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
#126
#126
BigOrangeTrain said:
So we pay Russia $70 million a seat to bring our guys up there? No space exploration is definitely worth it.
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What a waste of money. With that kind of money the gubmint could give 70 homeless veterans a million each just to help them out or just spread the 70 million out into little pieces of cash to those that are going hungry each night in cities all across America.
 
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#128
#128
I heard that Elon Musk of SpaceX is supposed to reveal the new DragonV2 rocket today that could serve as a "space taxi" to the ISS. Supposedly, the space taxi would be fully operational by 2017. Honestly, I love the idea. Why keep outsourcing something as significant as this?
 
#129
#129
BigOrangeTrain said:
So we pay Russia $70 million a seat to bring our guys up there? No space exploration is definitely worth it.
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Good thing early man didn't have your attitude.

Humans are explorers by nature, we should be exploring the universe, we should have a base on the moon and the US should be leading the way.
 
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#130
#130
gcbvol said:
Perhaps corporations like SpaceX can play a larger role in our goals and technologies. I think NASA is essential, but does not need to be the only player. SpaceX is doing some pretty cool stuff.
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This. Let's privatize the industry and NASA can offer incentives to private businesses for meeting certain criteria.
 
#131
#131
Through_The_T said:
This. Let's privatize the industry and NASA can offer incentives to private businesses for meeting certain criteria.
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Just for the fact of certain issues with National Defense and security, I dont think we will ever see, nor will it be possible for the industry to be privatized.
 
#133
#133
Through_The_T said:
Not even with security clearances? IE Northup Grumman, Boeing etc.?
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That would be something that is mandated through a contract with the Government, which would make it NOT privatized. Space exploration and everything associated with it is already being performed by private companies through Government contracts. If you are saying "privatize the industry", you are not talking about Government contracts. It's similar to defense, its not really privatized, but a majority of the work is done through private companies using Government contracts and funds.
 
#134
#134
BearCat204 said:
That would be something that is mandated through a contract with the Government, which would make it NOT privatized. Space exploration and everything associated with it is already being performed by private companies through Government contracts. If you are saying "privatize the industry", you are not talking about Government contracts. It's similar to defense, its not really privatized, but a majority of the work is done through private companies using Government contracts and funds.
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Thanks for the clarification. Maybe the better wording would have been to expand the field of companies NASA is working with, ie SpaceX, Virgin, etc.
 
#135
#135
volprof said:
I heard that Elon Musk of SpaceX is supposed to reveal the new DragonV2 rocket today that could serve as a "space taxi" to the ISS. Supposedly, the space taxi would be fully operational by 2017. Honestly, I love the idea. Why keep outsourcing something as significant as this?
Click to expand...

Thought that the newest SpaceX vehicle was supposed to be the methane-fueled Raptor.
 
#136
#136
Through_The_T said:
Thanks for the clarification. Maybe the better wording would have been to expand the field of companies NASA is working with, ie SpaceX, Virgin, etc.
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I agree the field should be expanded, it's in the best interest to the taxpayer and Governement whenever you have more competition. I'm just saying that it is a myth that there will ever be a completely privatized space industry. There are just too many issues with national defense and security for it not to be run (therfore funded) by the Government.
 
#138
#138
Through_The_T said:
Thanks for the clarification. Maybe the better wording would have been to expand the field of companies NASA is working with, ie SpaceX, Virgin, etc.
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SpaceX is already starting to take a chunk of the market even though it's a relatively new company when compared to the more established names in the field (Boeing, Northrup-Grumman, etc). In 12 years they have already gotten resupply contracts to the ISS after designing and building their own systems. I'd say Elon Musk is brilliant in the regards for emerging technologies and demands myself.

But more to the point, the field of commercial space travel is wide open right now. There's been some serious inroads made in the last decade for private space companies like SpaceX, Virgin Galactic, Blue Horizons, Bigelow Aerospace, XCOR, etc. It's almost like the days after the Wright Brothers where dozens of companies started up overnight in that new horizon called air travel. It's taken a bit longer for this to develop, but you're finally seeing companies giving serious competition to each other in this realm. It's not like producing passenger aircraft where you have two choices of Boeing or Airbus. The smaller companies are having their day because of vision and hiring smart people with dreams of reaching the stars. And making a serious dent in what was once government controlled territory.
 
#139
#139
If it's cheaper for NASA to fulfill certain missions using foreign spacecraft than it is to develop them itself, why is it "embarrassing" to save taxpayer money?
 
#140
#140
Velo Vol said:
If it's cheaper for NASA to fulfill certain missions using foreign spacecraft than it is to develop them itself, why is it "embarrassing" to save taxpayer money?
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Because we should be leading the way in space exploration, vehicle development and technology. Not relying on a potentially hostile country.
 
#141
#141
Velo Vol said:
If it's cheaper for NASA to fulfill certain missions using foreign spacecraft than it is to develop them itself, why is it "embarrassing" to save taxpayer money?
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It's called being a world leader. Sure, the Soyuz spacecraft has a good record, but the fact we have the largest economy in the world, the most innovative scientists and our space program has typically been head and shoulders above the rest of the world says we've fallen hard when we have to depend on another government just to get our people into space. And the fact that politics has played a huge role in not developing follow on spacecraft to the Shuttle in a timely fashion speaks volumes about our priorities.

Yes, that's embarrassing on a national level.
 
#142
#142
In the olden days it was he who controlled the seas controlled the world. It will in the future be space.
 
#143
#143
hog88 said:
Good thing early man didn't have your attitude.

Humans are explorers by nature, we should be exploring the universe, we should have a base on the moon and the US should be leading the way.
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The Russians have proposed colonizing the moon by the year 2030, or sometime around then.

Even though I think that date is more than optimistic, if the Russians are proposing it, then, by god, we should be proposing it too.
 
#144
#144
volprof said:
The Russians have proposed colonizing the moon by the year 2030, or sometime around then.

Even though I think that date is more than optimistic, if the Russians are proposing it, then, by god, we should be proposing it too.
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Sometimes your sarcasm is hard to detect, so serious or not?
 
#145
#145
Grand Vol said:
It's called being a world leader. Sure, the Soyuz spacecraft has a good record, but the fact we have the largest economy in the world, the most innovative scientists and our space program has typically been head and shoulders above the rest of the world says we've fallen hard when we have to depend on another government just to get our people into space. And the fact that politics has played a huge role in not developing follow on spacecraft to the Shuttle in a timely fashion speaks volumes about our priorities.

Yes, that's embarrassing on a national level.
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Agreed and to tie back to one of your earlier posts mentioning Elon Musk, I believe we need to be leveraging guys like Musk all we can. Innovation is the key to technological, economical and often societal advancement; guys like Musk who are proven, successful innovators should not be wasted. All the guy does is succeed and he's right here in the US. We should not be dependent on others when we have the means to deliver via better technology at home.
 
#146
#146
volprof said:
The Russians have proposed colonizing the moon by the year 2030, or sometime around then.

Even though I think that date is more than optimistic, if the Russians are proposing it, then, by god, we should be proposing it too.

I'm not about to have some damn Russian military spacebase on the moon that will shoot giant lasers at America or me or my cats or dogs.
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Grand Vol said:
Sometimes your sarcasm is hard to detect, so serious or not?
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If I had been sarcastic, my original post would have read as the one above.
 
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