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  #1  
Old 01-29-2010, 02:21 PM
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Abandoning the Moon

If this is true I believe the US is truly fawked, as Bot used to say.

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/01/27/obama-budget-drop-nasa-constellation-program/?test=faces

- Peter.

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  #2  
Old 01-29-2010, 02:25 PM
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The simple solution, have the North Koreans and Iranians jointly announce that they plan to establish a lunar base before the end of the decade.
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  #3  
Old 01-29-2010, 02:41 PM
helpplease
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Sorry I don't understand why this is so bad? Last time we went to the moon was 1972 wasn't it? We haven't been back, so why are we so "fawked"? It's not like they cut non-manned missions or the space station or something....
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  #4  
Old 01-29-2010, 02:48 PM
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Did you hear about that new restaurant on the moon? Great food but no atmosphere.

No but hey, all seriousness aside, this is a truly tragic development. Why, all of the vital grain harvest that we get from the moon will now be lost to us. In addition, it is my God given right to play golf on the moon, and plans for making that possible were well under way.

This will not stand.
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Old 01-29-2010, 02:50 PM
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It kinda sucks even more if you've been looking at NASA / contractor jobs that are related
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  #6  
Old 01-29-2010, 03:13 PM
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Originally Posted by helpplease View Post
Sorry I don't understand why this is so bad? Last time we went to the moon was 1972 wasn't it? We haven't been back, so why are we so "fawked"? It's not like they cut non-manned missions or the space station or something....
Actually they are looking at abandoning all manned vehicles to the space station as well relying on antiquated Russian vehicles for the trips to and from while the thing still remains operational. As for non manned missions, these are irellivent other than from a purely scientific perspective.

What it means is that the US is abandoning the lead in the most important technological arena to whoever want's to fill it. And I'd be willing to bet that places like China and possibly India are well aware of what that means.

As Niall Ferguson said "were' witnessing the end of a five hundred year trend in history towards the west. America was the last nation to beneffit from that trend but now the tides are shifting towards the east" I paraphrase but that's the gist of it.

Or as Arthur C Clarke once wrote...

"The choice, as Wells once said, is the universe -- or nothing... The challenge of the
great spaces between the worlds is a stupendous one; but if we fail to meet it, the
story of our race will be drawing to a close. Humanity will have turned its back upon
the still untrodden heights and will be descending again the long slope that stretches,
across a thousand million years of time, down to the shores of the primeval sea."
- Arthur C. Clarke

Well. The USA may not be about to de-evolve to a slime mould in the near future but those who who think it's a good thing for the country to not just surrender the lead but to completely turn it's back on the next historical revolution in human development have a strange view in my opinion.

- Peter.
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Old 01-29-2010, 03:14 PM
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Any Dilbert fan knows that the moon is populated by women who love engineers!
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Old 01-29-2010, 03:23 PM
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Any Dilbert fan knows that the moon is populated by women who love engineers!
That is a very small set.
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Old 01-29-2010, 03:56 PM
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Hence the call by NASA Manned Flight!
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Old 01-29-2010, 08:36 PM
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Somehow I doubt that Arthur C. Clarke would make a distinction between the "west" and the "east.". At this point it doesn't make much sense for individual nations to have seperate manned space flights; too much money for the science compared to unmanned flights.
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Old 01-29-2010, 09:00 PM
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Seems to me that the we tend to over engineer what ever we do to get the job done. Those primitive Russian vehicles seem to the do the job very well and theirs are the only way up there because our systems are so bloody expensive. Sure the Shuttle is very cool but it seems that a single use transportation system would have been much more cost effective.

IIRC their space station was up before ours and came down afterward. Sure it had it's issues (as did ours) but damned if it did not have a very long useful life. I think NASA needs to get back to KISS and drop all these overly complex systems. Build a tool for the job.
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Old 01-29-2010, 09:04 PM
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America, a once proud and prosperous nation has been reduced to the level of a being parasite. Bad enough we have to rely on the Arabs, Chinese and illegal aliens for our domestic necessities, but now we have to rely on the Russians for our manned space missions. A sad sad day indeed.
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Old 01-29-2010, 10:42 PM
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Originally Posted by 450slcguy View Post
America, a once proud and prosperous nation has been reduced to the level of a being parasite. Bad enough we have to rely on the Arabs, Chinese and illegal aliens for our domestic necessities, but now we have to rely on the Russians for our manned space missions. A sad sad day indeed.
Precisely.

- Peter.
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  #14  
Old 01-29-2010, 10:47 PM
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Originally Posted by Craig View Post
Somehow I doubt that Arthur C. Clarke would make a distinction between the "west" and the "east.". At this point it doesn't make much sense for individual nations to have seperate manned space flights; too much money for the science compared to unmanned flights.
Undoubtedly he would not. It is I that am making that comparison. I have a far less egalitarian attitude towards our enemies than Clarke, and most liberals, did.

As for the cost vs science benefit. This is not primarily about science, though that is a subsidiary aspect thereof. This is about the rise and fall of nations, civilizations etc. That the US is in a hole is not in dispute. That we should flush our lead in the highest technological area down the toilet of expediency is tragic for the future of this country

- Peter.
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1971 108 280S
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  #15  
Old 01-29-2010, 10:58 PM
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Yeah any one can compare the cost benefit analysis of the 900 billion spent on NASA over the last 60 years and compare the 7-10+ trillion spent on the "War on Poverty" over the similar period and clearly the overall societal benefits of NASA's endeavors pale in comparison to the results delivered from the wealth squandered on elevating the least successful strata of human development.

I'm mean, just think where we would all be today if Barack Obama and his family where denied their rations of Government Cheese/Food Stamps as opposed to funding the best and brightest doing fundamental scientific research that would eventually benefit all of mankind like so much of space exploration has!

If nothing else has ever proven the soundness of the guiding principle; that it is better for human kind to hinder the forward development of the most successful by requiring that society’s energy be redirected towards reversing the inevitable rearward progression of the least successful, this President of the United States has!

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