Congress planning NASA cuts

[Salyut]

I could make a sarcastic post about how the money is needed for killing poor brown people and the state gaining control of womens uterus's 4 jesus. (http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/07/07/congress-puts-nasa-and-jwst-on-the-chopping-block/) but rly...

remember when we were gonna have a moon base, and the X-33 was still in development? those were the days man. :crying:

[thesadmafioso]

At least the Russians still have their space program intact, so space travel isn't dead entirely just quite yet.

[Dr Mindbender]

At least the Russians still have their space program intact, so space travel isn't dead entirely just quite yet.

...also China (http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/space/4266340) and India (http://www.isro.org/scripts/futureprogramme.aspx#Human) are catching up.

[Tim Finnegan]

Eh, once the space race was over, a lot of what NASA did became an excuse to subsidise the aeronautics industry. It's a shame to lose some of the research potential, rather than some truly useless pork barrel, but it's not something that anyone outside of the field, and related academic fields, is likely to miss.

[RED DAVE]

Whitey on the Moon

by Gil-Scott Heron


a rat done bit my sister nell.
(with whitey on the moon)
her face and arms began to swell.
(and whitey's on the moon)
i can't pay no doctor bills.
(but whitey's on the moon)
ten years from now i'll be payin' still
while whitey's on the moon.

You know, the man jus' upped my rent las' night,
'cause whitey's on the moon.
No hot water, no toilets, no lights,
but whitey's on the moon.

I wonder why he's uppi' me?
'cause whitey's on the moon?
Well i wuz already givin' 'im fifty a week
and now whitey's on the moon.

Taxes takin' my whole damn check,
the junkies make me a nervous wreck,
the price of food is goin' up,
an' as if all that crap wuzn't enough,
a rat done bit my sister nell.
(with whitey on the moon)

her face an' arms began to swell
and whitey's on the moon.
Was all that money i made las' year
for whitey on the moon?

How come i ain't got no money here?
Hmm! Whitey's on the moon.
Y'know i jus' about had my fill
of whitey on the moon.

I think i'll sen' these doctor bills,
airmail special

to whitey on the mooRED DAVE

[Dr Mindbender]

cue RED DAVE with the obligatory anti technology punt-

Whitey on the Moon

by Gil-Scott Heron

RED DAVE


The financial sector gets no cutbacks, but at least 'whitey' science takes a bloody lip.

Better one evil than none at all eh? :rolleyes:

It isnt even as if the money diverted will be to the benefit of the american working class, only to the continued adventures in afghanistan.

[Dr Mindbender]

it's not something that anyone outside of the field, and related academic fields, is likely to miss.

...except to people not actively working in the industry but nonetheless interested in its applications and progression?

The advancement of spaceflight will be to everyones benefit. Imagine being able to complete intercontinental flights in a couple of hours rather than half a day.

Imagine having a permanent outpost on another world to safeguard the continuation of the species in the event that a global natural catastrophe strikes the Earth. Imagine being able to unlock the natural resources and minerals of the greater solar system.

Whether or not the space funding will be missed, is one question. Whether it will be our collective loss as a species is wholly another.

[AnonymousOne]

Nasa's a mess. It has no coherent mission, and they keep trying to make Nasa do things it was never supposed to do like Earth sciences.

[Dr Mindbender]

Nasa's a mess. It has no coherent mission, and they keep trying to make Nasa do things it was never supposed to do like Earth sciences.

Why shouldnt NASA do Earth sciences? Earth is also a planet in space, and some of the clues about why life may or may not have formed on other planets can be found on Earth.

I do agree though that the state of affairs of having national space programs is born of pig headed national pride that is squandering money and resources. The time has come for a truly international space program for which the financial and technical cost can be burdened by all participatory countries. Furthermore it would undo this nonsense perception that space travel is, or has to be, an 'american' thing.

[Tim Finnegan]

...except to people not actively working in the industry but nonetheless interested in its applications and progression?

The advancement of spaceflight will be to everyones benefit. Imagine being able to complete intercontinental flights in a couple of hours rather than half a day.

Imagine having a permanent outpost on another world to safeguard the continuation of the species in the event that a global natural catastrophe strikes the Earth. Imagine being able to unlock the natural resources and minerals of the greater solar system.

Whether or not the space funding will be missed, is one question. Whether it will be our collective loss as a species is wholly another.
I should probably make clear that my previous comment was sort of British understamenet-y. I understand that people could miss it in an abstract manner, but meant to suggest that it will not be a concrete loss to them personally.

[Salyut]

Eh, once the space race was over, a lot of what NASA did became an excuse to subsidise the aeronautics industry.

Oh god yes. Zubrin, while working at Martin Marietta, found some way to decrease the launch cost of a Titan IV (or something, can't remember which LV exactly) by a couple million dollars. Management responded by asking why the fuck they would want cheaper access to space.

Space launch services in the US, aside from SpaceX, is basically a cartel of the major defense contractors. The Ares family (using the solid boosters from shuttle - far less safe then a liquid fuel LV) was basically an excuse for Boeing to keep its shuttle component production lines open.

If you want a really good book on modern NASA - look up Dragonfly. It was written in the 1990's after the accident on MIR. Though I gotta say, it is depressing as hell.

The real tragedy here is the loss of science missions. JIMO, Terrestrial Planet Finder, other stuff...all gone.

[Salyut]

Why shouldnt NASA do Earth sciences?

Thats what NOAA is for. :D Al Gore supported the construction of a satellite that would have sat at L1 taking pictures of the planet...for whatever reason (they wanted to stream it on the internet for eco-consciousnesses or something if I remember right) back when Gore was VP. They built the damn thing and its sitting in a warehouse somewhere!

I do need to point out that unmanned missions do have spin-off benefits (need to do this to raise morale anyway - depressing topic). Case in point: Venera.

By the time of Venera-13 and 14, a surprising amount of complex equipment was simply installed outside the pressure hull, exposed to the intensely hostile surface conditions. By this time, Soviet engineers had developed new heat-resistant materials and electronics that were comfortable in this working environment. Exotic lubricants, based on molybdenum disulphide and microscopic metal flakes, were designed to function at high pressures and temperatures up to 1000° C. While never deployed, a seismometer and thermopile battery were developed and tested, capable of operating indefinitely on the surface of Venus.

Perhaps the most impressive of these high temperature devices was the GZU soil sampling drill. Capable of drilling 3 cm into solid igneous rock, if needs be, it required the invention of new alloys and an electric motor. Machine parts were designed to fit and function properly only after thermal expansion to 500° C. The telescoping drill head lowers to the surface and bores for two minutes. Pyrotechnic charges break a series of seals that allow the high pressure atmosphere of Venus to rush into an assembly of tubes. Soil is carried in stages, into a soil transfer tube and onto a sample container. The sample container is driven through an airlock by pyrotechnic charges and into the x-ray fluorescence chamber. A large vacuum reservoir then lowers the chamber pressure to about 0.06 atmospheres.