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Obama to End NASA Constellation Program

AgentM said:
What I said was:

Crunch essentially wants Obama to become yet another conservative. While Crunch is entitled to his opinion, there's no point in Obama trying to pander to people like him because chances are there isn't enough Obama could do to make them vote for him. He's tarred and feathered as a "liberal Democrat" in the eyes of the American right.
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I know what you said. And it's funny; Crunch said exactly what Obama could do to get his vote. And you dismiss it again. So, you're seeing what you want to see.
 
Government has big budgets. Conservatives cry.

Obama cuts an agency's budget. Conservatives cry.

There is no pleasing you people.
 
megaprogman said:
Government has big budgets. Conservatives cry.

Obama cuts an agency's budget. Conservatives cry.

There is no pleasing you people.
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He's changing the mission.
 
AgentM said:
I think this is a sensible move given the circumstances. The US has more important things to worry about right now than space programs. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for space research and everything, but its a luxury for when you have lots of money, not when you're trying to reign in spending!
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Right. Gotta stay away from those massive entitlement programs - wouldn't want to cut those, as they're far more important than America's investment and legacy in space exploration.
 
Ethereal said:
Right. Gotta stay away from those massive entitlement programs - wouldn't want to cut those, as they're far more important than America's investment and legacy in space exploration.
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I know you're being sarcastic, but yes. If I had to choose, I'd cut space exploration.
 
Toothpicvic said:
Nasa is a huge waste of taxpayer dollars for the most part. Sounds good to me.
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So is welfare, but I don't hear you saying that should go.
 
megaprogman said:
Government has big budgets. Conservatives cry.

Obama cuts an agency's budget. Conservatives cry.

There is no pleasing you people.
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:roll:

He's not cutting NASA's budget at all. In fact, it's being increased.

I guess there's no reading with "you" people.
 
Toothpicvic said:
Nasa is a huge waste of taxpayer dollars for the most part. Sounds good to me.
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NASA has only ever been a tiny, tiny part of the federal budget.
 
megaprogman said:
Government has big budgets. Conservatives cry.

Obama cuts an agency's budget. Conservatives cry.

There is no pleasing you people.
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Because he cuts funds for space exploration and shifts them over to his global warming obsession, all while ignoring the real problem, which are all the bloated entitlement programs that hang like an albatross around America's collective neck.

Perhaps he should use some of that left over stimulus money to pay down the debt, or use the funds for direct, low-interest loans to American small business.

The man doesn't know the first thing about economics, so its' really no surprise that his rhetoric about spending is nothing more than another silly canard.
 
I say that NASA should take the money dedicated for "climate-change research," invent a special social security-style "lockbox," and then spend it on actual space programs. It can't cost too much money just to make up a bunch of fake data anyway.
 
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AgentM said:
I know you're being sarcastic, but yes. If I had to choose, I'd cut space exploration.
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The future of mankind is in space exploration and exploitation. The benefits society has incurred from the technological spin-off alone has been worth the investment in our destiny to reach the stars.

Entitlement programs, on the other hand, have served little other purpose than as a public feeding trough for voters and bureaucrats. Nearly all of them are financially unsustainable, but Obama has nothing to say about that.
 
Ethereal said:
The future of mankind is in space exploration and exploitation.
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To a degree I would agree with you here. However, there is no specific time-frame in which that has to happen. Also, space exploitation is likely to be developed by private industry anyways, if there is enough profit to be gleaned from it. We already see the beginnings of this with companies like Virgin Galactic. There's no reason that NASA necessarily has to be involved at this point in time.

The benefits society has incurred from the technological spin-off alone has been worth the investment in our destiny to reach the stars.
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Out of curiosity, can you give examples of tech. spin-offs that have come about from space exploration specifically? I''m aware that there have been civilian spin-offs from the military-industrial complex (like the internet), but I'm not aware of any from space exploration.

Entitlement programs, on the other hand, have served little other purpose than as a public feeding trough for voters and bureaucrats. Nearly all of them are financially unsustainable, but Obama has nothing to say about that.
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Your first sentence is debatable. As to your second, I don't know about the finances of the American social programs, so I can't speak to that.
 
AgentM said:
Out of curiosity, can you give examples of tech. spin-offs that have come about from space exploration specifically? I''m aware that there have been civilian spin-offs from the military-industrial complex (like the internet), but I'm not aware of any from space exploration.
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Many modern materials were developed for it. The personal computer is derived from the on-board computers from the Apollo program. Etc.
 
