Yes...the feds have as much business meddling in education as the individual states have setting up their own NASAs. Some States already compare just fine nationally and globally. If some don't, that's their individual problem to deal with.
^If an individual state could afford to, I don't see why it shouldn't be able to establish its own space agency.
given the likelihood of how important the space business will become over the next few decades, bit of a stupid suggestion from obama. even a 5 years delay, is 5 years other nations will be getting closer to their own aims.
Oh, man, can't the Dems come up with someone, anyone, who knows a good return on an investment when they see it?
OSIDA It's the current test location for the uber cool Armadillo Aerospace. If Obama pulls funding for space flight, it will just be picked up by private enterprise, who given the last 50 years would have us on Mars right now, if not for NASA's inefficient circle jerking.
What a weird board. Obama's stance is to delay a vital NASA program for 5 years to put more money into education, and everyone hates him for hurting NASA. Ron Paul's stance is to get rid of NASA entirely, and everyone loves him. What was the quote? OH yeah:
In fairness, has any president since JFK really had a vision for space flight? LBJ, because he was carrying out what JFK set into motion. Reagan, maybe. But I would say politicians of both parties have been mostly short-sighted in seeing space as an imperative just for the sake of exploration, let alone as something one could get a return from.
If I may be so bold as I'm not really a Ron Paul fan........ Obama wouldn't get rid of NASA. Just cripple it. Nothing could be accomplished because NASA and government desk jockeys would still interfere in private buisness. If Ron Paul got rid of NASA totally it is believed that private buisness, being free of NASA, could kick ass around the world when it comes to space travel. At least thats one way to look at it.
Muad, if we could just help you forgive Abe Lincoln, you could vote Republican without the crushing weight on your soul. Come brother. Come join the dark side.
I just heard an echoing 'NEVER!!!' roll through the area. Sounds like it came from northwest of here. Possibly somewhere around Tennessee.
I'm not seeing why the private sector can't pursue space flight while NASA helps support it. That's pretty much what's going on now. I'm all for NASA. Both candidates get a black mark from me for fucking with it.
Yes. Nixon was shortsighted. All of them where. If we put massive efforts into space where would we be today? There is so much technology that has already come out of the space program. How much more could we get if we truly looked at space not just for exploration but exploitation?
When US spaceflight was beset by the forces of competition it was far more daring, efficient, and effective. It is no coincidence that without a driving force to streamline and motivate it, NASA has succumbed to anticlimactic ineptitude like so many bureaucracies before it. We are at our best with a fire beneath us, perhaps we need another Sputnik to kick us out of our malaise.
I think you've missed GWB on your list here. JFK's vision was part of the Cold War. I'm not putting that down but it wasn't a pure space exploration vision. GWB's taken the initiative of seting a phaseout of the shuttle fleet as well as pushing a replacement for it. He's also set a reasonable goal of returning to the moon and going to Mars. It's the very reasonableness of the vision that will get it killed, though. I'm scared that pretty much whoever wins in November, it will get delayed at the least and cancelled at the worst. Phasing out the shuttle is overdue and someone with no idea will wind up keeping it going and more people will die as a result.
His "let's go to Mars" proposal notwithstanding, can you really say that he's actually done anything in his two terms to push for space exploration? It's one thing to say "In the future we should do X," and it's another to have that vision so overpowering that you feel compelled to devote tons of resources to it, ala JFK/LBJ.
And a diabolically opposed enemy that a few years earlier placed an orbiting beacon over your previously sacred skies.
Raoul, I listed some of the things he's done. I didn't say it was a grand, epic vision. I'm not pushing him as the NASA messiah or anything. But his plan isn't corrupted by cold war sensibilities. It's a reasonable, measured plan that he's already doing things to make happen. Oh, and I do agree with the idea that competition led to good things for the program and for the U.S. But lacking that, he did give us this plan. In many ways, it's prescient because of the advances China in particular has made.
But he didn't, Raoul. He didn't even hype the Chinese threat. Kinda makes you wonder how reliable the Dems are comparing him to Hitler or Big Brother, etc.
If that asteroid heading towards Mars hits it then we have the perfect excuse to go right now. Study firsthand a impact crater. Not only can we study the crater but the crater itself will dig up lots of stuff for us to look at. It's the best of both worlds. Plus maybe that will do a better job of scaring people to act when they can truly see the amount of damage a rock the size of a football field can do. The ones that hit Jupiter weren't scary enough. We need a good sized one to hit the moon and blow some small chunks to Earth that burn up in the atmosphere but provide one hell of a fireworks show. Then it can be, "we have to get off the planet before we eventually get hit"
the ones that hit Jupiter weren't scary enough cause people were too stupid to understand how powerful those impacts were. Holes in a gaseous atmosphere....scary shit.
