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The Abandoning Space Program Thread

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Gene Steinberg said:
I've tried to make a big deal of this, even running a petition on our Home page at The Paracast -- The Gold Standard of Paranormal Radio to request that the space program be reinvigorated, rather than become a casualty of irresponsible spending cuts.

Here's what one famous astronaut says:

Neil Armstrong: Abandoning space is embarrassing and unacceptable | Blastr

Are we just lone voices in the dark?
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i believe it is VERY plain to see that at this time in history the focus is on global economic destruction and a new world government.
 
Shorn of the elaborate conspiracies about New World Orders and other such, I just think no president and member of congress has had the vision to keep it going. The take down of the space program began not long after the Apollo missions ended. The half-hearted efforts, such as the shuttles, do not count. You can't blame any one person. Maybe we need ET to show us the future, because governments are too embroiled in their daily struggles to plan for the long term.

But even if ET is here, they don't seem to care about pushing along the process. If there is reverse engineered alien technology at hand, where do we find it?
 
Gene Steinberg said:
Shorn of the elaborate conspiracies about New World Orders and other such, I just think no president and member of congress has had the vision to keep it going. The take down of the space program began not long after the Apollo missions ended. The half-hearted efforts, such as the shuttles, do not count. You can't blame any one person. Maybe we need ET to show us the future, because governments are too embroiled in their daily struggles to plan for the long term.

But even if ET is here, they don't seem to care about pushing along the process. If there is reverse engineered alien technology at hand, where do we find it?
Click to expand...

you bring up a very valid question... WHY abandon the space program? So Gene, after assessing the world economies and state of various global governments do you have a better reason?
 
I share the sentiment regarding the loss of the space program and SETI but there is also something to be said for getting our own world in order before moving to another one. The energy wasted on a global scale for totally stupid unproductive, or even worse destructive efforts has to stop.

Everyone forgets that our first real spaceship is planet Earth. Our solar system is moving at a few hundred kilometers per second, we have a huge fusion reactor called the Sun powering us, and the planet itself is fully sustainable for millions of years. We just need to learn how to live in peace on it and in harmony with it. It's a much larger challenge than the space program and I'd sooner see a world leader do a Kennedy type speech, "Our goal is create world peace by the end of the decade", rather than commit to going to Mars in a rocket.

Once we're living in peace and have food, houses and medicine and education for everyone ... fine ... start spending money on space. In the meantime, I don't see anything wrong with pursuing the next generation technologies ( antigravity and fusion ) in less costly Earth based labs. Once we have those technologies down, we can build really cool spacecraft and give space another shot with some serious ships.

The only caveat I can see on this scenario is that we might perhaps need a space station facility to develop these technologies. Some materials are better formed in a zero-g environment. But do we justify the space program on a great big "maybe" like that when homeless people are literally falling dead from disease and starvation?

I can't even justify my own meager spending habits let alone billions for space. I really wish it weren't that way, I really do. It's a bleeding tragedy. But as a species with moral responsibility, can we really say we've earned the right to go into space? Imagine what our petition for mebership in the UFP would look like right now. It's just sad, truly sad. But on the bright side there is always the chance some rogue private endeavor like Branson ... or some crazy garage mechanic analogy to Zephram Cochrane will create the first antigravity drive ... who knows ...
 
The USA went to the moon to beat the Russians in a breakneck scientific and technological race to show the world which ideology (communism or capitalism) is more efficient/effective at solving complex problems. Mostly a posturing exercise.

The space program should now be a commerce-based program exploiting the moons exotic resources which are very high value on earth (helium3, rare metals... Etc).

Isn't it better to exploit a moon than to destroy the earths working Ecosystem ? Don't we have the tools to do a full geological survey of our moon? I hear the far side of the moon (near the ice deposits) would be the best place for a permanent telescope

Lack of vision, lack of direction, lack of interest, short term thinking, lowered standards of education. A fast world has no patience for the very hard things.

Obama is a fine lawyer with great talent at resolving legal subtleties, however rocket science is just not his thing and there are no legal firms on the moon yet lol. From my perspective, the US space initiative is bogged down by a deepening political rift between liberal and conservative factions which is fueled by Christian lobbies (Bachman, Palin, etc... Tea party). A religious fundamentalist US in space... Not.

The US moon initiative was basically fueled by the fear of Russian technological progress (Sputnik). Eventually the same fear of losing its superpower status will fuel further initiatives... (Pressures from China and India)

... we just have to wait ;)
 
They haven't abandoned space exploration all together, but it has been greatly reduced. We still have our space program here in Canada, but we do not have the resources to be sending people up there on our own.

