The Big Picture: Once Upon a Time in The Future

Roamin11

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Jan 23, 2009
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Bob, if I had the same magic genie choice, I would go with the same choice as you, it would help push the "evolution" of mankind,
 

Jesus Phish

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AjimboB said:
Jesus Phish said:
AjimboB said:
The problem that the space program faces is a lack of tangible goals. The reason people used to care about NASA was because of the cold war, and the goal of NASA was to beat the soviets, and show American dominance and supremacy through science. Since the Soviet Union collapsed, the US hasn't had an enemy on the same technological level as us, so most people no longer care about progressing technology, unless it's being made by Apple.

The thing about people is that most of them have no foresight, and don't care about the future. This is the EXACT SAME reason for America's recent economic collapse, people not caring about the future, borrowing and spending money that they don't have, with a live now, care later kind of attitude.

When people don't have a direct, tangible goal for the future, they forget that the future even exists, which is why this program is being shut down. This is sad.
I've always thought the best goal for space travel is so that when the time comes, humanity wont be destroyed by our sun going nova on us.
See, that's the problem. What you're describing isn't a tangible goal, because the sun exploding is SOO far off that no one in the world can care to think that far ahead.

Even a goal like "manned mission to Mars within 20 years" is difficult for most people to grasp. People want their goals to be baby steps, yet at the same time, to somehow be significant, which is the basic problem faced by the space program, because the baby steps seem insignificant to people who don't understand the principles behind space travel, yet are fundamentally necessary for the final goal.
Agreed 100% with you there. It's just like a math function. People don't care about all the little steps to get an output from an input, they just want to get the output asap.
 

Darth Sea Bass

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I'm not even american and i'm pissed off that america has canned the shuttle! How as a species are we gonna advance without pushing ourselves to explore and colonize space?
 

Mechsoap

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that episode was fantastic, why want to linger out here and watch x-factor and americas got talent rather then going to space?
 

Hvati

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May 5, 2009
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It's not just space flight the governments of the world want to NOT spend any money on, but rather, they don't want any progression of science or knowledge or even education, the budget cuts of universities and schools etc. is evidence of that :(. Also, why do the governments spend so little money on anything related to science at all? I believe that the progression of knowledge and the advancements of the human race are more important than some stupid wars, but the US have spent more money on the Iraq war than on their education system...
I weep for humanity.
 

Deacon Cole

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JoeyMousepadd said:
I don't understand how asking for proof of where Obama was born is racist.
You either don't know many racists or you are one.

The man has been in office for two years. The question has been answered so many times, it's stupid. They only ones still harping about it are just upset a black man got into the white house. And the only reason they won't let it go at this point is because they can be racist while sounding like they have a legitimate complaint.
 

angel85

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Dec 31, 2008
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Personally, I'd take a huge chunk out of the military budget and give it to nasa...and schools...and health care...why the fuck is the military budget so DAMN high?! But there is hope, I've been reading in space.com and popular science that there are options, such as a successful test flight of an unmanned space plane a few months ago, it's mission is still classified but I imagine it can be used to ferry cargo and even personnel to the ISS, not to mention there are independent space stations going up, and they even finally managed to launch robonaut! ROBONAUT! We have a humanoid robot in space right now! Plus scramjets that can get an orbiter up at a tiny fraction of a space shuttle launch's cost. Never lose hope for the future Bob.
 

pjm

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Feb 12, 2009
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I remember watching a documentary on this a few years ago, about group scientists working at Lockheed Martian figured out how to get to Mars within 10 years over 10 years ago, using current tech and cheap, NASA was all behind the plan before certain groups in NASA realised that a whole lot of their pet projects would be caned, the cheapest way to get to Mars was to go straight there, so no space station, no moon base.
So there reason there is no NASA base on Mars is NASA, blame them.
 

Lamech777

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May 28, 2009
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You know what this means, time for a super evil organization to take charge here and be the first to mars. Yes we will have cities but also giant lasers, because we "evil" people are impractical and giant lasers are a must. It's ok to be evil every now and then Bob, so grow your evil beard and get to mars!
 

Moriarty70

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Dec 24, 2008
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MovieBob said:
Once Upon a Time in The Future

This week, Bob rants about the abandonment of the Space Shuttle program.

Watch Video
Even if it does make you the bad guy, the trick is to remember, they get things done. Good guys, keep the status quo in place.

On a side note. I've always said, if they looked for volunteers to colonize Mars, I'm there.
 

Techmech

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Sep 29, 2010
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Yeah I fully agree with you Bob. And it's not like the billions spent on getting us into space would somehow solve world hunger and poverty. Ok maybe in theory they could do that, but they would never ever be used for it> They'll probably be diverted to some pointless miltary program to create.. I dunno robot seals that are supposed to shoot down missiles with lasers. Except that they can't and even if they could, its not like an enemy missile can't deploy counter-measures and decoys. But I digress.

