NASA has done nothing in the past 25 years..........

[telfrow]

Now I know who this is. <img src="/images/icons/rolleyes.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <strong><font color="#3366ff">Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find and not to yeild.</font> - <font color="#3366ff"><em>Tennyson</em></font></strong> </div>

 

[telfrow]

That one post gave his identity away, IMHO. It's one of our old friends, back under another name. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <strong><font color="#3366ff">Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find and not to yeild.</font> - <font color="#3366ff"><em>Tennyson</em></font></strong> </div>

 

[yevaud]

<b>"And tell our patient audience who the mystery guest is!!!"</b><br /><br />Yeah, I think I know too. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Differential Diagnosis:  </em>"<strong><em>I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are</em></strong>."<br /> </p> </div>

 

[qso1]

I certainly agree we could cut foreign aid funding but that funding is ultimately designed to create new global markets and would not likely get seriously cut back.<br /><br />The moon race as it was called was a peacetime response to Sputnik. The Sputnik launch in 1957 shocked the U.S. into action. Science was secondary but nonetheless played a role as evidenced by Apollo flights.<br /><br />You seem woefully ill informed about what NASA does, sending a probe up every now and again tells me you don't do much research. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>

 

[CalliArcale]

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>then they need to quit funding the counrties outside the us<p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />They spend very little of their budget outside the US. There are pretty substantial roadblocks to discourage them from doing so. (ITAR, for instance.) They genuinely hire abroad only when they absolutely need to.<br /><br />They have, however, paid to put their own instruments on other spacecraft, have accepted funds from abroad to put foreign instruments on NASA spacecraft, and have actually built instruments on contract to foreign interests. ESA and JAXA are their most common partners in that; the Iran Non-Proliferation Act means it takes an act of Congress to pay Russia for anything. Certain political interests have encouraged international cooperation; the theory has long been that a Mars mission (or any such hugely ambitious mission) would be easier if it were international. Nowdays, I am less sure of that; the beaurocracy may be reaching the point where international cooperation is getting negative returns, at least on the really big, complicated stuff.<br /><br />Of course, another thing a lot of people forget with NASA is what the "A" stands for. Aeronautics. They aren't just manned spaceflight, and they're not just unmanned spaceflight. They're also about aviation. NASA has done a great deal of work advancing the state of the art in civil aviation over the past 25 years. Their work on fly-by-wire systems for the Space Shuttle have proven invaluable, paving the way for fly-by-wire on airliners. It was the Shuttle Approach and Landing Test program (with Enterprise) that solved the "porpoising" problem that had plagued military fly-by-wire systems; the solutions for Enterprise rapidly entered the industry. A really cool advancement on that is a recent product of NASA: a fly-by-wire system that can enable an airliner to use differential thrust for attitude control with only minimal modification of the aircra <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[yevaud]

Exactly. <br /><br />Also, the algorithms for what is nowadays commonly known as the CAT scan come from military satellites and their imaging techniques.<br /><br />It's really fascinating when you consider all of the very commonplace things in our lives that came from our endeavors in space. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Differential Diagnosis:  </em>"<strong><em>I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are</em></strong>."<br /> </p> </div>

 

[telfrow]

And let's not forget the rovers. Designed for 90 days - two plus years and going strong. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <strong><font color="#3366ff">Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find and not to yeild.</font> - <font color="#3366ff"><em>Tennyson</em></font></strong> </div>

 

[yevaud]

Yeah. Who says America makes lousy vehicles?!! <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Differential Diagnosis:  </em>"<strong><em>I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are</em></strong>."<br /> </p> </div>

 

[y_ask_y]

how far have we come in 25 years or more? well we got to the moon, were now, nowehere, why cant we send men to mars??????????????? We plan on getting a man to the moon in a few years ,, what 2030???????? should have been there already. and if the budget is so HIGH, they need to quit and focus on this planet, we have people living in boxes and eating out of dumpsters, they should use that money for them, we going to need a place to live once everyone here on earth destroys it, to many people on this earth 6.5 billion, earth wont last much longer the way we abuse it. we got alot of things on this earth they need to figure out b4 trying all this other crap. we taking all the forest and messing them up,ozone, going to be no oxygen if they keep this up, man the earth is going to HELL

 

[telfrow]

And let's not forget Stardust. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <strong><font color="#3366ff">Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find and not to yeild.</font> - <font color="#3366ff"><em>Tennyson</em></font></strong> </div>

 

[y_ask_y]

well if they can make those so good, why cant they make a better cars and such, withour fixing them all the time, everything on earth is a piece of &%$#@!, just another way they make money, make &%$#@!ty cars and people will have to fix them all the time, and this go's with everything else here, junk

 

[y_ask_y]

must be one of those weather ballons, were the government using as a excuse for alien crashes, but they will never tell if they did find anything, we can have all the proof on film and pictures, there going to still say .....NO PROOF, unless they come down here and land for everyone to see.