Although I don't think there's some sort of "one world government" conspiracy, I do think the dwindling interest in space has to do with all the issues we have here on earth.
 
Ufology made some great points. Specifically regarding technology. We need better and cheaper technology to sustain any kind of presence on a moon base or before launching people to Mars. My understanding is that NASA will be concentrating on unmanned robotic missions at this time. We are not abandoning manned space travel all together though since the U.S. government is providing funds to the private sector to help develop this business. I didn't like this new direction at all in the beginning but it could turn out to be a good decision after all. When we have private businesses competing to launch satellites, for example, costs will drop significantly. By hiring private firms to launch their missions NASA will have more funds available for development of new technology and scientific exploration. Eventually there will be profits to be made by exploiting the resources off world and that's what will ultimately get us out there. The reasoning wasn't to simply axe the existing program but was to jump start a new industrial era.
 
ufology said:
Once we're living in peace and have food, houses and medicine and education for everyone ... fine ... start spending money on space.
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A Utopian Fantasy. And because you are saying we should not explore space until this Utopian Fantasy becomes a reality, that pretty much makes it an excuse not to explore space.

Anyhow, NASA is a money pit. If they were a private company, I wouldn't invest.

I don't think they are needed and that the military and private companies should handle our space launches. Elon Musk is working on a 50 ton medium lift rocket and the military has rockets to launch their stuff. Plus there is that new SLS which can heft more payload into orbit than the mighty Saturn V - that'll be built in a few years.
 
Good points made.
No we aren't totally abandoning space exploration.
But we are abandoning manned spaceflight.

Why? Lots of reasons listed above.

But I think it's hard to promote space exploration when your house has been foreclosed on, and your stomach is growling. It just boils down to human greed, ignorance, and apathy.
Those who have money want more....and they do not see space as profitable - who cares about humanities future?

If we told those asswipes there was hollow golden asteroids filled with crude oil just for the taking....we'd be there by next year!
 
Hey Exo,

Space is profitable, it just isn't profitable when the government does it.

I think seeing tax dollars being used inefficiently by NASA discourages many people from supporting space flight - but if they knew about all the private companies making money off space they would probably feel better.
 
This is the possible future: http://www.spacex.com/falcon_heavy.php (cool video too)

The 2012 Air Force budget includes $1.74B for four launches, an average of $435M per launch. With Falcon Heavy priced at $80-125M per launch SpaceX has the potential to provide the US government significant value.
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If you look at NASA budgets they remain about the same and more money is slated for science and technology without the shuttle program: http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/516674main_NASAFY12_Budget_Estimates-Overview-508.pdf

I'm optimistic that this new plan could be a smart decision. We shall see...
 
Anaximander said:
Hey Exo,

Space is profitable, it just isn't profitable when the government does it.

I think seeing tax dollars being used inefficiently by NASA discourages many people from supporting space flight - but if they knew about all the private companies making money off space they would probably feel better.
Click to expand...


Yeah I'll go along with that. Private ventures would make all the difference.

What we really need for space exploration is:
1. A cheap, plentiful or nearly inexhaustable energy source.
2. A non-combustion propulsion....anti-gravity, warp drive, gravity wave drive....something like that.
3. Some sort of practical sheild against cosmic rays so intrepid space explorers won't dissolve from radiation exposure.

Can these things REALLY be that hard to solve if we put our minds too it?
 
exo_doc said:
Yeah I'll go along with that. Private ventures would make all the difference.

What we really need for space exploration is:
1. A cheap, plentiful or nearly inexhaustable energy source.
2. A non-combustion propulsion....anti-gravity, warp drive, gravity wave drive....something like that.
3. Some sort of practical sheild against cosmic rays so intrepid space explorers won't dissolve from radiation exposure.

Can these things REALLY be that hard to solve if we put our minds too it?
Click to expand...

Ofcourse we will achieve those ambitions or similar, we are only witnessing the birth of science, but lets eliminate cancer/disease and hunger first, then think about hauling our asses to the stars.
 
I wouldnt doubt that a military manned space program will be going on just not a public manned program.Its sad that we are going from the leaders of manned space flight to just launching probes, what would JFK think of us if he were alive today.
 
The larger problem is a combination of cultural, economic and technological. I would add that NASA has done a lousy job of making Joe Average feel invested in manned spaceflight. They won't even consider letting multi-billionaires buy a ticket to ride. Such things generate societal interest.

No bucks, no Buck Rogers! The odd part is that higher ups don't seem to care.
 
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