Space Exploration

Are NASA's future missions and budget justified?

  • It's worth the time and expenditures

    Votes: 223 66.0%

  • Complete waste of money

    Votes: 41 12.1%

  • We need to explore, but not at the current cost

    Votes: 74 21.9%
  • Total voters
    338
#626
#626
Grand Vol said:
I'm all about the commercial sector taking up manned space exploration and colonization where government has failed to do so. But one has to be smart about it in my opinion. And sending people up to die just isn't smart by any measure of the notion.
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agreed. the more i look into it the more it seems someone just slapped together a website, created a Paypal account and is hitting up rubes for money.
 
#632
#632
It appears the Chinese are catching us:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pD_yQZ4iNjY[/youtube]
 
#636
#636
Grand Vol said:
It appears the Chinese are catching us:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pD_yQZ4iNjY[/youtube]
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That was good fun.

Honestly, though, how the nation that invented gun powder has never done any more than what it has is beyond me.

They seem pretty comfortable with just stealing **** nowadays.
 
#637
#637
volprof said:
That was good fun.

Honestly, though, how the nation that invented gun powder has never done any more than what it has is beyond me.

They seem pretty comfortable with just stealing **** nowadays.
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In all honesty, their space program has made remarkable strides in the past decade. They still have a ways to catch up to us or even the Russians, but they are getting there.

But yeah, that thing was pretty cool.
 
#643
#643
hog88 said:
I believe it would be possible with the technology we already have. Money is the biggest reason we haven't tried yet.
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I think there is enough technology in 'black' programs (think DARPA and Lockheed Skunkworks) to do a lot more than most imagine. However, I don't think money is the biggest obstacle. I believe those who know about and have access to said technology would prefer to keep it to themselves.
 
#644
#644
E-Tizzle said:
I think there is enough technology in 'black' programs (think DARPA and Lockheed Skunkworks) to do a lot more than most imagine. However, I don't think money is the biggest obstacle. I believe those who know about and have access to said technology would prefer to keep it to themselves.
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Honestly, the technology has existed since the 70s. If you can put a manned space station in orbit and land a man on the moon, you can certainly build a habitable structure on another object in the solar system.

Getting there is the trick (would have to be a large craft likely built in orbit), supplying it (probably every 60-90 days of consumables) and keeping the politicians interested (look at how quick they were to pull the money from the Apollo Program in the 70s) in order for it to work. But there really isn't any new technology that needs to be invented for the most part.
 
#648
#648
Read the book "The Martian" by Andy Weir. Yes it is purely fiction but is pretty detailed on how a Mars mission would look. Several supply launches before a manned mission, main human transport vehicle between earth and Mars is assembled, supplied and refit between missions in space.

It's all doable if we had the will, the balls and most importantly the money.
 
#649
#649
LouderVol said:
Mars One thinks so. i don't agree. in reality it would need to be done like the ISS imo. piece by piece with manual labor to hook them up.
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Agreed. But they are correct that the technology does exist right now to do it.

As Hog pointed out, it's a financial and testicular fortitude problem.
 
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