Neil Armstrong to NASA: You Are an Embarassment

[bakan]

If they continue the space program they have to design/build a new spacecraft.

The space shuttle is just an old piece of junk.

Btw I think they could just stop the endless warmongering and have enough money for things like education, space programs etc.

 

[Necrofudge]

This does not bode well for science.

on a related note: When I was younger, I used to think that whenever they traveled back to earth they just crashed the old shuttle and built a new one. Seemed more reasonable at the time then using the same one for 20-30 years.

 

[mkg]

So let me get this straight - a country that prides itself on capitalist democracy should have a socialist space program when they're still arguing socialist health care is a bad thing?

Home of the Brave...I guess the kind of bravery that's a kin to stupidity.

A socialist space program? How do sociopolitical terms apply to a scientific organization? Yeah, if you ever want to see a real federation like in star trek, dedicated to scientific study and species relations if there ever are alien races to discover, and not the crazy space marines like in avatar, it will need to be developed by an organization subject to oversight and members who work out of love for the subject matter, not ones looking for results to turn a profit.

 

[mkg]

Seems the private sector is taking over the country. This space program stuff is a waste of time and money. We need to focus on improving life for people on earth rather than running pointless experiments in space.

I disagree. While it is regrettable that there are so many people suffering in this world, nothing short of imperialism of the third world by the west and (an ethical) government takeover of all aspects of life could do anything to fix it. People are violent, petty, greedy, and selfish in many cases, this is what prevents us from living in harmony. But in things like our space program, we collect some of the best and brightest to rise above what we are and look toward the horizon just like all the imaginations we had as kids. How could you call this pointless?

 

[Fensfield]

While it's a miserable shame that NASA's backing up so, I harshly disagree on the shuttle. It's an outdated and extremely dangerous piece of technology that needs to be replaced rather than abandoned.

All I can hope is that the private startups go where NASA never could have done, or at least, go a great deal faster than NASA could have.

 

[TailstheHedgehog]

But what is there to be gained by going back up? What's the goal?
Can the US even afford to go back up anymore?
what's so wrong with cooperating with Russia? Nationalistic pride strong enough to influence people not to reach out to other cultures for knowledge isn't helping anyone, either. Up with cosmopolitanism!

I dunno, I can't really say I agree with much of what Armstrong is saying here. From the article, not much sense is made.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Eh. The shuttles were past their use by date anyway.

In any case, it's not as if the US has a monopoly on space programs. So, Russia or China or the EU or India or Japan or two or more of these working together might outdo the US in regards to space...so? USAliens lose bragging rights.

Additionally, it's very easy to say that the space program should be a priority for the US, and they should continue to ignore social issues such as poverty, but I wonder how many people actually suffering from poverty etc feel that way. [small]Admittedly, yes, those social issues are only going to get worse regardless.[/small]

 

[Joseph Alexander]

the thing i keep seeing in the thread are people who actually want the companies to take over space exploration, are you fucking stupid?!
never mind the socioeconomic side of things, but do you really want the people who run the companies to be the ones in control of our first meeting with other life out there?
the same people who fuck their own out of house and home, even their own coworkers, just to make a buck.
I'm sorry but what rock have you been under?
the way things are going companies are already gaining too large a control in politics.
as we actually need to do some heavy trust busting, and you want these people in charge of human progress? they'll do what ever is most profitable.
seriously wake the fuck up people.

 

[Thaluikhain]

the thing i keep seeing in the thread are people who actually want the companies to take over space exploration, are you fucking stupid?!
never mind the socioeconomic side of things, but do you really want the people who run the companies to be the ones in control of our first meeting with other life out there?
the same people who fuck their own out of house and home, even their own coworkers, just to make a buck.
I'm sorry but what rock have you been under?
the way things are going companies are already gaining too large a control in politics.
as we actually need to do some heavy trust busting, and you want these people in charge of human progress? they'll do what ever is most profitable.
seriously wake the fuck up people.

Ok, assuming that we are going to have our first meetings with aliens in the next few decades, and it's not going to be done by radio/other signals contact, but by a physical meeting, and that it absolutely has to be done by USAliens and not a space program from somewhere in the rest of the world, or a combined, possible UN sanctioned operation, and that private companies would work totally independantly of any government oversight:

Your choice is US/multinational corporations, or the US government. Um...

 

[electoriate]

NASA, like all scientific research is always a net gain to our economy. Almost everything around us is the result of scientific study. Hundreds of millions of jobs worldwide have been produced from this research. Cutting science funding to save money is like abusing hard drugs to escape depression, it may feel good today but in the long run it screws you over. I really think we should try to reach Mars before China. Sorry, but I don't think a country that has butchered 100,000,000 of its own citizens, kills any dissenters, rapes the environment, and censors their internet deserves that bragging right.

First of all, USA is not that much better and more entitled to Mars than China, especially not in the human rights field.
Second, what you Americans, as always, in your overreaction fail to see is that USA is going to absolutely fuck Russians, Chinese, Indians, etc. with privately developed technology. That's what's happening with the ground and air forces, and that's what's going to happen in space, too.
Also, keep in mind that Russian and Chinese space programs are going to get sabotaged with cyber attacks and environmental weapons so they actually don't overtake USA in the space race.

 

[Goro]

The Space Shuttle was nerfed during its design phase, the goal of reaching the moon had been achieved, and after the enormous damage (political, financial and physical) to the USSR after America won, there was no need to push the issue. If NASA were given a clear agenda and free reign financially, they could do just about anything.

