Space agency for the PEOPLE.

Originally posted by stumason
Maybe then, Scientists should come up with a way to eradicate the plague of politicians that has swept our planet....

They already have, nature did it for them.

Science just also invented a way to cure most of them.

I can forsee a Space agency for the people by the people. I know this is gonna sound slightly nutz, but it worked for the DaVinci Project. What about a Vast Open Source project? That would drive costs down much faster if enough people are brought on board. I know lots of logistical and well monetary problems with this but it could work.

When you work for NASA the problem is you have to tap dance between so many different agencies within it's own structure especially with the civilian side verses the military side. Working there you have to always have to be put in a situation where you have to take sides and there is never happy medium. If the US government would put the control in the hands of the civilians, more would be accomplished.
If someone truly reseached the facts, the civilian side of the project is what keeps it going, but with interference from D.C. alot of the best scientist go out to other projects.
But the funding is also only what the government wants the public to see and a lot of facts of actual funding is not disclosed.
Ther is several companies working with agencies outside US on the space race. Do not be surprised when a country like China send a probe to Mars, lands it, collects samples, and have the craft return to earth in the very near future. That project is 99% civilian operated.

Now you see... It might not be neccessary for an entire new program to be started. If the government did "give up" NASA to the people, that would work perfectly fine also. But i think the most important thing is to come together globally.

Yeah....that is definently the most important thing. I'm sure that other countries who housed those programs know things that even Nasa doesn't, and use likewise to them. It would be a good idea to share these facts with each other and we may find out that we are further ahead than we thought we actually were, and all we had to do was combine our projects together to see results.

Exactly. That kind of goes along with that whole "Two heads are better than one" type of thing.

That is why so Many U.S. scientists are contacting these other countries because there work has more depth and meaning.
They really are not contacting them, the countries are coming to them on daily basis and so many are changing over being able to do their research here and provide information to the companies overseas!
The money is a whole lot better than US pay!

So are you saying that even though we are split up... Between different countries. The knowledge is being spread around, and shared between each?

The information is shared between the scientist directly with the countries being left out of the picture.
That is why they are scientist not politicians, and they could care less about policy and procedures that governments established to control their own agencies.
The Asian scientist spend the majority of the time in US for it is not worth the hassle for US scientist to attempt to go overseas.
It has become like foreign exchange student type program, the scientist especially those from China and North Korea stay in the homes of the scientists. You also find that the majority of the homes are outside major cities in absolute rural type areas where farms and ranches where access is easily controlled!

Personally, I'd rather keep the giant rockets (read: missiles) in the hands of the experts. Open-source? Eh. I'll pay a bit extra to make sure it takes off.

The government has its uses, this being one of them. I just think it could be more useful.

drrdw

Do you work for NASA? You have a vast knowledge on this... is it just from receiving information from various sources. Or do you get it first hand?

Knowing that stuff does let me breathe a little easier. lol. I thought maybe politics had invaded everywhere and everyone already..