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Leave one Space Shuttle Operational?

Should the US keep one shuttle operational till the next generation?

  • Total voters
    26
solletica said:
First, it's worth noting that the current federally government is completely inept at implementing defense even with all its taxes.

But you got the idea :) Under my system, the federal government does not implement defense. Instead, every year, each individual will have the opportunity to decide for each defense-related activity, who they want their monthly payments to go to, i. e. they will grant various defense firms a one year electronic funds transfer authorization from their Swiss bank accounts (or the equivalent).

If none of the firms will get adequate funding based on the authorizations, so be it--they will have to market themselves to the public until a select few win enough support for regular funding.

Of course, such a system will take time to set up, but at least it will be somewhat efficient (i. e. work), as opposed to the current $100 billion/year taxpayer/deficit-funded system where less than 1% of that money is actually spent on defense.
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Complete lack of understanding human nature complimented with libertarian fantasy's, lol.

That is the worst plan I have seen for defense in awhile.
 
Blackdog said:
Complete lack of understanding human nature complimented with libertarian fantasy's, lol.

That is the worst plan I have seen for defense in awhile.
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100% agree whole heartedly. I knew I shouldn't have asked that question.

I still don't understand how he can accuse the government of always doing what the corporations want (IE the coporations being the ones in actual control) and thereby making this country crappy and then turn right around and try and actually give full control of things like national defense to the very same corporations. Where the hell is the logic in that?
 
solletica said:
First, it's worth noting that the current federally government is completely inept at implementing defense even with all its taxes.

.
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Tell THAT to any WWII vet. ;) :roll:
The US military is one thing that our government does right. We have the BEST military out of any nation!
 
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The shuttles were great, but they have served their purpose. NASA should be more focused on deep space travel and helping private companies get off the ground.
 
How much does it cost to just leave Atlantis in the Orbiter Processing Facility for a few years in case we need to get to space? Probably very little! So why are we going to decommission it? Just so we can put it on display at KSC? That doesn't make any sense. It costs practically nothing to keep it functional. Why are we scrapping it? So tourists can pay $40 to see it? They can wait a few years. It is not a smart move to leave ourselves no way to get to space on our own. It was best to get rid of the shuttle program for something better but we have nothing to fall back on now.

Also, from your taxes, NASA costs less than 1%. Do you miss that money that most wouldn't even take the time to pick up off the ground? I believe around 3,000 workers were laid off yesterday due to the end of the shuttle program. More are still to come and MANY have already lost their jobs. Now, you have more unemployed people which causes all sorts of other chaos, particularly on the space coast of Florida. We need something new but to suggest we stop funding NASA, give all that money to scientists to ATTEMPT to MAYBE find a way to FTL travel, is ridiculous. In fact, both your stance on defense and on NASA are so ridiculous that I don't know how your brain came to those conclusions that it would be a good idea. It is ludicrous.

Edit:
Also, why did we have to stop the shuttle program/ NASA in order for private companies to start working? This seems to be a common sentiment about the end of the program. Well at least, private companies can do something now? Why can the two not co-exist. SpaceX and Virgin Galactic were already working on space flight. I am all for privatizing things but there was no need to stop NASA before other companies were ready.
 
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The Giant Noodle said:
Tell THAT to any WWII vet. ;) :roll:
The US military is one thing that our government does right. We have the BEST military out of any nation!
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Not really. Our military can't even root out some dudes hiding in caves in Afghanistan. Sure, our military could beat up any other traditional military, but that's cause we spend a ridiculous amount on it compared to other nations. I mean, we have 11 aircraft carriers. That's as many as every other nation in the world combined. The most anyone else has is 2. Also, our aircraft carriers are a lot bigger than other people's, so if you were to go by tonnage, we would have a good 70 or 80 percent. And that's just aircraft carriers. It's the same for everything else. We may have the biggest stick, but it's horribly inefficient, and it's completely useless for the kinds of fights we're likely to get into.
 
Kal'Stang said:
100% agree whole heartedly. I knew I shouldn't have asked that question.

I still don't understand how he can accuse the government of always doing what the corporations want (IE the coporations being the ones in actual control) and thereby making this country crappy and then turn right around and try and actually give full control of things like national defense to the very same corporations. Where the hell is the logic in that?
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Under my system, corporations that perform their job poorly can be fired,

whereas w/the current system, they get paid even if they produce useless stuff.

Pretty huge difference, eh?
 
The Giant Noodle said:
Tell THAT to any WWII vet. ;) :roll:
The US military is one thing that our government does right. We have the BEST military out of any nation!
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FYI, a lot has changed since WWII.

In the days of WWII, the US military's purpose was to defend the country and its allied nations.

In today's world, the US military's purpose is to defend the interests of corporations and PACs.
 
solletica said:
Under my system, corporations that perform their job poorly can be fired,

whereas w/the current system, they get paid even if they produce useless stuff.

Pretty huge difference, eh?
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They can still do a poor job yet be highly efficient. So no, not a huge difference in that regard. Plus there are many many other problems with your "idea" that are just too numerous to state here. Your idea is a horrible one. Lets just leave at that shall we?
 
I think that its ok that we retire the shuttles as long as Russia is still going into space, we can just hitch a ride along with them. The shuttles were built in the 80's they were long overdue to be retired. I think a new program should have been started a long time ago, but its time to get rid of the space shuttles now, they are expensive to keep and run and it will spur quicker development on a new program now that we don't have any shuttles.
 
The Giant Noodle said:
Should the United States always keep one shuttle mothballed but fully operational and updated until we have another way into orbit?
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You need an engineer’s answer about the economics. It’s the infrastructure and the staffing that has to be maintained for one shuttle or a dozen, e.g. the 747 to transport it to FL from CA, etc. Cost of maintaining one shuttle is about 1/100th of the cost of keeping the infrastructure to fly one shuttle. The second shuttle would add about 1% in cost.
 
Good God, no! 40% of the damn things have exploded and killed their crews. Good riddance, I say!
 
Chappy said:
Good God, no! 40% of the damn things have exploded and killed their crews. Good riddance, I say!
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Obvious misunderstanding of what the Shuttle is, and the amazing aircraft it is.
 
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