Quote:
Originally Posted by genuinegirly
You are all so respectful! But this thread needs some dissenting opinions...
So here goes.
DaveOrion, I’m going to pick on you first. I hope you'll respond!
Do you consider it not an issue that we're defunding many areas of space research to the point that we are unable to maintain even a “skeleton crew” of researchers who are able to pass on their knowledge and methods to the next generation of scientists? Your prospect of dealing with Earth first is noble, but don’t we have lots of educated people trying to solve those problems already? I argue that while we’ve been figuring out how to put life in space, we’re also learning how to make life more liveable for those here. It is nearly impossible to get a grant from NASA without relating a convincing argument for how your research will provide a near-immediate benefit to people on Earth. Also, wouldn’t colonization of space offer a frontier for people to spread out, offering a decrease in population density on Earth, and decreasing the impact humans make on their current overuse of natural resources?
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OMG, you made me cry! You're mean & scary! Ok, not really.........here goes my reply anyway.
What has the space program (NASA) actually given us? Microwave ovens & tang? There may be a few more things like LEDs and enriched baby food but all things considered do the benefits outweigh the cost? It depends on your point of view, a highly educated NASA employee will probably rave about the benefits while your average joe cant even spell benefits.
I do realize that the NASA budget is less than 1% of the total federal budget & that seems rather small but when you consider that we may spend 3 billion in 6 months on a Libyan no fly zone...........Damn, I guess the NASA budget really is small. It’s the corruption & waste of the federal gov that really pisses me off, it’s the hot shot over educated administrators who sit on there ass & get paid exorbitant amounts to do very little, NASA admins included. Its the subcontractors who pad their bills, the employees who milk their jobs because they're paid by the hour, the suppliers that overcharge for an inferior product, and on & on. The point is that this planet has damn near 7 billion people who cannot get along because of ideological, theological, or whateverological differences, our natural resources are dwindling away & wars are fought over them. We cant even feed the people that are here now let alone anymore & you think that more money should be spent on a pipe dream space program to colonize other planets? Please.
As previously stated the inherent dangers of space are vast, the technological problems have not been overcome, we don’t have warp drive, star gates, transporter technology, subspace wormholes or anything even close. By the time our tech advances far enough we will surely have destroyed ourselves anyway so it all seems pointless anyway. Damn, that all seems rather pessimistic, but stand back & take a good long objective look at the world and you may see why.