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First of all, your quoting an entire post from another site violates the copyright policy of C-D, but I suspect that a mod will take care of that soon enough.
Your perception of NASA's importance is narrow-minded and short sighted. Your ignorance of their contributions is staggering.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nmweatherman
Migrate our nasty human behaviors and litter and strip-mining to another world! In a pig's eye.
So what you're saying is that we shouldn't exploit the resources that may be available to us on another planet? Tell me how that jibes with this statement of yours:
Quote:
Originally Posted by nmweatherman
who the heck would want to live on that barren iron-oxide planet anyway?
You do see the contradiction there, don't you?
Quote:
Originally Posted by nmweatherman
It would take 3 years (I think that's correct) for our measley rockets to get a crew to Mars.
It's not correct. More like six months. But don't let your ignorance of the facts get in the way of a perfectly invalid argument - just keep on ranting about things you obviously know next to nothing about.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nmweatherman
the nearest galaxy is 2 million light-years away!
Another nice demonstration of your lack of knowledge in this area. There are around 15-23 galaxies inside your 2 million light year bubble. You're probably thinking of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), which is in the neighborhood of 2.9 million light years away. While many people think it is, it's nowhere near the closest galaxy to the Milky Way. The closest is probably the Sagittarius Dwarf galaxy, which is only about 75-90 thousand light years away.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nmweatherman
And don't get me started about "worm-holes" and "black holes."
Why not? Please, get started.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nmweatherman
Tell me ONE DARNED BENEFIT we've garnered from NASA "research" for our hard-earned tax dollars. One, just one.
You asked for it. You can find a pretty decent (although a bit outdated) list here, but I'll cite some of them for you in my reply - I'll just list the ones you're likely to immediately recognize as being beneficial. There's some other pretty important things on the list, but I'm sure you'd just say that they only matter to "geeks". All of these things were either developed directly as a result of the space program or were vastly improved because of the research done in the space program.
Structural Analysis
Air Quality Monitor
Enriched Baby Food
Water Purification
Scratch Resistant Lenses
Portable Coolers/Warmers
Athletic Shoes
Dustbuster
Quartz Timing Devices (Do you own a digital watch? Thank NASA.)
Solar Power
Fire Resistant Materials
Radiation Insulation
Non-Surgical Breast Biopsy System
Laser Angioplasty (too geeky for you?)
Programmable Pacemaker
Medical Gas Analyzer
Ultrasound Scanners
Automated Insulin Pump
Invisible Braces
MRI
...
I only went through half the list and picked out some of the highlights. Feel free to view the whole thing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nmweatherman
In the name of sanity and our economy, NASA MUST GO.
Well, I obviously disagree. I do think that before you commit to that position, you should educate yourself a bit better on the subject.
For instance, based on information at that same site, it's estimated that for every tax dollar spent on NASA, the government gets back $7 in personal and corporate taxes from increased jobs and economic growth. That's right - the government is actually profiting from the space program...
The answer is not a single penny. All of that money has been spent right here on this planet, in this Country. It pays the wages for scientists, mechanics, construction workers, pilots, specialists, safety people, and thousands of other people that are paying taxes, and contributing to the economy.
The scientific breakthroughs are a bonus on top of that. You act like we are loading hundred dollar bills into rockets, and launching them to the sun.
I like that. We are not spending any money on NASA. It is all an investment in American know-how, technology, science. Unlike some other government programs that go into politicians pockets. In that case let's quadruple the budget. That would keep the money away from the crooks.
Well shut my mouth...wow, I wasn't talking about dental adhesives and WD40. The only things to come out of the bloated NASA (and other business concerns, some even private businesses) that has helped us poor taxpayers on Earth are weather satellites, GPS, and for the military (which always sneaks in there) those spy cameras. Furthermore the only decent scientific endeavor to be accomplished was the Hubble telescope. Everything...I mean from the ISS on, that NASA wants to do now is BS.
All of NASA's "achievements" could have been done faster and better by private enterprise.
