as a tribute to Challenger, Columbia and Apollo 1...

Hondo, you do realize that you quoted my post which contained a link to a photo of a teabagger referring to himself as a teabagger, right? I didn't want to get into some row over the whole thing, but I provided a link as evidence to back up the statement I was making and you still quoted me and argued the opposite.

I'm not really sure I get your argument. Are you saying that going to Mars is not a worthy venture because you cannot wrap your head around the idea of packing for an 80,000,000 mile flight?

It isn’t like they are going to Cancun and they are unsure of how many Hawaiian shirts to bring with them. This is a shuttle mission. Did you also worry about how the soldiers were going to pack before heading off to Iraq with the risk of getting a stop-loss?

Nearly every satellite launch and shuttle mission brings about new information and technology that becomes usable which then becomes incorporated into everyday life.

It is pretty resoundingly clear that corporations, knowing that the government will fund such programs thus doing the research for them, won’t make the expense the themselves. As such, these launches and federal research is necessary.

Reagan had a boner for Star Wars. The thing was just as much of a pipe dream then as it is now. But that is what derailed a lot of things and put everything in motion for space stations (though, there is nothing wrong with space stations).

The recent Ares I-X test was successful. I see no reason to abandon the program.

 

Maybe so. But it gave us Tang, which we should all be thankful for.

 

One of your favorite comedians over there is an idiot. It would a lot easier to stage off the moon (lots of land to build on, low gravity and no atmosphere to make departures easier) than it is from Earth or an orbital.

 

And the likelihood that they'll be friendly is extremely low. I'd rather meet them out around Jupiter.

Plenty of idiots disagree with you, as demonstrated on this thread.

 

Chances are they'd say goodbye to us.

Or just wipe us out without saying much of anything.

 

The basis for a lot of the projections of "it's likely"s and "we're meant to"s in this thread seems to be that planet that, iirc, is just slightly beyond Pluto right now due to its unusual orbit.

 

this is clearly a political thread.

 

Fuck cool. Space exploration is about more than international dick-measuring contests and going where no man has gone before. The technology developed in these pursuits makes life on Earth better.

http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/technologies/spinoffs.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_spin-off
http://www.thespaceplace.com/nasa/spinoffs.html

If nothing else, having a capable space program will be handy when an asteroid the size of the Rose Bowl comes our way in 2029.

 

Lunar orbit is probably the way to go. Least amount of delta-V of all the options.

 

Let us not forget the Space Food Sticks...

 

Not to mention that one of the lasting legacies of the last space race was learning things one step at a time.
We've learned how to build in space.
The next step is taking things to, and building them on, the moon.
After that we take things to, and build on, Mars.
In space travel, trying to skip ahead a chapter or two is a recipe for disaster. Gotta take things slow and steady.

 

I've got decidedly mixed feelings on this. I know we can't really afford it, but dang, it sure would be nice to keep the space program going in some capacity.