Bush Cancels trip to Pluto.

[Lonestar]

Originally posted by drake
Wouldnt it be nice if the world could spend all its money on science rather than military? Imagine what could have been discovered already

Are you saying that all that money the DoD spends on new Technologies is somehow..worthless?

May I remind you that Boosters have their orgins in ICBM's?

That the Internet has it's orgins in Military $$?

The SUV?

[TCO]

LS,

Those are tangential benefits of military development. The good reason to fund them is because they are necessary for defense not for the tangential benefits.

If you just want scientific discoveries and applied science, you're better off funding it directly, rather than as part of development.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by Berzerker

On a related matter, NASA spent a few hundred million or so trying to come up with a pen that would write upside down, in zero gravity, and under water (I guess the astronaut who splashed down in a lake, doh, could write his memoir). The Russians used pencils!!!

Actually, it was one million. The result was the Fisher space pen, of which I have several. They're great for taking field notes under ****ty conditions, and will write at any angle on virtually any surface. They're pretty good scuba diving, too.

The spec temperature range was pretty extreme, too. The reason for writing underwater was two-fold. One, if you have power failures or powerdowns for any reason, every surface in the spacecraft gets a hell of a lot of condensation, and in a micrograv environement, it just sits there, developing into little beads as a function of surface tension. The other is that the "ink" (it's something different chemically), if it's waterproof, will not have small particles shear and wear off over time, since it has much higher viscosity and adhesion than normal inks.

The Russians used pencils, yes. And they got graphite dust and pencil shavings in their electronics, too, which was the main reason for development of the pen.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Re: I'd rather mine an NEA than go to Pluto

Originally posted by DinoDoc


You're actually asking me why I think that something useful should arise from the government spending millions of dollars of my money. Do I understand you correctly?

You pay that much in taxes?

[Lonestar]

Originally posted by GP
LS,

Those are tangential benefits of military development. The good reason to fund them is because they are necessary for defense not for the tangential benefits.

If you just want scientific discoveries and applied science, you're better off funding it directly, rather than as part of development.

Absolutely, GP, I think it is a travesty on how far and fast our national lab system has gone during the past decade. The Clinton-Gore administration, despite their enviromental claims, issued cuts on the Fusion project, even though we've nearly reached the break-even point.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by Rogan Josh


So who does benefit? Only NASA and their technicians - that's who! No-one else.

I often see people argue that there are lots of spin offs to everyday life (like Teflon ). This is true but these things can be developed by spending the money on fundamental science research. You will still get the spin offs but you will be doing something useful as a main goal too!

Yes, DESY and CERN have produced loads of practical applications.

Since you're a theoretical type, not an applied type, your POV amounts to little more than the traditional infighting of "fund US, not THEM, we're doing something more useful!"

Personally, I think all science funding, both government and private, should be expanded significantly, but I don't think it does much for science overall to have its practitioners infighting for spaces at the public funding trough.

[Roman]

Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat
Yes, DESY and CERN have produced loads of practical applications.

Since you're a theoretical type, not an applied type, your POV amounts to little more than the traditional infighting of "fund US, not THEM, we're doing something more useful!"

Personally, I think all science funding, both government and private, should be expanded significantly, but I don't think it does much for science overall to have its practitioners infighting for spaces at the public funding trough.

I pretty much agree with what you say here. I too support increased funding for all scientific disciplines (other than the ISS, but than again - that's hardly science ). However, I must point out that there have been practical applications from CERN. Some were merely spinoffs (eg. the structure of the internet), but some were the results of the research itself (eg. a novel radiation teraphy for cancer).

[Sprayber]

Re: Re: I'd rather mine an NEA than go to Pluto

Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat


You pay that much in taxes?

I think Dino's first name is Bill. He has had some trouble with the government lately..

[Dauphin]

Bush Cancels trip to Pluto.

G W was so looking forward to that Disney trip too.

Maybe Mickey and Pluto can visit him soon though.

The Euro's and Japs have a space agency. Why the hell do you guys like chasing Comet's so much. Japs have sent about 6 probes to comets all have been destroyed.

All satellites are destroyed or cease to function eventually, so why not go down in a blaze of glory, if it fails there is no great loss, if it succeeds then it is extremely useful.( Why did NASA crash a satellite into Mars for? Oh wait that was a calculation error.)

Seriously though more often these suicide/kamikaze missions are pretty much complete before the final moment comes, and the main goal is not to land a satellite on a comet.

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat
You pay that much in taxes?

Do you think I need a better CPA?

[Kaak]

With the current birth/death rates, the mass of human flesh will equal the mass of the earth in a few hundred years. in 2000 years, it will equal the mass of the known universe. We're going to be wishing we hadn't scimped on space research before too long, especially since people are living longer and longer all the time, and the birth rate isn't slowing...

*source: Isaac Asimov's Book of Facts.

[faded glory]

Originally posted by Big Crunch
[q]
All satellites are destroyed or cease to function eventually, so why not go down in a blaze of glory, if it fails there is no great loss, if it succeeds then it is extremely useful.( Why did NASA crash a satellite into Mars for? Oh wait that was a calculation error.)

Oh c'mon we all know the martians shot it down

[faded glory]

All satellites are destroyed or cease to function eventually, so why not go down in a blaze of glory,

Pioneer is still sending a signal once every month. Its way.....way beyond pluto.

[Provost Harrison]

Bugger, because I have heard that the trip is one-way only

[History049]

Why should we waste money on Osweld's sick scientific tastes? Maybe a bored country with science fanatics like Canada should fund space exploration. We gotta spend on military here. And why can Faded glory use racial slurs but no one else?