Harshaw said:
Many modern materials were developed for it. The personal computer is derived from the on-board computers from the Apollo program. Etc.
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That's cool, I didn't know that. Thanks! :)
 
AgentM said:
To a degree I would agree with you here. However, there is no specific time-frame in which that has to happen.
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The Earth can only sustain so many people. Space exploration is the only permanent solution that doesn't involve a world government chemically castrating the populace by slipping something in their vaccines. I mean, can you think of a better solution to overpopulation?

Also, space exploitation is likely to be developed by private industry anyways, if there is enough profit to be gleaned from it.
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The only reason private space exploration is even commercially viable is because NASA already did all the basic research. Sometimes it's better for an agency NOT to have a profit motive. No private company would've matched the start-up costs that NASA invested into their programs.

We already see the beginnings of this with companies like Virgin Galactic. There's no reason that NASA necessarily has to be involved at this point in time.
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300px-Aldrin_Apollo_11.jpg


Yea. Forget about space NASA. We need you to concentrate on climate change instead...

I don't know whether to cry or puke.

Out of curiosity, can you give examples of tech. spin-offs that have come about from space exploration specifically? I''m aware that there have been civilian spin-offs from the military-industrial complex (like the internet), but I'm not aware of any from space exploration.
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Space Spin-offs: Technology Derived from the Space Program | eThemes | eMINTS

Your first sentence is debatable.
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I think the benefit has been marginal, while the damage has been severe and long-lasting.

As to your second, I don't know about the finances of the American social programs, so I can't speak to that.
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They're in terrible shape. Most of the big ones are facing insolvency.

Report Warns of Insolvency for Social Security, Medicare - washingtonpost.com
 
other said:
I say that NASA should take the money dedicated for "climate-change research," invent a special social security-style "lockbox," and then spend it on actual space programs. It can't cost too much money just to make up a bunch of fake data anyway.
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Why don't they invent a giant vacuum cleaner and suck the global warming into outer space. :roll:
 
Ethereal said:
The Earth can only sustain so many people. Space exploration is the only permanent solution that doesn't involve a world government chemically castrating the populace by slipping something in their vaccines. I mean, can you think of a better solution to overpopulation
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The colonization of space on a permanent basis is centuries away! Meanwhile the most we might have in the near term might be lightly manned mining bases, again private industry.

Meanwhile we are thoroughly destroying the planet which I take you would rather abandon than try to save.

America has lots of time to rebuild it's space program later if it so wishes, and it wouldn't be in this predicament in the first place if certain previous Presidencies hadn't started needless wars and gotten America into massive debt.
 
AgentM said:
The colonization of space on a permanent basis is centuries away! Meanwhile the most we might have in the near term might be lightly manned mining bases, again private industry.

Meanwhile we are thoroughly destroying the planet which I take you would rather abandon than try to save.

America has lots of time to rebuild it's space program later if it so wishes, and it wouldn't be in this predicament in the first place if certain previous Presidencies hadn't started needless wars and gotten America into massive debt.
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The American space program has been a pillar of our society. The exploitation of space cannot be fully realized by private interests because not every mission is going to be profitable.

Only governments have the resources necessary for serious exploration and discovery.

I don't want to abandon the planet. I want to keep the best parts of it in tact.

space_shuttle_11.jpg
 
AgentM said:
America has lots of time to rebuild it's space program later if it so wishes, and it wouldn't be in this predicament in the first place if certain previous Presidencies hadn't started needless wars and gotten America into massive debt.
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You keep saying that, even though it was mathematically proven to you that the "wars" aren't the driver of the "massive debt."

More seeing what you want to see, I'd say.

(Neither is the manned space program, by the way.)

Look, I don't expect a non-American to understand this in quite the same way, but the manned space program has been a point of national pride for 50 years.
 
Harshaw said:
You keep saying that, even though it was mathematically proven to you that the "wars" aren't the driver of the "massive debt."
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It's common knowledge that the Iraq War was the prime cause of Bush's massive increase of debt/deficit. It might not have been military spending per se, but it was the cost of the war. The US government was posting surpluses in the Clinton era, I believe. It's not like Bush expanded social programs or anything.

[ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_national_debt]United States public debt - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

I admit that Obama is making the debt worse, but Bush dug the initial hole.
 
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