| Is space exploration still necessary??
Posted: 10/6/2007 8:24:45 PM | | We still need it... Once we find another planet which can sustain us(preferrably something a bit larger) then we can relax and maybe finish exploring the seas of this one... You want to find cures and whatnot, it may be helpful to look to extraterrestrial plants anyways... Alot of our resources have been destroyed... Instead of pointing blame, lets just fix the problem! | |
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grog27
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Joined: 2/25/2005
Msg: 102 | |
| Is space exploration still necessary??
Posted: 10/7/2007 10:34:07 PM | "Further exploration, of our solar system, is not necessary. "
Yeah. Thanks "mrbaobabseedsaver". We'll file that brilliant submission in the same place as this gem:
"Everything that can be invented has been invented."
--Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899.
And here's a link to some more pearls of wisdom from like-minded people;
http://www.langston.com/Fun_People/1995/1995BKM.html
Some people just spend way too much time involved in self-administered rectal examinations. | |
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| Is space exploration still necessary??
Posted: 10/8/2007 9:13:51 AM |
Yeah. Thanks "mrbaobabseedsaver". We'll file that brilliant submission...
Well further exploration isn't necessary to identify objects, or determine orbit trajectories, of the major and medium worlds in our solar system. How many micro moons do you think we need to find, to finally say we know where everything is? If you think we should explore outside our solar system, then tell us all which other solar system should "The Mission" go to? And which species of jellyfish or octopuss should represent humanity on "The Mission"?
Or is that what the wheat grass and fruit flies are for? | |
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grog27
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Joined: 2/25/2005
Msg: 104 | |
| Is space exploration still necessary??
Posted: 10/8/2007 7:56:30 PM | "Well further exploration isn't necessary to identify objects, or determine orbit trajectories, of the major and medium worlds in our solar system."
***yawn***Some people should just go back to drawing on the walls of their caves. Certainly not worth anybody's time to even bother trying to debate with such closed-minded individuals.
Final word: Continue exploration... or perish. | |
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| Is space exploration still necessary??
Posted: 10/10/2007 4:55:59 AM | "Unless one thinks we should go extinct, our future is tied into space."
Every species eventually goes extinct, or exits to make room for something else, It's
just a matter of time before life has fully explored our human niche, before selecting us
for extinction. a spectrum of intelligence isn't going to keep us ahead of the game forever, unless your want to be a 'glider-gun' in an idealized version of Conworth's Life, and then the plug can still be pulled out.
Personally the only people morally advanced enough to go into space are the aborigines or the late lamented Sioux for have an appreciation for environments, ironically its this very attribute that meant they had no 'technology' that would eventually exploit and that they would find themselves running away from, in the guise of space exploration'.
I' m always astounded by peoples that confuse technology with culture, the latter is hundreds of years of consideration in the making a mature endevoure, and not the province of societies that are more like Nerdy spotty teenagers with their next Toy, If we can't make a go of it on this planet, then we should we expect a place in the larger scheme of things. | |
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| Is space exploration still necessary??
Posted: 10/10/2007 9:03:52 AM |
Continue exploration... or perish.
Why not both? Do you think the asteroid belt gives a flip whether the government explores? Do you think that the space station will fit enough people to continue the whole spectrum of our species? Look around you. Do you see any other terrestial worlds with a gravity field and a large enough moon to pull on it's oceans and climate patterns to form seasons? Do you think they will find all that at the bottom of some moon's global methane-ice sheet, or inside a methane guyser, or inside some long extinct lava tube?
The only things that the other terrestrial worlds in our solar system are good for is building igloo's, building solar farms, building x-ray farms, and building gamma-ray farms. | |
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grog27
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Joined: 2/25/2005
Msg: 107 | |
| Is space exploration still necessary??
Posted: 10/11/2007 5:46:56 PM | "Why not both? Do you think the asteroid belt gives a flip whether the government explores?
...The only things that the other terrestrial worlds in our solar system are good for is building igloo's, building solar farms, building x-ray farms, and building gamma-ray farms."
Thanks for confirming your utter lack of brain functions. Please stay off the forums until such time as you have something USEFUL, or at least mildly intelligent, to offer. | |
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| Is space exploration still necessary??
