Lake on Titan?

[child of Thor]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4633043.stm

Looks good. Remember to pack your trunks when visiting

[Brundlefly]

News items like this bring two questions to mind immediately:

1) How does this discovery change my life for the better?

2) How much of my tax dollars were spent to make this discovery?

[Tattila the Hun]

"1) How does this discovery change my life for the better?

2) How much of my tax dollars were spent to make this discovery?"

I hear the fish is good. Also, in the future, the moon might act as a stepping stone towards the stars.

And for 2), enough.

[MrFun]

Or maybe it's just that you need to broaden your horizon, bfg.

[Anaximander]

Yeah, what else would we have spent that money on...invading another country? If I am going to throw it away, throw it to the space program.

[MrFun]

Space exploration is not a waste.

[Whoha]

Originally posted by bfg9000
News items like this bring two questions to mind immediately:

1) How does this discovery change my life for the better?

2) How much of my tax dollars were spent to make this discovery?

far less then 0.00661% of your tax dollars were spent on this.

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by bfg9000
1) How does this discovery change my life for the better?

Yours hasn't.

Your great-grandchildren's might. Titan looks like it is chock-full of interesting raw materials that could eventually be mined without affecting the earth's environment.

2) How much of my tax dollars were spent to make this discovery?

A few. Space science of this kind makes for a third of NASA's budget, and NASA has dozens of projects included in this budgetary field. If you want to whine about a waste of money, look at the Space shuttle (5 billions a year), or better yet, look at the pork and corporate welfare (untold amount of billions a year), or look at the war in Iraq (how many billions did it cost yet? 180 or something like that? )

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by Whoha
far less then 0.00661% of your tax dollars were spent on this.

THE HORROR!

[Brundlefly]

Originally posted by Anaximander
Yeah, what else would we have spent that money on...invading another country? If I am going to throw it away, throw it to the space program.

How about throwing it to provide increased government services to our citizens?

MrFun, I was fortunate enough to have been able to attend college to broaden my horizons. Why dont we use this space program money to broaden the horizons of the indigent children of our country in the same way?

[Zkribbler]

And sign of a Trafalmadorian and/or three sirens??

[Brundlefly]

Originally posted by Spiffor

Yours hasn't.

Your great-grandchildren's might. Titan looks like it is chock-full of interesting raw materials that could eventually be mined without affecting the earth's environment.

And we will be able to mine those resources, what, - 150, 200, 300 years from now? By then we will have a major resource crisis on Earth. This crisis will be resolved one of two ways: Either we develop alternate forms of energy or wars break out over control of the world's resources (like the current US intervention in Iraq, but on a larger scale). So, better to spend that space research money on development of alternate forms of energy, yes?

A few. Space science of this kind makes for a third of NASA's budget, and NASA has dozens of projects included in this budgetary field. If you want to whine about a waste of money, look at the Space shuttle (5 billions a year), or better yet, look at the pork and corporate welfare (untold amount of billions a year), or look at the war in Iraq (how many billions did it cost yet? 180 or something like that? )

I'm with you on this. I'm whining about that stuff, too!

[C0ckney]

bfg, you're on a gaming forum, it's going to be packed with geeks who can think of no better thing to spend money on than stuff like this.

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by bfg9000
And we will be able to mine those resources, what, - 150, 200, 300 years from now?

Actually, depending on the research effort, it could technologically be done much sooner. We have the ability to safely travel such distances, and we are making quick progresses about automation. The main problem is with the launches, which cost a fortune (launches are the main reason why Space science is expansive btw: if we had cheaper launch technology, space science would cost very little).

If launches were cheap, space-bound mining would be a viable solution, for which technological solutions would be found fairly quickly (decades, rather than centuries)

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by C0ckney
bfg, you're on a gaming forum, it's going to be packed with geeks who can think of no better thing to spend money on than stuff like this.

Not quite. I think that space science is worth the expense, like many other expanses. Like many scientific fields, space science could actually do with more money (and a more efficient use of it as well).

BFG seems to think that every cent that goes to space science is a cent wasted. It's pretty funny to read that on the satellite-supported Internet.

Not every cent spent on space science is a cent wasted. Just like not every pound paid by the British king to Newton was a pound wasted (this particular king never saw his money back, but without the pure academic research by the likes of Newton, we still wouldn't have planes in today's world).

Science deserves funding, for it creates the conditions of a better life for the future generations. Nowadays, with our cell phones, with our planes, with our electricity, we benefit from the effort made by our forefathers. I don't see why we should stop our efforts now.