The Big Picture: Once Upon a Time in The Future

[messy]

In my opinion the age of space exploration is over. The new science frontier, in my heavily biochemistry studying view, is the human genome and genetic technology. Look at a DNA molecule, that's the future.

EDIT: also giving a highly biased view of "scientists" not all of us work on making your ipods smaller. That's the fields of physics (and even then not all of physics anyway.)

2000th post as well. Rather glad it was biology themed.

 

[Armored Prayer]

Wow, lots of anger in this one. I'm sad that the program is over, but I soon got over it. My guess is that it will eventually be revived, but for now people have much more important things to worry about.

The only thing I do now about this subject is accept the truth and get over it.

 

[WorkerMurphey]

It's hard for me to give a shit about the space program with the economy still mostly in the shitter. I'm not waiting for world peace or a cure for every disease to make space exploration a possibility but in terms of priorities, space isn't too high up there for me. It seems that most politicians seem to agree.

I'd rather see money for NASA going to slightly more tangible and (perhaps) immediate goals like changing the way we go about creating energy.

 

[RatRace123]

I didn't even know that this happened, and now that I do I'm simultaneously pissed off and disappointed.
I thought that the colonization plans, or the precursor to them were on track. And now they're not?
Screw the problems on the Earth, in fact screw the Earth, I want to live on Mars. This should be top priority number 1, our future is beyond Earth, and for now we're all still stuck on it.

Poor Bob.

It fell out of the media spotlight, Bob. That's all that happened. The media would rather give Justin Beiber a music award, or show pictures of racist right-wing idiots, or talk about how to shop safely on Black Friday.

This probably has something to do with it too.
If more people cared about the space program, or even knew about it, Constellation might actually have been a possibility, if people got pissed about this, it might continue.
But the majority of pop-culture at large would rather focus on the stupid shit.

 

[Deacon Cole]

We've been to the moon and lost interest because we found nothing of value.

That's pretty much it. Space became boring because there was nothing in it for us. Sure, there is likely precious metal and other resources throughout the cosmos, but good luck getting at any of it. At present, reaching the moon is the best we can hope for and getting there and back safely is still dicey. Much less setting up colonies on other celestial bodies.

Take my word for it, this will never happen unless a gold deposit is found. Only then will space travel become interesting again. The television show Ice Road Truckers are not delivering supplies to a bunch of hippies living in peace and harmony. They are delivering to a diamond mine. Unless similar materials of value are found and a stellar gold rush ensues, space exploration will move forward very slowly, if at all. It is too costly and ultimately uninteresting to do for its own sake.

I'm something of a scifi fan, and I think space travel is boring. As boring as regular travel, if not more so. That is simply the reality of it. It was interesting for a while when it was thought impossible. Now that it has been not only done but done routinely, that is exactly what it is: routine.

The current generation has grown to maturity when space travel has been routine and boring. It has not been exciting since the first Columbia mission in 1981. (Or maybe the Challenger disaster in 1986) Since then, it's been utterly uninteresting. Young adults today regard it as noteworthy as the bus. (Despite the Columbia disaster in 2003)

Maybe if new craft had been designed and launched, instead of the same boring shuttle with different names stenciled on them, interested could have been buoyed. But, it hasn't.

Personally, I do not care about the billions of dollars spent on the space program nor do I think that is money better spend elsewhere. I find the space program boring regardless. That really doesn't matter.

Frankly, at this point, the fans of space travel are into it for it's own sake, and anything that exists for its own sake is liable to die an unlamented death when people lose interest.

Interest was bolstered in the 60's with the idea of beating the Russians, but once the cold war ended and nationalism has waned, what kept it afloat? What keeps it afloat for those who care?

 

[AssassinJoe]

You want to know why no one cares about space anymore? Because when we went to the moon you know what we found? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Because of that, we got bored with space, hell, the only reason we went to the moon in the first place was because the Russians beat us to orbit and we had to one-up them somehow.

 

[Infernoshadow211]

So no making out with blue skinned space ladies in my lifetime?

 

[sunburst]

We need to make some serious headway on the environmental issues before we try to build cities on Luna. I'm not saying that because space travel is less important since there is nothing more important than expansion for the long-term survival of a species. It's just that the technology we invent to fix shit down here is the same technology that's going to put those cities on Mars. We shouldn't waste our time going there if we're not prepared to actually do something once we arrive. Putting humans on Mars right now would be completely pointless.