 

[telfrow]

Or the Stardust samples... <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <strong><font color="#3366ff">Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find and not to yeild.</font> - <font color="#3366ff"><em>Tennyson</em></font></strong> </div>

 

[y_ask_y]

all these pics are fake, just like the aliens

 

[telfrow]

Messenger is on the way...<br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <strong><font color="#3366ff">Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find and not to yeild.</font> - <font color="#3366ff"><em>Tennyson</em></font></strong> </div>

 

[telfrow]

And so is MRO... <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <strong><font color="#3366ff">Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find and not to yeild.</font> - <font color="#3366ff"><em>Tennyson</em></font></strong> </div>

 

[telfrow]

And let's not forget New Horizons...on it's way as well. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <strong><font color="#3366ff">Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find and not to yeild.</font> - <font color="#3366ff"><em>Tennyson</em></font></strong> </div>

 

[maxtheknife]

Hi y ask y,<br /><br />I agree. The space program isn't where it ought to be. <br /><br />Hopefully things can and will change.

 

[fatal291]

You forgot 2003 UB313.. the 10th Planet that takes so long to revolve around the Sun that if Leonardo da Vinci was on that planet (and alive) still to this day he'd just be celebrating his first birthday (500 years to revolve).<br /><br /><br />Anyways i think this guy means making headlines.. but NASA has by the lost of Columbia and by the newly added parts to the Discovery. <br /><br />My question is, when are programs for the mission to Mars going to pick up as far as astronaunt assignment. I realize the rovers on Mars now studying for them but when will they actually think about picking astronaunts.. Last week was the first time we've even gotten dirt from another body besides Earth since Apollo.

 

[CalliArcale]

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>My question is, when are programs for the mission to Mars going to pick up as far as astronaunt assignment. I realize the rovers on Mars now studying for them but when will they actually think about picking astronaunts.. Last week was the first time we've even gotten dirt from another body besides Earth since Apollo.<p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />Yep. Stardust was pretty remarkable.<br /><br />When are missions to Mars going to pick up? Well, the problem isn't technology. Nor is it a lack of desire on the part of NASA. It's a money problem. It's always been a money problem. I would say that a Mars mission cannot happen until ISS reaches "core complete", freeing funding for other things. Because of that, there is a silver lining to the dramatic and frustrating scaling-back of "core complete" -- it means we can go to Mars sooner.<br /><br />The CEV effort is actually aimed at more distant manned space activities than the Shuttle ever was. It'll take people to the Moon. It'll be what Apollo always should've been, but couldn't because of the budget monster constantly scaling it back and ultimately cancelling it just as it was really getting going. And that can build into missions to Mars.<br /><br />Perhaps it was a mistake to go to the Moon before building a space station. Perhaps if the ISS (or something like it) had happened in the sixties, we'd have a moonbase now. Apollo was one of the most remarkable things the human race has ever acheived, but it may have been premature. It happened for geopolitical reasons more than anything else. This time, we'll be going to the Moon for better reasons, reasons which can sustain the mission more than a few years past the original flag planting. I'm feeling very positive about this new NASA administrator. O'Keefe was focused and had a very good head for business, but he lacked vision. His predeccessor (name eluding me at the moment) was the reverse: highly motiv <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[robnissen]

"Last week was the first time we've even gotten dirt from another body besides Earth since Apollo." <br /><br /> Not true, we also got dirt from Genesis (although not as pristine as we would have liked). Also, the Russians brought dirt back from the moon in '75 (the Russians REALLY need to hire a better PR firm).

 

[centsworth_II]

<i>"...we also got dirt from Genesis..."</i><br /><br />I don't know if the atoms (ions) collected by Genesis would meet the technical definition of "dirt".<img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>