Anyone else feels its redundant for Apollo on steriods?

[JonClarke]

<i>The problem with your theory is that NASA's socialist manned spaceflight program takes tens of thousands of the most talented engineers and scientists out of other areas of the US labour market. If you're wasting that talent on pointless political make-work projects you are destroying Americas national competitiveness in other industries for zero gain.</i><br /><br /><img src="/images/icons/rolleyes.gif" /> Take it to free space.<br /><br />Jon <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Whether we become a multi-planet species with unlimited horizons, or are forever confined to Earth will be decided in the twenty-first century amid the vast plains, rugged canyons and lofty mountains of Mars</em>  Arthur Clarke</p> </div>

 

[frodo1008]

It is really, really great to see someone that supports what we are doing in space! I fully believe also that the ISS will far more than make up for its costs! <br /><br />Oh, I don't expect a cure for cancer, but with the station at full compliment of both people (at least six) and laboratiories, and power systems for those laboratories, who could possibly guess what discoveries will be made? <br /><br />Then there is the pure fact of this being the largest cooperative civilian project between nations that the Earth has ever experienced, that kind of good will can't be just bought with just money!<br /><br />My own working background in aerospace manufacturing however is where I believe the station will really pay off in the long run. At this time we know so very little about how to handle space age materials in space. Starting right with smelting and processing such materials into useful shapes. Then there is machining and welding that needs to be done to build the infrastructure of cis-lunar space, let alone ships for going further outwards. The vacuum of space outside of the ISS is far better than can usually be achieved for electron beam welding on the surface of the Earth. THis alone would be worth billions (of even trillions) in the laong run!<br /><br />Small projects to learn how to do these things to make use of the materials on the moon and asteroids is absolutely essential. I am even certain that NASA could get private industry to run such experiments just for the knowledge that it would give alone! <br /><br />Just as the US government's backing of the original Transcontinental Railroad that opened up the Western US eventually resulted in vast wealth back to the nation itself, the opening up of space is going to do the same thing with the US governments investment in this fantastic project!

 

[halman]

frodo1008,<br /><br />Well said! <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> The secret to peace of mind is a short attention span. </div>

 

[halman]

JonClarke,<br /><br />Only if the ISS can be properly staffed will we see a return on our investment. The past 3 years have seen practically nothing in the way of real research, with only 2 people on board. The United States needs to get a launch system up and running immediately so that support for the station can be continued after the shuttles are withdrawn from service. Without the shuttle, how will station manning be maintained? When will it have increases in crew size under the present plan? Is the United States just going to hand the ISS off to Russia and Japan, and let them make all the advances? <br /><br />This is the most important technology of all, that of living in a zero-gravity vacumn, being exposed to a star on a routine basis. This is what the majority of the Cosmos is, empty space. Mastering the challenges involved in surviving in orbit mean mastering the challenges involved in traveling to any place beyond the Moon. Space is a destination in and of itself, more important than the Moon, more important than Mars, it is the key to the future of this sentinent species which inhabits the third stone from the sun.<br /><br />Even if it is just Apollo on steroids, we have to have something if we are going to stay in the race. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> The secret to peace of mind is a short attention span. </div>

 

[mattblack]

Eloquent and well-said, halman & frodo. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p>One Percent of Federal Funding For Space: America <strong><em><u>CAN</u></em></strong> Afford it!!  LEO is a <strong><em>Prison</em></strong> -- It's time for a <em><strong>JAILBREAK</strong></em>!!</p> </div>