*laughs at Zorgons go home Yankee pic*

I know! we even make a mess of space.

wanted or not, that's where our future lies. jmo.

Originally posted by maxzen2004
I agree, NASA has done nothing and living in Florida I have met people who have worked there andthey say it is very poorly managed. If it was a business, it would have been bankrupt years ago! How many billions of dollars go through there? We are still using the space shuttle, it's been over 20 years!! I would phase it out slowly or sell it to american company. I don't think it is worth it, wasted money and talent.

Ok While I'll agree with some of what you have to say. This thread wast meant as a BASH NASA thread. Yes I'll be the first to admit that they have some incredible and fantastic accomplishments.

What I am saying is that we should start making the NEXT step and move past the "Government" funded and Control of Space.

To The Moon First

Moon bases have unlimited energy. In the Sun it's hot and in the shade it's cold and on the moon those extremes are close together. In a closed loop, something gets hot in the sun and expands, turns a generator and then flows into the shade and cools. Gravity moves the something back to the sunny side and the power generation is essentially fuel free. Thousands to millions of generators could be constructed.

There's more to the picture than meets the eye.

The government exists to maintain the status quo. Since NASA is an organ of the government, it wont do anything in space unless something new is needed to keep things the same.

Like the cold war was needed to keep authoritarian control over society after the war against fascist aggression was over.

"We will never know how many schools and hospitals could have been built with the money we spent on a single B-52 Bomber" Dwight D. Eisenhower

I'd like someone to list the world's accomplishments in space and see how many of those are attributed to NASA, you'll find over half, not to mention the thousands of spinoff technologies and companies directly a result of NASA R&D.

I laugh at that Virgin Galactic, it spent 90 seconds 62 miles above sea level, barely considered to be the lowest end of where space officially begins, even though nothing can maintain an orbit that low. The NASA bashing is just a testament to ignorance on the subject.

Its also odd people use NASA data to discredit NASA, get your own data and get the rest of the world to start launching scientific probes throughout the solar system and give us your findings then! The fact is since the moon landing space programs sole purpose was to launch satellites for communication, military, GPS, and industry, except for NASA endeavors, outside of a couple countries now in the game in their infancies.

Had the Russian shuttle (they copied) ever reached space manned? It doesn't even have rocket engines, and now they are all museum pieces or destroyed.

Virgin Galactic spaceship is just a glorified suborbital plane. Companies like SpaceX, Sierra Nevada corp, ULA, Bigelow and Ad Astra are what we are talking about.

Interesting read. You got my vote!
My only concern is the lengths private corps go to to not compensate injury.
They would have to hash this out tons more before the public can safety travel to the space station.
Hey at least it's in space. LOL
BTW great thread!

Too Busy to read another slayer novel thread this morning, but....
There is a definate need for humanity to unite before we can fully begin to posses the resources and the all the right people to make the big jump.
The idea of allowing space to be taken over by huge corps with no public input or direction seems to me to be a recipe for more disaster.
We truely need the whole worlds resources and money to actully keep humanity fed and headed in the same direction.
Wars are primarily for the raw materials and land they are fought over.
If we could eliminate the need for war by uniting the planet firstly....there would be more than enough to go round as well as get into space permanently.
Any country or corporation that gets a leg up first is gonna reap untold benefits.
Think of the idea of being in zero G solely for the purpose of manufacturing ......
Gravity may be a big stumbling block in the developement of new materials and processes that would advance mankind greatly.
Yet i know of few if any people who are theorising in this direction......
The Moon presents us with the opportunity to perfect our space abilities close to home as it were, and we will naturally occupy it sooner or later......
There will be a self sufficient colony there by next century for sure....(small concelation to us baby boomers but hey we saw apollo.......)