Now NASA has gone off the deep end. It is a self-perpetuating Fed glutton, now crying gimmee gimmee gimme your hard-earned tax dollars so we can go back to that hostile, barren Moon and geewhizzickers, in about a thousand years we're gonna terraform that other barren hostile desert planet Mars!
So EXCUSSSSSSSSSE me. Bases on the moon? For what? Going to Mars? For what? Who's paying for all this over-budget pie-in-the-sky rubbish? Where's the $$$ coming from (not to build it all but) to sustain it? Here's a clue: establishing and maintaining over time bases on the Moon and Mars is financially UNFEASABLE, even if every nation on Earth joined it. Obama is busily enslaving us with a deficit that will, literally, never be paid off, so he can establish a socialist America. Are we all now just wage-slaves working for some ill-conceived socialist anthill? THE GOVERNMENT WILL OWN US AND OUR PROGENY. Where's NASA's pipe-dream money coming from? Do you have any clues?
We CANNOT afford "space travel" and the distances are simply TO VAST. Oh, wait, one of you probably has a pretty good FTL engine prototype in your basement, huh.
"First of all, your quoting an entire post from another site violates the copyright policy of C-D, but I suspect that a mod will take care of that soon enough."
The posts on that website are NOT copyrighted. The only thing that board copyrights are its various logos and functions.
You know what? I really, really tired of people like you trying to find any way they can to silence dissent. It's all you have. That and hoping your buddy the mod does what you can't do but would do if you could. Can you spell "megalomania"? You have no basis in morality.
Further, you know? I don't give a rat's arse if my post or this whole thread is deleted. Now what.
"First of all, your quoting an entire post from another site violates the copyright policy of C-D, but I suspect that a mod will take care of that soon enough."
The posts on that website are NOT copyrighted. The only thing that board copyrights are its various logos and functions.
You know what? I really, really tired of people like you trying to find any way they can to silence dissent. It's all you have. That and hoping your buddy the mod does what you can't do but would do if you could. Can you spell "megalomania"? You have no basis in morality.
Further, you know? I don't give a rat's arse if my post or this whole thread is deleted. Now what.
Now the posters in the Science Forum will probably not take you seriously......
Bankrupt this country? Come on, the NASA budget accounts for around a half a percent of the federal budget.
Oh, how easy it is to diminish or pooh-pooh $18 billion plus dollars. Do you have any idea how much a billion dollars is?
If you had a billion dollars, you could give away a million ($1,000,000) dollars a DAY, every day since Jesus Christ walked the earth, and in 2009 you would STILL have money left to give away.
After dealing with blood-sucking Feds so long, we find it so easy to casually dispense of a "million" there or a "billion" there. Now Obama is talking trillions. God help us all.
NASA could vanish tomorrow and the few who would miss it would be those stranded on the ISS debacle. There wouldn't be any 30-year-old shuttles coming to get them.
If you had a billion dollars, you could give away a million ($1,000,000) dollars a DAY, every day since Jesus Christ walked the earth, and in 2009 you would STILL have money left to give away.
Wow, just WOW... I think you'll want to check that math again.
No kidding this guy just keeps shoveling it on himself doesn't he? Seriously though I hope this thread was a joke because it has me rolling, lol.
As for NASA in its day it was an incredible investment not only in the scientific breakthroughs and new technology but in the exploration and occupation of space. I think the last one alone makes it all worth it as having all your eggs in one basket is never a good idea. Much like seafaring and exploring were critical to our growth as a race in the past I think space exploration will be critical to our growth and survival in the future.
NASA really needs to reinvent itself from the ground up to thrive in today's society. I think they've lost a lot from the early days. Still an important program but not as good as it could be I think.
Last edited by TomSD; 07-20-2009 at 03:21 PM..
Reason: typo
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All of these things were either developed directly as a result of the space program or were vastly improved because of the research done in the space program.
But yes, WD-40 is another excellent one to add.
