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Space Goals For America: What Next?

What's next for the United States?

  • Total voters
    33
Scarecrow Akhbar said:
Here's the hard question:

why?
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Not hard for me. Why not?!?! Exploring is what Americans do, and we never know what may be found or the benfits that may arrive with it unless we go. But hey, I am a scientist (Microbiologist), I am always ready to see what is over the horizon.
 
tlmorg02 said:
Not hard for me. Why not?!?! Exploring is what Americans do, and we never know what may be found or the benfits that may arrive with it unless we go. But hey, I am a scientist (Microbiologist), I am always ready to see what is over the horizon.
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Good enough for me. IMO the moon is a necessary first step, I don't disagree with the ultimate goal.

Here's another question:

Do you foresee lawsuits from various "environmental" groups seeking to ban direct human and mechanical exploration of Mars, in the courts and legislatively, if actual Martian micro-organisms are found (let alone anything more complex)?
 
Scarecrow Akhbar said:
Here's the hard question:

why?
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Because it's there.

Likely, the chances of a trek to mars would rise if there were much cheaper ways of travel to it.

Because governments usually need a better reason then "Because it's there".
 
Scarecrow Akhbar said:
Good enough for me. IMO the moon is a necessary first step, I don't disagree with the ultimate goal.

Here's another question:

Do you foresee lawsuits from various "environmental" groups seeking to ban direct human and mechanical exploration of Mars, in the courts and legislatively, if actual Martian micro-organisms are found (let alone anything more complex)?
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Only after years of studying the organisms and if our presence causes the organisms to begin to dwindle, hopefully they will remain busy here with these animals and organisms.

Maybe there is some new energy source there. Or perhaps oil reserves from previous lifeforms on the planet. The possibilities are limitless!
 
tlmorg02 said:
Not hard for me. Why not?!?! Exploring is what Americans do, and we never know what may be found or the benfits that may arrive with it unless we go. But hey, I am a scientist (Microbiologist), I am always ready to see what is over the horizon.
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I'm a physicist, and I wouldn't support currently an attempt at a manned mission to Mars. There's no reason for it now, and there's a lot more science to do here. Plus, there's relatively no point right now. Robots can do it for us for the time being.
 
Kandahar said:
There is nothing that human astronauts can do on other worlds, which robots can't do more efficiently, cheaply, easily, and safely.
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Sure they can. They can inspire. They can say "today, a human being has set foot on another world." They can open up a sense of wonder, adventure, and enterprise that no robot will ever do.

If you think that's unimportant, than that's a pity.
 
Harshaw said:
Sure they can. They can inspire. They can say "today, a human being has set foot on another world." They can open up a sense of wonder, adventure, and enterprise that no robot will ever do.

If you think that's unimportant, than that's a pity.
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Sure, that's important. But it's not worth a trillion dollars, and there's no reason it has to be done NOW. Let's talk about it in 25-30 years when we're actually able to do it without spending a fortune.
 
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Kandahar said:
Sure, that's important. But it's not worth a trillion dollars, and there's no reason it has to be done NOW. Let's talk about it in 25-30 years when we're actually able to do it without spending a fortune.
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When you're always looking for reasons to wait, nothing ever happens.
 
Ikari said:
I'm a physicist, and I wouldn't support currently an attempt at a manned mission to Mars. There's no reason for it now, and there's a lot more science to do here. Plus, there's relatively no point right now. Robots can do it for us for the time being.
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what was the point of going to the moon?
 
There was a whole host of reasons for going to the Moon, and only a slight number of them were strictly scientific. And they were ALL great reasons, many of which are still great reasons today.

People who get caught up in the idea that it MUST serve some kind of scientific purpose or there's no reason to go drive me nuts. The achievement itself is a worthy human goal, with potential benefits that we can't even imagine yet. Worry about applications later. There is no question the bounty of developments will give us things we've never even thought about.

The "what good will it serve? We've got other fish to fry, and besides, we can do this, this, and this already" mentality is the same one which has held back progress throughout history.

Looking at things "rationally," there was no reason for man to fly; transportation was well-covered. There was no reason for Lindbergh to fly to Europe; trans-Atlantic travel was fully-perfected.

There was no reason for the automobile. There was no "real reason" for a lot of things we have today, but thankfully, people did them anyway.

The "wait, wait, wait" mentality isn't very imaginative and will get us nowhere. It's a bean-counter approach preferred by mousy guys in sweater vests. Might be "practical," but it's stifling. And boring. And stagnating.
 
Kennedy understood -- "we choose to go to the Moon and do these other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard." Yeah, there was definitely a Cold War motivation going on, but he understood that a great nation and a great people need to achieve -- VISIBLY -- great things.

