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Originally Posted by ForgottenKnight
I don't see how lifescience experiments qualify as "stupid stuff." While I agree that we should go up there and do something better, like explore Mars, the lifescience experiments are important as well. The thing is that politicians won't get their heads out of their butts for long enough to know that we could have gone to Mars in the '70 had they gotten just a little more funding. So due to that, we were stuck doing all the lifescience experiements and enduring more budget cutbacks for the past 30 years.
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I've tried to wrap my head around it and I just can't see how mating frogs in space is beneficial to the human exploration of space. I could maybe see it relating to human reproduction, but if that's the case, why not just use the astronauts themselves. We don't seem to have a problem keeping them up there long enough to find out how it affects their heart, respiratory system and their bones, but balk at observing them have sex (not they have sex, but you have to wonder....).
And no, it's not all NASA's fault, there is a lot of "help" from Washington, but I imagine it's difficult to sell the American people on experiments to study the effects of weightlessness on carp and such.
To be fair the original idea was a little unorthodox. Snag a falling capsule that's returning from space with giant hooks, a stunt team, and helicoptors? Suddenly my roving circus troupe idea doesn't quite so stupid....
It does indeed suck that 3 years and millions of dollars are no down the drain because of something as simple as a faulty parachute, but again, if it was that important that it not touch the ground why not snag it in space? I just find it hard to believe these fellows didn't have some sensor on the capsule to warn if it had been damaged or suspected that the sun might have fried the insides. These guys put satellites in orbit around worlds millions of miles away. These guys are able to forsee problems on alien worlds, in hostile enviroments, with, in most cases, a huge time differential that has to be dealt with and they couldn't find a way to bring this one back intact?
35 years ago these guys put a man on the moon. I'm tired of the mediocrity. I'm a big fan of space and all that jazz, just not a fan of NASA.