Slon, if your repeated mantra of "I'M A WINNER" is what you need to keep yourself off of some ledge somewhere, well, go ahead...

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Obama's New "57 State Patriotic Pin":






Sayeth John Drake - 10/13/08: "OK, you're right, I admit to LYING"

I don't think anybody can argue that new knowledge of our universe and our solar system is a bad thing (unless of course you consider new knowledge vastly unimportant), and space science has helped humanity vastly through earth science. I mean, it wasn't that long ago that satellites weren't overhead giving us a better view of forest fires and hurricanes. Thus its easy to argue whether we do need to go back to the moon or to Mars (manned mission), because frankly what happens on earth is vastly more important to everyone who lives there. Which is again why we should leave it to the robots, they are cheaper and last longer in these hostile environments than we would ever be capable of doing.

We may leave a lot of exploration to robots, but when it comes to colonization, humans are bound to go there. We cannot live just on this planet for ever after.

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President Josiah Bartlet: Sweden has a 100% literacy rate. 100%! How do they do that?
Leo McGarry: Maybe they don't and they can't add.

That's an interesting comment. Now, colonization and "we can't live on just this planet forever" imply totally different things. Colonization means sending a few people out so they can reproduce and colonize or populate another area, so we can control it. Your comment appears to imply that we would eventually need the moon because we would become over populated here on earth. I find it hard to believe that it would eventually be cheaper to ship people too the moon to live than to just cut welfare and wait for them to die of starvation. I also don't see how overpopulation would naturally become a problem. Just stop handing out welfare and people with either stop over-breeding or die.

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A federal judge ruled today that graphic pictures of detainee abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison must be released over government claims that they could damage America's image.

Someone should tell them that bad press can be prevented by not abusing prisoners in the first place. Censorship is only needed to preserve the good reputation of those who have tortured and/or murdered already.

If space exploration yields scientific knowledge, then it is a continuation of the scientific endeavor. Space exploration does yield scientific knowledge. Therefore, space exploration is a continuation of the scientific endeavor.

If technological progress is possible, then the scientific endeavor will be connected to that progress. Technological progress is possible. Therefore, the scientific endeavor will be connected to that progress.

Some technological progress may come from space exploration.

Technology has given people options in their lives that weren't there previously.

Are more options good?

IMO Joblessness/Welfare (with few exceptions) "in general" is not because people do not want to work but that work capable of supporting life is not universally available and soon develops a certain number of "sloths".

Maybe we need another WPA project in our siociety. However since that would interfere with profit making efforts it would probably be voted down through those who have the legislators in their pocket.

"Idle hands are the devils workshop"

When I was younger it was. For those of us lucky enough to be there for it’s birth, it’s all there was on all information outlets (Really pissed off the hippies.). Being there when we landed on the moon was a goose pimple thing. Think of you younger guys experiencing a visit to earth from extraterrestrials. That’s how big it was to us.Actualy it was the German scientists.
If it wasn’t for Hitler and other SS butt-holes we’d still be on the edge of our seats as they test the first hyper-drive tomorrow at 4:00, we watch from our Holographic platform in our living room that replaced the television set.I think ya’ll missed it, were kinda beginning to stagnate and break apart.
We’re retiring the shuttle fleet and going back to the 60’s with a new launch vehicle based on the Saturn V. One launch vehicle for payload and another for crew.

Payload launcher:



Crew launch vehicle:



We even went back to a tin can capsule:


He meant so much more then words could describe.Same as Yuri Gagarin, You would have to feel his description to grasp a level much higher in thought that can be communicated by words. You cannot convey a religious experience without the person having had one (Religious meaning as descriptive noun, not metaphysical.).
You always remember it happened but it usually disappears as an experience and is remembered more as a dream. The impact of it's magnitude leaves your feelings.

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Only a liberal would know how hard it is to get a nicotine patch to stick to a monkey.

To be honest we are still pretty much in space travel infancy. We remain at the bottom of a rather deep gravitational well and we escape it by pretty much lighting a stick of dynamite under a bucket and standing on top of it. We need to build a pully and a rope, until we do it will continue to cost the weight of whatever we launch in gold

That's a simplification. You need more than a couple of rockets to achieve human space flight, and even more so when it comes to orbiting the moon or landing on it. No doubt it was a crucial piece of the effort, but escaping earth is just the start. You need launch pads, CO2 scrubbers, space suits, tracking stations, navy ships, computers for guidance systems, etc. To suggest that the German Scientist were the most important part is frankly an insult to all the Americans who participated in the effort. Which is no doubt a great many that I simply couldn't list.


Then there is the American culture that was the ultimate driving force behind all this, and why it is ultimately an American achievement. That isn't to say though it was all an all-American effort. We've mentioned the German scientists, but there also those around the world who aided in the effort. The only thing that comes to mind are the tracking stations but yeah a few hundred German scientist does not a moon landing make.

Problem is, the science behind a space elevator is in its infancy as well. Not to mention the construction of such a marvel wont exactly be a piece of cake once you do have the materials needed. Something that big would probably take a serious movement behind it at a multinational level, or a eccentric billionaire.

Someone asked a NASA administrator why we beat the Russians to the moon.
And he said "Because our Germans are better than their Germans".
Although the thing that made it all possible was the liquid fueled rocket, invented in Worcester, Massachusetts by Robert Goddard, WPI, class of '08.

During WWI, Goddard submitted plans for a shoulder held, tube launched rocket, to the War Department.
He received a nice letter saying they had reviewed his idea, and concluded that it was of no military value.
During his career Goddard was unable to get the War Department interested in rockets or jet engines. He was ridiculed for his efforts. He died in 1945.

And what made it technically advanced where it could be used as NASA used it was Wernher Von Braun. Gotta give credit where credit is due.

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Not a day goes by that I don't see something that reinforces my belief that people are idiots.

Like Columbus and the egg.
Columbus was at a dinner party, and some drunk Spanish Admiral was asking what the big deal was about sailing to the New World, ships left for the New World almost every day.
Columbus asked a waiter to bring an egg from the kitchen.'
Then he asked the Admiral to make it stand on end.
The Admiral tried and tried, and gave up, Columbus took the egg and crushing the shell a little at one end made it stand on end.
The Spanish Admiral said "That's simple, anyone can do it"
Columbus said "Yes, After I show them how"

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“The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine.”

Senator Thad Cochran, Mississippi (R)
on McCain

“I decided I didn’t want this guy anywhere near a trigger.”
Senator Pete Domenici, New Mexico (R)
on McCain

“My anger did not help my campaign ... People don’t like angry candidates very much.”

McCain on McCain

Yeah, that's again giving the German scientist too much credit. I seriously doubt better German scientist would of given the USSR that much more of a edge. Especially when the Soviet State and scientific progress are directly at odds with each other due to a lack of freedom of information (More so with German scientist). The truth of the matter is the USSR was unprepared, and had a decentralized effort which they spent less money on. They weren't even close.

He was certainly a visionary for his time. Pity he didn't live to see his dreams realized and even more so that his idea's were so easily tossed aside.

In the early days of the American space program, Von Braun was given a LOT of authority. Of course he wasn't the only one involved but he had an enormous amount of clout.

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Not a day goes by that I don't see something that reinforces my belief that people are idiots.