A pretty amazing thing might happen tonight on Mars

Usually the ones attacking the NASA fund aren't Bible-believers, either. Plus, nothing discovered by NASA discounts the Bible. It is eternally true.

 

Yeah, but the ones attacking the NASA budget are usually the "i don't wanna pay no goddamn taxes for nothin' " screamers, of which there is a huge overlap with the Bible-flogging crowd.

Plus the dyed-in-the-wool anti-science yuk-yuks, who occupy a huge amount of media attention as well as essentially the endorsement of an entire network that all this stuff is weirdo pencil-neck-geek stuff we shouldn't be spending any money on.

 

I'm sorry, but this is just flat-out wrong.

 

Anyway, let's hope this mission lands successfully, because most likely there won't be any more coming any time soon.

 

Those of you on the East Coast planning on staying up late to follow the action...might be disappointed.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/08/nasa-rover-curiosity-aging-satellite.html

 

Bullshit.
Complete and utter bullshit.
The biggest anti-NASA crowd are the "We should spend that money on earth!" brayers. And most of the time the stuff they want to spend the money on are the same sinkhole social programs that never generate anything but a warm and fuzzy buzz for their supporters.

 

The idea that money chopped from the NASA budget was going to be diverted to social programs went down the toilet in about January 1969. It goes to the Pentagon. Or to tax cuts.

 

So, the GOP House leadership wants to spend money on earth?

http://www.spacenews.com/policy/120509-nasa-budget-takes-hit.html

WASHINGTON — The U.S. House of Representatives on May 8 cut $126 million from NASA’s Cross-Agency Support account and transferred the funds to the Justice Department, shrinking the House’s proposed budget for NASA to $17.447 billion for 2013.

When debate began May 8 on the $51.1 billion 2013 Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations Act, NASA stood to receive $17.57 billion next year — a $226 million cut that would receive the agency with its smallest budget since 2008.

 

That was a 206-204 vote, hardly a straight party-line vote.

From the linked story:

As an aside, this thread is dangerously close to hitting some black ice and skidding into a tree. Let's be careful here.

 

Meh, I'm still on West Coast time.

 

Agreed. The thing is, politicians of all stripes are happy to cut the space budget. It is not a Dem or Rep issue. The space program in the crosshairs of both sides because, as someone noted earlier, there is no tangible or financial payoff in the foreseeable future -- it just looks like a money pit. It was an easy sell in the '60s because of the Soviet fear factor. Without that, there's no political will for space travel on either side.

 

The sad thing is, the tangible payoff you speak of is all around us. Cellphones, the internet, modern TV, lightning-fast communication, Tang ... tons of things that were either developed for, spun off of technology based on, or made possible by, the efforts of the space program.