Posted: 7/1/2008 7:01:53 AM | Still necessary? Space exploration was NEVER necessary. It never will be. War isn't necessary either and neither is US magazine or football stadiums. You know what else wasn't necessary? Exploring the Atlantic ocean in the 15th century. Experimenting with magnetic fields, exploring blood for specialized proteins, mapping the human genome, digging up bones in Utah and putting them back together in some museum. These things were never necessary, but because someone went out and did them, we now have electricity, vaccines, tests for genetic diseases, and dinosuar exhibits. If we were to allow the public's interest in exploration to decide how to spend money, we wouldn't discover anything new except a faster way to get information about Angelina Jolie's children's names and a better way to build a football stadium to hold more people for the superbowl.
Our curiousity of space needs to be satisfied and in the process, we discover things that CAN make life that much better. Gamma ray bursts, extrasolar planets, and possibly new sources for raw material have all been discovered as a result of space exploration. It's not necessary, but how many government funded programs are truly NECESSARY? | |
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| Is space exploration still necessary??
Posted: 7/1/2008 8:36:46 AM | One thing humanity will never do is come to a screeching halt on anything. We know things and we want to to know more things, we didn't get to where we are at by doing nothing. Suppose in the 1400's all of humanity stopped and said, "We don't need a faster trade route to china, we don't need to know whats on the other side of the Atlantic, we don't care to know if the world is round or flat..."
The advantages of exploring space are indeed great and indeed necesarry. We do procreate, right? What does that have to do with space exploration? We procreate to insure the continued existance of humanity, that means we want to survive as a race. Science now has given us answers to our own fate, if we stop exploring now we have just insured that humanity will die. Look at your own children and ask yourself, why did I have a child? Whats the point? Were going to either, get hit by an asteroid, a comet, a black hole, gamma ray burst, our sun will nova, we will run out of resources and the planet will no longer be able to maintain our growing population and so on and so on.
So if your the type of person who only can see far enough in to the future to make sure that perhaps your childen or your grandkids are okay, get the insurance go watch TV and shut the hell up, the rest of us have work to do to improve humanity, increase our knowledge, safeguard earth and find a way to go elsewhere when the time comes.
Oh, and those that think we didn't get anything out of the Moon missions, your just being ignorant, open your eyes and your mind...
Read something!! | |
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| Is space exploration still necessary??
Posted: 7/1/2008 5:54:25 PM | "I think we should concentrate our resources and efforts on learning to live decently on this planet before conquering new frontiers."
And who ever said that the solution to solving the problems of the world is to throw money at it? Without exploration and innovation, new discoveries and some of those so-called "pretty pictures," does anyone truly believe we would be better off?
I sugges to you, instead, that we would be worse off. We would be a lot more ignorant of ourselves and our place in the universe. We would be without much of the technology that makes this new age of the communication of information - the "global village" - much further ahead of us. And I think we would be a lot more insular and parochial. I doubt we'd be sharing ideas through a media such as this.
It's not a perfect situation, but I suggest that resources spent on exploration is well-spent. Also, consider the resources spent on the so-called "War on Terror" and what it's actually accomplished and compare that to the money spent on space exploration. | |
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| Is space exploration still necessary??
Posted: 7/1/2008 6:05:41 PM | | Well?....The offshore accounts aren't working anymore, so they have to find some place to hide their dirty money, their slush funds and over taxes! The oil and gas companies need a place to store all the profits! | |
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| Is space exploration still necessary??
Posted: 7/2/2008 9:25:10 AM |
"I think we should concentrate our resources and efforts on learning to live decently on this planet before conquering new frontiers."
And who ever said that the solution to solving the problems of the world is to throw money at it? Without exploration and innovation, new discoveries and some of those so-called "pretty pictures," does anyone truly believe we would be better off? Two sides of the same coin where I have sympathies with both.
The problem is separating myth from fact, hyperbole from reality and pragmatism from fantasy. Sadly, one of the world's major players in space exploration, NASA, promotes much of the myth, hyperbole and fantasy. Institutionally they know better, busting the myth that they motivated the development of computers velcro, MRI, Tang, polaroid sunglasses etc. (http://www.sti.nasa.gov/tto/spinfaq.htm#spinfaq9), but the fight for their share of the government dollars encourages less savvy members to misrepresent reality in order to bolster their argument for big bucks. It's unfortunate because it misdirects real debate (and probably funding) away from what is good and beneficial.
