Nasa-worthy of our money?

[Guest mgrl134]

why do you think we should continue to spend money on space???

[Sayonara]

It's vital to the survival of our entire species, and the protection of our sum knowledge.

[coquina]

We need to keep our technical skills and our manufacturing skills on the cutting edge.

 

At the present, mass production machine shops all over the country are folding, because companies are opening manufactuing facilities in 3rd world countries.

 

Many, many medical instruments to measure human physiology were developed by NASA. Several years ago, I was called by Harvard Medical School and asked about an instrument we had built which had an end use of analysing some components of blood. The problem was, I knew I had build parts of the instrument, but I didn't know what it would be used for.

 

One of the ways NASA and DOD has of protecting secret projects is to farm out different component parts to different companies, then assemble the parts in house. The drawing might have a name in the title block like Item 15031 for Project "XYZ". You didn't have a clue what you were building or for what purpose it would be used. That was because, at the time, we were in the middle of the Cold War, and it was imperative that the Soviets learn nothing about our designs.

 

Now, NASA is far more open with its spin-offs. I went to a conferance a couple of years ago where they showed a working model of a "carbon-carbon" engine. Carbon is lighter than metal and it doesn't expand or contract under temperature changes and it won't gall (the reason you have to lubricate moving close fitting metal parts.) so it didn't need lubrication.

 

I also saw a system for noise abatement, which I believe has been put into use. They used a mirror image of the sound wave created by noise to block it out. I have recently been hearing ads for Bose headphones, and I think they must use this technology, or something derived from it.

 

We must keep our manufacturing technology on the cutting edge - private companies cannot afford the research and development fees for new products, technology is moving so fast, they can't get their development money back out of sales before the product becomes obsolete.

 

Having NASA or other government scientists do the R&D and then license the patent to a private company makes more sense.

[Guest speciez]

In asking if funding NASA you are asking a specific question which derieves from whether we value scientific reasearch. As other posters have highlighted on this thread, discoveries made for space exploration have made modern life for the everyday person easier. This is one of the main reasons research is important, its discoveries improve our lives.

 

I think what is a more interesting question is whether NASA spends its money in the most effective way. Certainly to me, large hyped up projects dont aways seem to get the best value for money. At the same time it is worth money to ensure we are actually getting data that is useful. NASA needs to find a balance between these two positions IMO.

[coquina]

In asking if funding NASA you are asking a specific question which derieves from whether we value scientific reasearch. As other posters have highlighted on this thread' date=' discoveries made for space exploration have made modern life for the everyday person easier. This is one of the main reasons research is important, its discoveries improve our lives.

 

I think what is a more interesting question is whether NASA spends its money in the most effective way. Certainly to me, large hyped up projects dont aways seem to get the best value for money. At the same time it is worth money to ensure we are actually getting data that is useful. NASA needs to find a balance between these two positions IMO.[/quote']

 

NASA has congressional committees overseeing their budget who don't know beans from buttercups about research or space exploration. They are always getting their budget cut and trying to figure out how to do more with less.

[CPL.Luke]

my main problem with nasa is the project selection. despite how big of an accomplishment cassini was it inevitably fails to inspire the imagination, because in the end we sent a 3 billion dollar box with a camera, a nose, and anouther little box on it (huygens) to jupiter.

 

however,sending men to jupiter is a far more interesting prospect,

[Guest speciez]

however,sending men to jupiter is a far more interesting prospect,

why would you want to send man to jupiter?

[Ophiolite]

George Leigh Mallory - Why climbing?

"The first question which you will ask and which I must try to answer is this, 'What is the use of climbing Mount Everest ?' and my answer must at once be, 'It is no use'. There is not the slightest prospect of any gain whatsoever. Oh, we may learn a little about the behavior of the human body at high altitudes, and possibly medical men may turn our observation to some account for the purposes of aviation. But otherwise nothing will come of it. We shall not bring back a single bit of gold or silver, not a gem, nor any coal or iron. We shall not find a single foot of earth that can be planted with crops to raise food. It's no use.

 

So, if you cannot understand that there is something in man which responds to the challenge of this mountain and goes out to meet it, that the struggle is the struggle of life itself upward and forever upward, then you won't see why we go. What we get from this adventure is just sheer joy. And joy is, after all, the end of life. We do not live to eat and make money. We eat and make money to be able to enjoy life. That is what life means and what life is for."

 

-- George Leigh Mallory, 1922

 

From:http://willerup.com/climbing/

[Thales]

NASA, Broadly speaking, is an organisation with extreme potential. It has been the flagship of human space endevour and draws its funding from the richest nation in the world. Its waning however is a result of ever increasing bureaucracy, both nation wide and internally.

 

Without trying to sound too star-trek-esk (god forbid) space is the final frontier and we will f*#k this planet up eventually. We need common direction as a species as increasingly making money becomes more important than scientific, cultural and social endevour (generalising to unfathomable degrees overcourse )

 

Perhaps the ESA or China might get in the game and make things more interesting, we shall see.

[Ophiolite]

Perhaps the ESA or China might get in the game and make things more interesting, we shall see.

China will, slowly and inexorably. The East is Red. And so is Mars.