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| Manned US Spaceflight | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Aug 9 2005, 09:32 AM (371 Views) | |
| who | Aug 9 2005, 09:32 AM Post #1 |
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Have light saber. Will travel.
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I think we have obtained benefits from the use of space mainly in the use of satellites. I think manned spaceflight is a huge waste of money and carries too much risk. I think the benefit to cost-risk ratio of manned space flight is very low. What to you think? |
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| Admiralbill_gomec | Aug 9 2005, 10:19 AM Post #2 |
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UberAdmiral
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The benefits of the space program are enormous. I do believe we had a thread recently that listed them. http://techtran.msfc.nasa.gov/at_home.html In addition, read Heinlein's "Spinoff" (which was written in 1976). |
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| captain_proton_au | Aug 9 2005, 10:27 AM Post #3 |
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A Robot in Disguise
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In addition to technical advancememts. Space travel will eventually lead to off world human collonies, meaning that if something disasterous happens to our little planet, the human race will survive. The only really important goal humans have yet to achieve |
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| somerled | Aug 9 2005, 10:27 AM Post #4 |
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Admiral MacDonald RN
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I'm leaning towards YES. But I grew up during the heady days of the Gemini and Apollo programs. Too bad the capabilities of the 1970s and early 1980s have been lost. |
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| psyfi | Aug 9 2005, 10:47 AM Post #5 |
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psyfi
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Mankind, like the cat, is curious by nature and something of an explorer. Not wanting to go into space is like being in your twenties but deciding to just live at home for the rest of your life. You can do it, but you probably won't fulfill your potential. |
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| who | Aug 9 2005, 11:06 AM Post #6 |
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Have light saber. Will travel.
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This is many a US and Russian issue as I am not aware of other countries doing mannned spaceflight. Although NASA likes to have a huge list of the benefits of manned spaceflight to society, I think these have come at a huge cost. I suspect most of us here are big on space since it is a Star Trek board. Personally, I would love to go up on the shuttle. The problem that I have is forcing the US citizen to pay for programs that do not provide maximum benefit to the people. If people do not pay their taxes for manned spaceflight they go to jail. I think the government should tax only for necessary programs. The government is too big and citizens are taxed for unnessary programs. |
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| Admiralbill_gomec | Aug 9 2005, 11:38 AM Post #7 |
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UberAdmiral
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^^^^ Did you know that the PC on your desk is an offshoot of the space program? Intel developed the 4004 chip for NASA back in 1972 or so, that was the direct predecessor to the 8086/8088 chips that started the home computer boom? Without that chip, it is doubtful that you would be posting on the Internet, and most computers would still be restricted to college campii and corporations. |
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| psyfi | Aug 9 2005, 12:18 PM Post #8 |
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psyfi
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who, you may be placing yourself on the side of those who whispered into the ear of Queen Isabella of Spain that she sent Columbus on a fool's errand. No program provides benefits to ALL people and some start out small but soon generate benefits to more and more and more. ABG gave you an excellent example. I say if that is all the space program did was make it possible for humanity to have PCs it was worth the cost and it has done sooooo much more. You could sit up all night writing down the inventions we now use that had their origination with something discovered in the space program. Beyond that, there is the human heart and spirit to consider and what will make it strong and healthy. Moving out beyond this world would be of infinite help in this regard. Seeing Man on Mars. It would be a tonic and a medicine to all that ails the human spirit. |
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| who | Aug 9 2005, 03:42 PM Post #9 |
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Have light saber. Will travel.
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From what I can find the Intel 4004 chip was not designed for or by NASA. In 1972 it was not used for manned spaceflight. Once again, I am discussing manned spaceflight, not spaceflight. Source I think we are committed at this point with the space station but I think we should keep manned spaceflight to a minimum. |
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| Richman | Aug 9 2005, 04:49 PM Post #10 |
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Captain
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I looked up a few tax figures on google (these are only estimates that I have done): The US Spending Budget is about $2,388 billion...NASA gets about $15.4 billion of this (just a little over .6%). This money handles not only shuttles (which gets a small fraction of this money), and unmanned exploration programs, but a lot of the communications satellites that our infrastructure relies on. Education gets about $56 billion (about 2.5%). I would be more concerned about that other 97% of the budget is going. There are plenty more organizations to attack about tax spending before NASA, which barely puts a scratch in the budget. |
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| Admiralbill_gomec | Aug 9 2005, 05:01 PM Post #11 |
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UberAdmiral
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You missed this from your source:
Who cares if the first use was manned or not. The chip was also widely used in Skylab and yes, on the first shuttles (they were not retrofit until the mid-80s). That even being said, and what I said earlier (being in Houston I've worked with lots of NASA and Intel types), I'm curious as to why you don't want to admit that manned spaceflight has been worth the risk. Hell, the remote telemetry developed for Gemini and Apollo has saved THOUSANDS (maybe millions) of lives in and of itself. We should have been on Mars in 1984, and could have if space flight hadn't been PROXMIRED. Space flight in the early 21st century should have been as routine as a trans-Atlantic zeppelin flight in the early 1930s (available to those who could pay for it). |
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| who | Aug 9 2005, 05:20 PM Post #12 |
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Have light saber. Will travel.
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I saw that quote and it was interesting that it was used, but NASA did not develop the chip, they just used it. Metal was used too. Do we credit NASA for bringing us out of the stone age? I am a big science fiction fan. I would love to be out in space. I am just saying that I think manned spaceflight is too expensive and dangerous at this point in time. I believe there have been 114 shuttle flights. I also believe that we have had 2 shuttles destroyed with their crew. This is a 2% chance of total disaster. Personally, I think this is too high for the current benefits. |
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| 24thcenstfan | Aug 9 2005, 10:50 PM Post #13 |
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Something Wicked This Fae Comes
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I voted 'Yes." The benefits (many have already been mentioned) far outweigh the costs for manned space travel IMO. While there have sadly been some casualties, The Challenger and the Columbia accidents, the people who lost their lives knew the risks involved. Their deaths were not in vain. The greatest thing we as a society can do, is to honor their memory by continuing to strive towards the stars. There will be setbacks, but we should never give up. |
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| Admiralbill_gomec | Aug 10 2005, 08:33 AM Post #14 |
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UberAdmiral
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Just because your single source did not say that NASA contracted for this chip does NOT mean it didn't happen. Actually, the invention of bronze and other copper alloys, somewhere around 3000BC, brought us out of the stone age. Yes, there have been 114 shuttle flights. There have also been a number of Soyuz, Apollo, Gemini, and Mercury flights. There is a monument at Cape Canaveral that lists all of those who died in the space program. Let's take this a step further: Do you know how many people died at the beginning of the age of aviation? I'd be willing to bet thousands, whether they were trying to fly their own homemade contraption or whether testing engines, or modifying a new design. We could go back further to the number of people killed in train accidents between say 1830 and 1880. What I am getting at is that ANY program in development has its risks. Without risk, we could all be nice and comfy, sitting in our drafty hovels, wearing leaves, eating berries and drinking muddy water because no one was willing to take a risk of anything. Wait, we'd all starve unless someone was willing to risk trying the berries or drinking the water. |
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| captain_proton_au | Aug 10 2005, 08:39 AM Post #15 |
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Not to mention that The Internet itself was spawned from ARPANET |
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