 

[gphjr14]

So you are saying that until the economy is back on track, we should just halt all progress?

Yes because I said shutdown the NASA program entirely in my original post.

Calm down...

 

[The Funslinger]

Nationalist pride, because that's what America needs more of.

I'd say it's progress. Going into space helps disprove the "science is a lie" mentality the overly religious zealots among them peddle.

 

[Joseph Alexander]

the thing i keep seeing in the thread are people who actually want the companies to take over space exploration, are you fucking stupid?!
never mind the socioeconomic side of things, but do you really want the people who run the companies to be the ones in control of our first meeting with other life out there?
the same people who fuck their own out of house and home, even their own coworkers, just to make a buck.
I'm sorry but what rock have you been under?
the way things are going companies are already gaining too large a control in politics.
as we actually need to do some heavy trust busting, and you want these people in charge of human progress? they'll do what ever is most profitable.
seriously wake the fuck up people.

Ok, assuming that we are going to have our first meetings with aliens in the next few decades, and it's not going to be done by radio/other signals contact, but by a physical meeting, and that it absolutely has to be done by USAliens and not a space program from somewhere in the rest of the world, or a combined, possible UN sanctioned operation, and that private companies would work totally independantly of any government oversight:

Your choice is US/multinational corporations, or the US government. Um...

your assuming that any corporation capable of this isn't own by a international mega-corporation, more often then not your standard in the times company is owned by one of those.
and I'm not saying the US i literally prefer any UN affiliated(they're in it) national space program over even the most benign company, why?
cause companies answer to their owners, nations answer to their people.
its not a matter of state X vs. state X, but of state vs. corporation.
state should always be ahead of any corporation or company.

 

[Yopaz]

I was ashamed to call myself a gamer when I read some of the comments on here. Arguing against manned space exploration is arguing against everything we hold dear, not only as gamers but as the human race. Space holds the answers for every problem we have here down on earth. Space is literally the final frontier, we need to go out there and discover strange new worlds and new civilizations, to boldly go, as the old television show once put it. I can't believe we are putting this in terms of dollars and cents, the destiny of the human race does not have a price tag.

Plus, dammit, I want to set foot on the moon, myself, and I. AM. NOT. giving up hope.

So you really don't think that the struggling economy should have a higher priority? You really think there should be spent money on sending people to other planets when there's so much debt to pay? How can you know that space holds the answer to every problem you have? Currently Mars have no proven life nor an atmosphere we can breathe in. So what if the Russians or the Chinese get there first? There's just not enough money. When your economy is back on track it should be started up again, but right now don't expect them to spend money on this.

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.

So you have no touch with reality whatsoever? I hope you are aware of the fact that money borrowed from China is the only reason your country got any money. The only reason you can still spend your days writing forum posts?
Now let's say you were to start with your space bombs. What would China need to do to crack America. It's not hard. They would have to utter 3 words. "Pay up now". America would either go to war with China to get out of paying debt or go completely bankrupt. If they did decide to go to war it would mean all influence America's ever had going down the drain.
Everyone would think of you as the bad guys, bad guys who needs to be stopped. Not a pleasant thought, is it?

 

[sinterklaas]

You know what is an embarassment? Neil Armstrong still thinking in terms of countries, rivals and leads. Space exploration should be a collective effort of humanity. Not just another penis to measure.

 

[Bloodstain]

I agree that they should resume investing in space shuttle programs. However, "The nationalist pride the US won by beating the Russians to the Moon is exactly what the country needs right now"...the US needs more nationalist pride? What?

 

[Devil's Due]

I think the amount of people here misusing Patriotism as Nationalism is downright depressing and makes me wonder about their education system, since one is a healthy attitude no more than having a favorite sports team, the other is a very disturbing usage that borders Nazi Germany.

Also, contrary to popular belief, NASA is funded hell of a lot less than many people can even begin to imagine, with usually around 1% or lower of the global intake of the country (so cutting it won't even dent the debt we have), while the military can go up to 50% of the entire intake by law if passed by Congress. You DO need to keep the military healthy, it actually funds millions of Americans and their families as their careers and education system, but we can of course cut with all the "weapons testing" that eats up most of the cash. NASA as well needs to in fact get a boost, as majority of major breakthroughs in recent times have been because of NASA. You know that awesome computer you're using right now to see this thread? Thank NASA, because back then people were damn happy with those giant computers that literally filled up a room, but NASA needed smaller and smaller versions to be able to lift it into space and record data. Because of their constant push to make it smaller for the space craft, it slowly became the size of a suitcase and progressed to what we have now with Laptops and Tablets. Many other countless examples.

Keep NASA strong, in fact boost that crap up, and lets reach for the moon and beyond. We're ALWAYS going to have problems here to deal with, why halt scientific advancement and the possibility for extended life, terraforming, and the like just because we need to deal with every issue that arises first? Hell, for all we know, NASA could find some new fuel in space (I believe they already did on the Moon) and allow for American companies to expand there, causing a new "black gold" rush such as when the United States found major pockets of oil in the 1800's, possibly pushing us out of our debt and creating a new sustainable fuel supply.

 

[fulano]

This is what you get when you lower taxes for the "job creators" (where are the jobs, eh?), blow your wad in stupidly prolonging useless wars, and overally screwing up your middle class.

Look it on the bright side: China will get us to Mars, so there.