It isn't clear what is meant by space exploration in this thread. The space program? If we mean an effort to better understand and utilize the environment beyond our planet, then the answer seems clearly yes, we should make that effort. If it means sending people or machines off aimlessly to aimlessly poke around, then no. Few thing in this world have come about because of aimless curiosity. My only complaint about space exploration is that intelligent debate about its promise and value are difficult because so much promotional detritus has settled over our perceptions that it is virtually impossible to see reality. Was a man on the moon, or the notion of putting a man on Mars anything more than very expensive PR stunts?
A hard-nosed evaluation of cost-effectiveness would not go amiss. And I'd be very surprised if space exploration in its widest sense hasn't proved to be a commercial success. Not because America put a man on the moon, but because Russia figued out how to keep people alive in space for more that a few days, because the satellite industry has so effectively implemented worldwide communications, made weather predictions, and especially disaster warning so much more common and reliable. And because our understanding of existence itself has improved because of our ablity to make observations of ourselves and everything else in the universe from a new perspective. | |
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| Is space exploration still necessary??
Posted: 7/2/2008 3:26:50 PM | | What is the point of having space exploration when we know that the killer asteroid Apophis is going to swipe the earth's magnetic field in 2036 and if it hits earth it might wipe out downtown mexico city, with a population in the millions. Then ask yourself what fancy pictures of gamma ray bursters are going to be worth. The solar sytem is out there and it's not going away! | |
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| Is space exploration still necessary??
Posted: 7/2/2008 4:26:10 PM | "Don't keep your eggs in one basket".
We have learned this lesson. We are almost at the point where we can "weave" another basket...in the form of actually going to live on another planet via the technology we are currently developing. It is only a matter of time. Lots of real estate out there to claim...with the right technology backing us. | |
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| Is space exploration still necessary??
Posted: 7/2/2008 7:51:24 PM | | Those that argue the money spent on space exploration should be spent on medical research should simply do the research themselves. What is stopping you? You have a brain just like the scientists. Use your brain to find the cures and let the scientists pursue their goals. If you argue you are not smart enough, then what makes you think your judgment is better than their's? | |
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musi5
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Joined: 9/14/2004
Msg: 117 | |
| Is space exploration still necessary??
Posted: 7/3/2008 6:53:23 AM | | All i know is we are trying to explore new lands and haven't "fixed" the one we got...i could think of better things to spend that money on. | |
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| Is space exploration still necessary??
Posted: 7/3/2008 7:08:04 AM | One benefit of large government research programs that is very difficult to quantify, but definitely exists is that it provides a back drop or purpose for some of our country's finest minds to solve complex problems. Additionally these programs were/are high profile with the participants enjoying and in some cases becoming famous for their contributions. The space program is/was a "Super Bowl for science". Myself and many of the people I went to school with would read & watch launches and dream of some day doing something like that. Most of us never did go on to work for NASA, but it did spark our interest in science and mathematics, so instead of having athletes as our "role model" we had scientists. Instead of wanting to be the next T.O. or Brittany Spears we want to be scientists - what a refreshing thought!
When people make the point about medical research versus space exploration, what is frequently overlooked is that science in one field almost without exception develops in parallel with science in other fields. DNA research, molecular cell research, etc would not be possible with out computers. NASA kick started integrated circuits - mainly to reduce weight & volume. Most of the work to make computers was done by industry, but where would it be if it would have never gotten started? Almost all of the equipment we depend on if we are unlucky enough to need medical help has computers built in them.
A better question is why do we use public funds to build sports complexes? What is the payoff from that? For about the same costs as several large football stadiums we could have built a super-collider that would have dwarfed CERN. Having done that we would have had the finest minds in quantum physics and engineers(to solve the construct issues) flocking at our door. These are the type people we need to mentor our next generation of scientists. Instead I guess we will have to settle for Kobe Bryant as a mentor!? | |
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| Is space exploration still necessary??
