Why launch the shuttle?

[jim3775]

"And what would the purpose of all this? For those who have never known the relentless urge to explore and discover there is no answer. For those who have felt this urge, the answer is self evident. For the latter there is no solution but to investigate every possible means of gathering knowledge of the universe."

Hermann Oberth, The Father of Space Travel
(1957)

[skooooo]

1. Cause we're getting ready to go to Mars! duh!

:sarcasm:

[brainshrub]

2. Killjoy.

:P

[wicket]

3. That's where the WMDs are!

;)

[NYCGirl]

4. Because it's good for our souls.

Humans need to explore — it's hard-wired into us.

[coloradodem2005]

5. It is interesting that one talks about the need to explore.

When we are too lazy to really move the space program forward.

[Bellamia]

7. Need to explore..........

Yeah, probably. But why not explore something worthwhile, like how to get along with yourself and other people better, even terrorists, rather than waste time on space shuttles. What good will that do?
Really? Prove it!

[NYCGirl]

12. Why does one preclude the other? We can do ALL of that. NT

[Johonny]

23. Explore?

They are heading into low Earth Orbit. Woopie! At this point it's they do about as much exploring as you do when you drive to grandmas house.

[NYCGirl]

26. We gotta take little steps before we take big ones. The space program has

gone backwards in recent years.

[gatorboy]

6. Eh. The Mars gimmick is just a publicity scam

Bush will never filter the amount of money needed for something like that. But I do enjoy the space program (Yes, I am one of those individuals that watches the occasionally boring NASA chanel :) ) and I'm glad that they haven't sent the money for the program straight to Iraq....Yet.

[jim3775]

9. It'll take a good 30-60 years before we are ready to go to mars.

There and back a Mars mission would take about 3 years to complete.

[sam sarrha]

11. Mars was just a Dubya Wet Brain Moment.... we are go'n NOWHERE !! .fast...

[OrlandoGator]

21. All of Project Apollo cost $135 billion (in 2005 dollars).

The war in Iraq has already cost $183 billion.

Compare the positives we got from the moon missions (for far less money) to the negatives we have gotten (and will get for decades) from the far more expensive war. That tells you where the priorities are.

[janx]

30. Good point. n/t

[Johonny]

24. We aren't going to Mars

In 60 years are robots will have so thoroughly explored it only a fool would risk human lives for the very short time they could spend on the surface. Let alone waste the trillions of dollars it would take to fly there. At some point someone will figure out that our robots and not us personally are going to explore the solar system.

[rman]

8. oh sure, no question.

let's just hope it does not fall apart this time.

this really should not be a matter of "hope", but given the recent track record of NASA management, i don't see much else to go on.

[sam sarrha]

10. they have Spy Satellites to orbit. the Deltas are crap. i used to make them

Boeing's belligerent management style inhibited the proper processes necessary to get the job done right.

i complained about the supervisor and the Delta program and got fired.

we really dont have a heavy lifting capability at all.. we subcontract the Russians and probaply the Chinese.. maybe even the French, but we wouldnt admit that

[jim3775]

14. Apparently NASA is working on a new heave lift rocket right now. N/T

[sam sarrha]

17. I saw the articles in the break room.. pretty impressive, but haven't heard

anything about the Delta 4 lately.

Boeing wont be able to get their shit together to pull this off. been there ..worked there.

their work instructions suck, belligerent engineers/supervisors/management and that reduces the assemblers to "Verbal" culture.. you got to know what to do thru others and not the work instructions. they always cut the wrong corners.. cant get anything changed that is wrong... dont try you will lose your job

[janx]

18. It sounds as if you experienced a case of some really

bad management. :-(

[sam sarrha]

31. that sums up Boeing.. i liked the job, but they sucked,

[Coastie for Truth]

13. The same answer for--

"Why cure cancer?"

"Why explore the blastocyst nuclear transfer process" (stem cell research)?

"Why map the genome? Only to learn that leukemia is over 3000 diseases with overlapping symptoms and type II diabetes is over 30 diseases with overlapping symptoms."

"Why investigate solar energy?"

"Why study synthetic fuels from sewage sludge?"

"Why study the biophysics of the virus cell"

"And what would the purpose of all this? For those who have never known the relentless urge to explore and discover there is no answer. For those who have felt this urge, the answer is self evident. For the latter there is no solution but to investigate every possible means of gathering knowledge of the universe."

Hermann Oberth, The Father of Space Travel
(1957)

whether that universe be the human genome or the blastocyst or the virus or the enzyme or the Kekule six membered benzene ring or the role of valence electrons and conduction electrons in catalysis or the working of the human brain --- "...there is no solution but to investigate every possible means of gathering knowledge of the universe."


I have a cousin who is a research physician, nominated twice for a Nobel Prize. He has been instrumental in the fundamental research of the pharmaco-genomic treatment of several pediatric leukemias. His wife has said "He would have gone crazy looking at runny noses and sore throats .... this is his life."

[kestrel91316]

15. Cause the shuttle isn't much use sitting on the ground???

Sort of like why the chicken crossed the road, lol.

[janx]

16. ho-ho

;-)

[OrlandoGator]

19. We choose to.

"There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation may never come again. But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?

"We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too."

- John F. Kennedy, September 12, 1962

[janx]

20. Very appropriate quote. n/t

[Goldmund]

22. The Shuttle doesn't do that much exploring, that's the thing

The resources spent on the Shuttle could go a long way toward exploration, if that were the goal.

[SmokingJacket]

33. Yeah, I'd rather fund more projects like the Mars rover.

Now that was a learning experience, and totally cool.

[Goldmund]

34. Agreed -- that was wickid.

Or, the Cassini project or the new generation of Hubble.

[jim3775]

25. I didn't want an answer

it was a rhetorical question. :D

[MsTryska]

27. here's what i don't understand.....

the shuttle runs on 1970s technology right?


don't we have the blueprints and all that? can't we update thme for the new century using todays technology?


i realize it would cost some money - and i personally wouldn't want that money spent now - but why exactly are we using equipment held together with ducttape and paper clips?


would be as expensive now to update the design plans?

[drmom]

28. So freepers have something to point to when talking of "our great country"

* wants to keep up the appearance of superiority, even though we have become a shining example of what can happen when democracy runs amok.

[janx]

29. Whoa, wait, no-no-no. This has nothing to do with freepers

or the Chimp. Please don't insinuate such a thing. Democrats, Republicans, independents, and apoliticals alike make these things possible. This is much larger than partisan politics.

[drmom]

32. No, my point is that they chose not to cut funding to the space program

Certainly with all the increased military spending, it wouldn't have been surprising if the shuttle program was cut...but I think they wanted it intact to rally patriotism. Clearly the repubs don't have enough knowledge or faith in science to build the space program in the first place...I don't think anyone would say that!