 

[JoeyMousepadd]

I don't understand how asking for proof of where Obama was born is racist. You have to be born in the US to be president, no matter what color your skin is.

You could argue that isn't been asked and answered, or is no longer in question. That's fine. Argue that the burden of proof has been met. No problem. But racist for asking? That's just plain lazy. "I don't like that you ask those questions, so I'm going to just call you a racist, and hope that you go away."

 

[Cormitt]

Kudos Bob.

Regardless of what anyone else has to say about the economy, homelessness, illness, feeding the hungry, etc the only way to get (North) America any better is to start building things again. The highest level of which is the space program.

Yes, it's expensive. Yes it has limited practical (profitable) results. But the budget for NASA was such a small portion of the overall US budget to cut this kills kids dreams. Maybe it's just a recent parent talking here but when I was my son's age, we were still walking on the moon. By the time the Enterprise did it's test flight off the back of a 747 I wanted to fly one. By the first shuttle launch, I wanted to work at NASA doing something anything so I could be a part of the space program. I fear that losing this interest for the next generation will do more for hurting the economy, homelessness, illnesses, etc.

Thems my two bits.

 

[GaryH]

While I agree with a lot of what you are saying, Bob. (Although, I'm not sure how space travel and world peace interfere with each other in the first place...) I have to disagree with the part where you say that humanity hasn't given you any special measure of kindness.

Your JOB is to rant on the internet. You don't get to complain!

 

[seekeroftruth86]

I've been thinking about this sort of thing for awhile. It's funny actually, I was planning on starting a thread on this very issue, what with the shuttle being taken down and all.

It is sad, considering we don't really have an indefinite future on this planet. If we continue to treat it like somebody else's problem, we're going to find ourselves on a planet like "WALL-E" and no Axiom to run away in. Of course, if it comes to that, it may be the kick in the pants the human race needs to get up there. But then that's probably just as sad.

So sad. How about some music to cheer everyone up?


Keep looking up, and eventually we'll have no choice but to follow our gaze.

 

[DuctTapeJedi]

I agree with Bob on this one. History has shown us that when cultures stop trying to expand, they stagnate and die. There's only so much expansion room left here.

Anywho, at leas Stephen Colbert stuck up for the space program...
EDIT: Sorry for the rant, I'm back from my dark place now.

 

[the7ofswords]

Amen, Bob!

We'd rather spend trillions on equipment and weaponry to destroy the planet than the few billion extra it would take to make these dreams a reality. And for all of you people who complain that there are too many problems here on Earth: NASA is not your enemy. Militarism and Greed are the enemy!

NASA's annual budget is something like 19 or 20 billion dollars (generally somewhere around one half of one per cent of the total budget). The US spends TRILLIONS on "defense" programs - well over 20% of our annual budget. (And that's only the things they'll talk about publicly, not including all the black budget stuff.) Something like 40% of the military spending in the world is done by the U.S. ALONE.

Why is that? Legislators LOVE military spending, because it brings jobs and cash to their districts. Why can't we shift some of that over to science and space exploration? Why can't we shift some of that over to HELPING people here on Earth, too? Because the U.S. government is owned ? lock stock and barrel ? by huge corporate interests, who spread the cash around Washington: military contractors, banks, Big Pharma, agribusiness and insurance companies. As long as those companies, with almost endless resources at their disposal, are given the same rights as the voting citizen (MORE rights, actually, as they never die, and very few individuals within these organizations is ever held personally accountable for anything), this is what our future will hold ... what's left of it, that is.

Dwight Eisenhower warned us about this in 1961. If we were too stupid or lazy or ignorant to stop this from happening, well ... I guess we're getting what we deserve.

Good luck China and India - I guess the future is yours now. Try not to fuck it up, like we have.

~Cheers!

7


p.s. Sorry to be such a downer, but this whole thing gets my blood boiling. So no, Bob - you're NOT alone.

 

[Mr. Omega]

*sigh* At this rate, the only way we're going to discover practical interplanetary travel is if actual aliens show up...

Serious: Yes I know there are other space programs, but still...