Woo-hoo! A robot lands on Mars. How 1976.
 
new coup for you said:
what was the point of going to the moon?
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Defeat communism. There's nothing up there, I don't really see any benefit to setting up anything really on the moon now.
 
Ikari said:
Defeat communism. There's nothing up there, I don't really see any benefit to setting up anything really on the moon now.
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It was symbolic, to show our technological superiority over the Soviets.
 
Those reasons are still valid now.

The Chinese built a lovely Olympic complex? Ha! Look up! Americans are looking back at you from the Moon. Or Mars.
 
I say we should go back to the moon, we should explore Mars, and anywhere else modern and future physics will take us. Man has always had exploration in his blood, and to stick our head in the sand now is to deny nature.
 
Harshaw said:
When you're always looking for reasons to wait, nothing ever happens.
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There's no hurry to rush to space now. We have centuries or millennia to do so. Why do we need to go to Mars right now, when A) we have plenty of issues here on earth where the money could be spent to help people, and B) the technology is unbelievably expensive.

In a few decades, (B) will almost certainly not be an issue. And (A) will be a much smaller issue.
 
Harshaw said:
People who get caught up in the idea that it MUST serve some kind of scientific purpose or there's no reason to go drive me nuts. The achievement itself is a worthy human goal, with potential benefits that we can't even imagine yet. Worry about applications later. There is no question the bounty of developments will give us things we've never even thought about.
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Sure, the achievement itself is a worthy human goal. Why does that mean we can't wait until the technology is actually economically feasible before we commit to it? What's so special about right now? Mars isn't going anywhere.

Harshaw said:
The "what good will it serve? We've got other fish to fry, and besides, we can do this, this, and this already" mentality is the same one which has held back progress throughout history.
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Wrong. Every government dollar spent on a trip to Mars is one less government dollar that can be spent on something that actually helps society here on earth. Which is really holding back progress - staying home or wasting upwards of a trillion dollars on a trip to Mars?

Harshaw said:
Looking at things "rationally," there was no reason for man to fly; transportation was well-covered. There was no reason for Lindbergh to fly to Europe; trans-Atlantic travel was fully-perfected.

There was no reason for the automobile. There was no "real reason" for a lot of things we have today, but thankfully, people did them anyway.
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A few distinctions:

There WERE reasons for all of those things, unlike going to Mars. Even at the time, people could recognize the utility of airplanes and automobiles.

None of those things cost taxpayers a trillion dollars.

None of those things were done decades before they were economically practical. If the ancient Romans had decided that instead of building aqueducts, they were going to build a flying machine that could cross the ocean, they would've been wasting their money. Societies typically don't want to bite off more than they can chew, and for good reason.

Harshaw said:
The "wait, wait, wait" mentality isn't very imaginative and will get us nowhere. It's a bean-counter approach preferred by mousy guys in sweater vests. Might be "practical," but it's stifling. And boring. And stagnating.
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Sorry, but not being boring isn't a good enough reason to spend an unimaginable amount of taxpayer money when there ARE things the money could be spent on that WILL help people.


I think that most of the people criticizing the "wait, wait, wait" mentality are just trying to hide their own selfish desire: THEY have always thought about going to Mars, and want to see it happen in their lifetime regardless of the costs to the public.
 
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That's the great thing about this country. We know we want more exploration in space like the glory days, but we cannot agree on what to actually try to accomplish.:mrgreen:
 
I believe that human kind's long term survival will depend upon entering space. Our world's resources will dry up eventually at the current rate, and in the long term our Sun will go super nova... so we must exit.

That said, we have a lot of time to consider how to do this, and now is not the time. There are more pressing matters here on Earth and I'd rather see that money get put into applicable technologies. NASA has invented a lot of useful things that have changed our lives on the planet, so I know it's not so cut and dry, but NASA could easily be converted into something more relevant to our present lives.

I feel that the existence of NASA mostly arose from the competition with the USSR, and its continued existence is to ensure that America is "the first" with all things in space, in case a major discovery is made that could be advantageous. All the while, every launch into space sends millions of gallons of spent fuel into the atmosphere, constituting billions in tax payer dollars, all so that astronauts can study how spiders react to micro-gravity. It makes little sense to me.

I support the installation of space telescopes for visual inspection of distant space, just as I suppose the private installation of commercial satellites for networking on Earth... most else is irrelevant to me.
 
When have people or mankind in general gained from not pursuing exploration and scientific discovery? I'm 100% for manned space exploration and expansion into space, and I think its God awful that the US is going to retire the space scuttle before we have a replacement for it.
 
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