Posted: 7/3/2008 7:49:27 AM | Good points Cowboy..
For all who seemingly don't know what goes on in space, Google these things...
medical research in space
space research on geology
space research on pollution
And really any other topic you can think of for space, google it. Those astronauts aren't just up there for the view, they are actually doing things. | |
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| Is space exploration still necessary??
Posted: 7/3/2008 10:59:06 AM |
All i know is we are trying to explore new lands and haven't "fixed" the one we got...i could think of better things to spend that money on.
"We" are working on fixing the one we got by exploring space. Sometimes, that takes observation from above or in a weightless environment. It may take energy such as He3 fusion from fuel found on the moon to fix our problems on Earth. (By my rough calculation, about 2200 lbs for ALL of mankind per year*).
One problem we need to fix is an attitude that others who are actuall doing something should work on something else. If you think there is a problem to be addresses, then by all means hone your skills and work on the problem yourself!
* Yes, I did the research and calculations myself assuming pure thermal engine generators with Carnot limitations. In theory, such fusion may produce a lot of energy through a direct charge creation in addition to thermal energy thus increasing efficiency well beyond that possible with any known fuel source. That is unless an organic fuel cell could be developed that directly converted methane. | |
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| Is space exploration still necessary??
Posted: 7/3/2008 12:38:02 PM | Why care about space travel?
If it wasn't for people who *want* to know how something works, we would still be living in houses made of sticks and mud. I recommend living in one of those once, and then come back and try to complain about the pursuit of knowledge. | |
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| Is space exploration still necessary??
Posted: 7/3/2008 2:16:54 PM | I think we should concentrate on better and bigger observation technologies as opposed to trying to get out there physically.
(in my best Samuel L. Jackson voice) We should spend about 2 trillion motherf*cking dollars on one bad ass motherf*cking telescope. Think of something twice the motherf*cking size of Arecibo on the dark side of the motherf*cking moon. | |
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| Is space exploration still necessary??
Posted: 7/3/2008 3:38:52 PM |
I think we should concentrate on better and bigger observation technologies as opposed to trying to get out there physically.
(in my best Samuel L. Jackson voice) We should spend about 2 trillion motherf*cking dollars on one bad ass motherf*cking telescope. Think of something twice the motherf*cking size of Arecibo on the dark side of the motherf*cking moon.
Between Chandra, James Web, Spitzer, Hubble and Compton Gamma Ray Observatory we we have the biggest motherf*cking telescope out there. In addition to this most of the visible light spectrum is well covered here on Earth by networking our large ground base telescopes together to make one huge telescope. There will be enough data generated to keep scientist busy for decades.
As long as NASA doesn't get caught up in another insane program like the space shuttle, there is a lot to be gained by manned programs. Technologies needed to keep people alive in space have lots to offer mankind. In addition we do not have any machines that can adapt to new situations&discoveries the people can. | |
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| Is space exploration still necessary??
Posted: 7/3/2008 7:49:29 PM |
What is the point of having space exploration when we know that the killer asteroid Apophis is going to swipe the earth's magnetic field in 2036 and if it hits earth it might wipe out downtown mexico city, with a population in the millions. Then ask yourself what fancy pictures of gamma ray bursters are going to be worth. The solar sytem is out there and it's not going away!
The only reason why you even know about Apophis is because of space exploration efforts! Perhas since we know about this asteroid's approach we can take steps to prevent it from hitting or at least minimize the damge on April 1st 2029. Interesting date for a near miss. | |
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| Is space exploration still necessary??
Posted: 7/3/2008 8:54:06 PM | "I think we should concentrate on better and bigger observation technologies as opposed to trying to get out there physically.
(in my best Samuel L. Jackson voice) We should spend about 2 trillion motherf*cking dollars on one bad ass motherf*cking telescope. Think of something twice the motherf*cking size of Arecibo on the dark side of the motherf*cking moon."
Actually, there are some mo...um...very large telescope projects on the drawing boards that will dwarf the likes of Keck 1 and 2. Astronomy Magazine had an article on some of them. Not the least of which is the OverWhelmingly Large telescope (OWL) which I believe is projected to be some 30 metres across!
The fun has only begun! | |
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