My point is the space program is not only awesome, its fundamental to our advancement, cellphones, global communications, satellites that let you talk to someone on the other side of the world in real time. That's all thanks to the space program. GPS in your car, space program. Google maps, space program. People don't care about the space program because they think it doesn't effect them. But it does, it effects all of us in our daily lives. If anything we're more likely to solve world hunger through the space program then anything else.

I mean really, your getting a bunch of hyper brilliant people together and giving them something they can fucking get excited about to work on rather then creating a slightly smaller iGadget or new perfume that smells like Agent Orange. How can you go wrong?
 

kugs91

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Oct 14, 2010
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I feel the same way bob. What really dug into me was that the government decided that now the "foremost misson" of nasa was muslim outreach, and not getting us into space like it is supposed to
 

the Dept of Science

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Nov 9, 2009
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the antithesis said:
Take my word for it, this will never happen unless an unobtanium deposit is found. Only then will space travel become interesting again.
Fixed. But this is the best point made so far.

However, considering the cost of space travel, the precious substance would need to be way more valuable than gold. Mining planets is in no way feasible at the moment.
 

MarsProbe

Circuitboard Seahorse
Dec 13, 2008
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Good one Bob, and this is something I wholeheartedly agree with. It also really ticked me off when I found out that the Space Shuttles were being wound down and there was nothing left to replace them. I remember discussing one time with my dad (who had the fortune of being around at the time of the moon landing) the topic of space travel and I expressed my displeasure that, since that time, we've someone only managed to send people to an orbiting space station, something that is actualy closer to the Earth than the moon is.

It also saddens me to think I'll now likely never witness a shuttle launch first hand. I remember holidaying in Florida as a kid with the family and we parked somewhere to watch a scheduled shuttle launch. It was all very exciting. Alas, as they reached the latter stages of the launch preparations (we were able to follow the launch on the car radio, if I recall correctly), the whole thing was called off. Talk about gutted.

Alas, looks like until we somehow get to Mars under our own steam and find the alien technology hidden aware there, or discover some ring shaped transportation device buried in the desert on Earth, we'll jyst have to keep dreaming about reaching the farthest reaches of space anytime soon...

Also, with regards to the genie choice, I'd also go with the second choice. Sure you could end poverty and all that for a little while, but eventually the corrupt and selfish nature of mankind would take over and things would go back to the way they were. I'd much rather experience the excitement and possibilities of colonising another planet within my lifetime.
 

EchetusXe

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Jun 19, 2008
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Onyx Oblivion said:
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.
It took one post for the dismantlement of the space program to be blamed upon Justin Bieber.

Should call this theJustinBieberMagazine.com
 

drosalion

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Nov 10, 2009
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Jesus Phish said:
AjimboB said:
The problem that the space program faces is a lack of tangible goals. The reason people used to care about NASA was because of the cold war, and the goal of NASA was to beat the soviets, and show American dominance and supremacy through science. Since the Soviet Union collapsed, the US hasn't had an enemy on the same technological level as us, so most people no longer care about progressing technology, unless it's being made by Apple.

The thing about people is that most of them have no foresight, and don't care about the future. This is the EXACT SAME reason for America's recent economic collapse, people not caring about the future, borrowing and spending money that they don't have, with a live now, care later kind of attitude.

When people don't have a direct, tangible goal for the future, they forget that the future even exists, which is why this program is being shut down. This is sad.
I've always thought the best goal for space travel is so that when the time comes, humanity wont be destroyed by our sun going nova on us.
Our sun going nova on us is so incredibly far down the track that its probable humanity wont even exist then (like billions of years). A more realistic, and probable, scenario is humanity using up all of earth's natural resources or destroying the planet beyond repair. That could happen in a hundred years, not like our sun going nova.
 

leeroy418

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Dec 27, 2008
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I'm a bit surprised you didn't quote Carl Sagan for his works on showing that humanity is more same than different and that our differences are insignificant compared to our similarities. Basically I'm referencing the Pale Blue dot and the quotation by Carl Sagan where all we are miniscule, a tiny pixel and that the stars are where we should be looking..but that's possibly another topic/area than Bob was pointing to.

That being said..coming from a NASA based area, they're pretty fired up about it but I'm not sure if it's due to the Tea Party or other political organizations but there used to be a lot of activity among my circle of friends a few months ago and it's just died down.
 

suubersnake

The Wizard
Nov 30, 2009
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I can't believe this is the first I'm hearing of this, not the shuttle program being retired, but the apathy regarding funding a replacement. I'm with you though, if I find a genie or something that grants me a wish I'll be wishing for interstellar space travel and terraforming to be discovered and perfected by 2025.