machines
Positron emission tomography
Microwave receivers used in scans for breast cancer
Cardiac angiography
Monitoring neutron activity in the brain
Cleaning techniques for hospital operating rooms
Portable x-ray technology for neonatal offices and 3rd world countries
Freeze-dried food
Water purification filters
ATM technology
Pay at the Pump satellite technology
Athletic shoe manufacturing technique
Insulation barriers for autos
Image-processing software for crash-testing automobiles
Holographic testing of communications antennas
Low-noise receivers
Cordless tools
A computer language used by businesses such as car repair shops, Kodak, hand-held computers, express mail
Aerial reconnaissance and Earth resources mapping
Airport baggage scanners
Distinction between natural space objects and satellites/warheads/rockets for defense
Satellite monitors for nuclear detonations
Hazardous gas sensors
Precision navigation
Clock synchronization
Ballistic missile guidance
Secure communications
Study of ozone depletion
Climate change studies
Monitoring of Earth-based storms such as hurricanes
Solar collectors
Fusion reactors
Space-age fabrics for divers, swimmers, hazardous material workers, and others
Teflon-coated fiberglass for roofing material
Lightweight breathing system used by firefighters
Atomic oxygen facility for removing unwanted material from 19th century paintings
FDA-adopted food safety program that has reduced salmonella cases by a factor of 2
Multispectral imaging methods used to read ancient Roman manuscripts buried by Mt. Vesuvius

But most importantly I would say are the Satellites that perform a number of various things for us. The manned space mission to the moon wasn't just a feat of patriotism either. They placed a number of instruments out there to allow us to perform experiments and research. Even today experiments are being performed on the ISS and new discoveries made. So if you say the space program was just a bunch of hot air, either now or ever was, then you are saying that discovery is a bunch of hot air. You may think we have more pressing issues now, and maybe we do depending on how you prioritize things. However, I and many others will take offense at the statement "The space program has no actual use".

 

[bz316]

You know what? Screw you Neil Armstrong. Oh yeah, easy for you to go on about how awesome the Space Program was back in your day. You know, back when the country was wealthy enough to throw huge fist-fulls of money at impressive projects to spite the Soviet Union. As impressive as your achievement was Armstrong, it was essentially nothing more than an expensive dick-waving contest between the US and Russia to prove how awesome capitalism was. I love space exploration, and I hope that we continue pushing the bounds of our knowledge of the universe, but don't ***** at the modern state of NASA when the situations it has to deal with are totally different than the one's you had to deal with...

 

[The_Graff]

Really, the problem here is that the US hasn't been nationalistic enough,

am i the only person here slightly worried about this phrase?

 

[Casual Shinji]

You know Neil, you're quite an embarrassment yourself throwing such a hissy fit at your old age.

I say good riddance to bad shuttles.

 

[MajorDolphin]

if they want to fork up the fucking billions of dollars, let em keep nasa. until we're out of this ridiculous debt we cant spend that much money on a non essential program.

Yeah man! Lets just spend several trillion on nonessential wars! Its much smarter to spend 100 bucks to do a single load of laundry in Iraq than explore and study our solar system. Its not as if the Space Shuttle ever delivered useful payloads into orbit....

Yeah! America should just drop those wars so it can develop its space program! It's not like there are repercussions with bowing out of a war before it actually gets resolved!

Come on, let's be honest for a moment. America's already in the middle of those wars, and has never been in a position to just cut its losses and abandon the countries. Considering the amount of turmoil fighting terrorist groups has caused in those countries, it would not only create a greater national security risk, but it would be irresponsible and inconsiderate to the civilians who would have to live with the conditions America abandoned them to.

So does it suck that America is spending all that money on conflicts, at least one of which never really should have occurred in the first place? Sure. Does it make sense to argue the space program should be funded by cutting funding for those currently ongoing conflicts? Not at all.

Here's a secret, there were no terrorist groups in Iraq before we invaded.
Here's another secret, no foreign power has ever conquered Afghanistan.

Now, we're assisting the invasion (actual boots on the ground) in at least one other country and assisted the same terrorist groups in taking down another. Logical? No.

You know, we also send a crapload of money to private companies to do jobs that the military used to do and we get charged an arm and a leg for it. We also pay private companies to handle some intel gathering duties and other key military functions. Do you really think any of those companies want us out? Seems like a major conflict of interest.

 

[minuialear]

Yeah! America should just drop those wars so it can develop its space program! It's not like there are repercussions with bowing out of a war before it actually gets resolved!

Come on, let's be honest for a moment. America's already in the middle of those wars, and has never been in a position to just cut its losses and abandon the countries. Considering the amount of turmoil fighting terrorist groups has caused in those countries, it would not only create a greater national security risk, but it would be irresponsible and inconsiderate to the civilians who would have to live with the conditions America abandoned them to.

So does it suck that America is spending all that money on conflicts, at least one of which never really should have occurred in the first place? Sure. Does it make sense to argue the space program should be funded by cutting funding for those currently ongoing conflicts? Not at all.

Here's a secret, there were no terrorist groups in Iraq before we invaded.
Here's another secret, no foreign power has ever conquered Afghanistan.

Here's a secret: the fact that the war was started based on bogus information means nothing at this point, given the fact that NOW America is in the war and NOW it has destabilized both nations enough such that it would be reckless to leave.

Here's another secret: America is not and never has been trying to "conquer" Afghanistan.

Now, we're assisting the invasion (actual boots on the ground) in at least one other country and assisted the same terrorist groups in taking down another. Logical? No.

You know, we also send a crapload of money to private companies to do jobs that the military used to do and we get charged an arm and a leg for it. We also pay private companies to handle some intel gathering duties and other key military functions. Do you really think any of those companies want us out? Seems like a major conflict of interest.

Also irrelevant to my point (that leaving an unstable nation that America made unstable would be reckless and/or dangerous on its part). Way to throw up several arguments that don't actually address my point.

 

[Gxas]

"Son, you can be anything you want to be when you grow up. Except an astronaut. It was decided, back when I was a college kid, that America no longer needed to explore space, and corporations would instead charge millions for people to go up in space for tourism.

So... Sorry about that, buddy boy."

Can't wait to say this to my son now.

 

[RicoGrey]

"The nationalist pride the US won by beating the Russians to the Moon is exactly what the country needs right now."

Wasn't the whole Space-Race an offshoot of the Cold War? That's err... an interesting comment to make.

The last thing you guys need is more Nationalist pride.

(And you just had country-wide parties because a man had his head blown off; how much more Nationalist do you want to get?)

I did not attend one of these parties, nor do I know of anyone who attended one of these parties, nor have I actually even heard of one of these parties.

Bin Laden's death was not as significant to Americans as people would assume. Most of us thought "Thats great, now what about the rest of Al Qaeda".