Guest Tony n Terrific Posted January 2, 2009 Report Share Posted January 2, 2009 http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20090102...rg/aovrno0oj41g Link to comment
rogerluli Posted January 2, 2009 Report Share Posted January 2, 2009 And how could one imagine that the US could pay for this??? Link to comment
Guest Tony n Terrific Posted January 2, 2009 Report Share Posted January 2, 2009 India will most likely be the next Oink Bank for the US. Link to comment
rogerluli Posted January 2, 2009 Report Share Posted January 2, 2009 India will most likely be the next Oink Bank for the US. Don't we ever have to worry about paying someone back??? Link to comment
credzba Posted January 2, 2009 Report Share Posted January 2, 2009 http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20090102...rg/aovrno0oj41g I know I am a China sympathizer, but wouldn't it make MORE sense to co-operate with China rather than race against China. Perhaps they could trade back some of the billions of dollars they hold in exchange for our rockets? Link to comment
griz326 Posted January 2, 2009 Report Share Posted January 2, 2009 I know I am a China sympathizer, but wouldn't it make MORE sense to co-operate with China rather than race against China. Perhaps they could trade back some of the billions of dollars they hold in exchange for our rockets? That would be a nice thing, but terribly optimistic. It is the DOD's job to defend us and China in space is a potential threat. Don't we ever have to worry about paying someone back??? No one ever paid us back so why worry? Link to comment
sweattrl1 Posted January 2, 2009 Report Share Posted January 2, 2009 If the chinese had good sence they would stop throwing good money after bad, tell the usa it is tired of supporting what clame to be a super power , but piss poor country Link to comment
Li & John Posted January 2, 2009 Report Share Posted January 2, 2009 If the chinese had good sence they would stop throwing good money after bad, tell the usa it is tired of supporting what clame to be a super power , but piss poor country Link to comment
jhammer Posted January 2, 2009 Report Share Posted January 2, 2009 The "60s" in China ? I wonder if we could have an export market for some California Sensimilla to the PRC ? That would be cool! Link to comment
Yuanyang Posted January 3, 2009 Report Share Posted January 3, 2009 China's 40 years late in getting to the moon. We won that race. I personally know someone with their space program and he's frequented Houston many times for consultations. It's just a matter of time and money before the Chinese put someone on the moon. Then they too will start thinking about the cost and what that money could be doing back home. NASA has been without any hard defined goals (and leadership!) since the Apollo program ended. Mars mission? Crazy talk just to get some hype back like the '60s. Link to comment
SheLikesME? Posted January 3, 2009 Report Share Posted January 3, 2009 Well the cost of NASA vs the new technology that comes from it is a pretty good rate of return on the R&D dollar. We don't have much industry doing it if not for govt dollars for civil or military applications. I too don't like their goals (boring!!!!!!) since the Appollo but our world is diferent from all their miniturization at NASA. Nano tech is just getting its wings, so look out. What I really hated to see cancelled was the super collider. Science is changing at an explosive rate. I might be a little more prone to putting bigger and better instruments up there to learn than keeping people in space, but that may have a benefit with our new Orion. The shuttle was going to be too expensive and too fragile from the beginning. We just did not push the envelope when the decision was made to use the cheapest way. Now the cheapest way is the retro-apollo of the Orion. It will use the shuttles boosters and tank, so that saves $$ development and tooling cost. Link to comment
lostinblue Posted January 3, 2009 Report Share Posted January 3, 2009 (edited) The space program that the U.S. has been involved with since the late 50's has been a testing and proving ground for some unique technologies that we wouldn't have had as soon if it were not for the thinking that has to be done "outside the box" to make such a quest into a reality. However, it is my humble opinion that the cost has greatly outweighed the benefits. Just imagine how many starving and poor people could be set on a path of independence with that money. How much unusable land could have been turn into arable, food producing farms, or how much research and development could have been paid for in the energy sector to find alternative fuels? How much better could each of us have lived over the past forty years by not having to pay for all of this? I'm sure there are more, but about all I can remember getting any benefit from the space program is Tang and Velcro. I'm sure that the Chinese will venture into space and soon they will realize that outside of the needs for satellites and/or satellite directed weaponry, there just isn't enough out there to warrant the cost. Oh...what am I saying???? I forgot, we're humans....cost and collateral suffering has nothing to do with feeding our egos and proving our superiority.Larry if you look at agriculture today .Most larger farms have the farms set up for GPS use. They get a soil sample of the farm on a grid along with a gps position. Some soils are better than others even in the same field. When the planter is used a computer will dole out the fertilizer according to gps position. The good spots get more fertilizer, bad ones get less. When the grain is combined it is weighed so yield is being entered as it is harvested. That along with gps will determine where to use the fertilizer for the best advantage next year. The equiptment cost a lot so you need to be a large operator. But the advantages are there . More yield and less overall cost(and waste) in the end . More food for the poor people on the earth.If the government's will allow the people to get the food.If I remember correctly on the history of the computer The space program did more to bring that into being than any other reason. Edited January 3, 2009 by lostinblue (see edit history) Link to comment
Guest Tony n Terrific Posted January 3, 2009 Report Share Posted January 3, 2009 Space exploration is our future. Carl Sagan said it best that we need another planet. By 2050 we will have over 9 billion souls here with very limted resources for maybe 7.5 billion. What do we do with and how do we get 1.5 b off the planet Earth? 1. Space exploration 2. War.My hope is it will be space exploration. China is an emerging Super Power while the US is remaining status quo. If the world could put away their swords and melt them down into space technology and all the Nations of the world work together we just maybe able to pull this off. Link to comment
Richard & Li Posted January 3, 2009 Report Share Posted January 3, 2009 Space exploration is our future. Carl Sagan said it best that we need another planet. By 2050 we will have over 9 billion souls here with very limted resources for maybe 7.5 billion. What do we do with and how do we get 1.5 b off the planet Earth? 1. Space exploration 2. War.My hope is it will be space exploration. China is an emerging Super Power while the US is remaining status quo. If the world could put away their swords and melt them down into space technology and all the Nations of the world work together we just maybe able to pull this off. We've already seen the direction this is going. The budget & priority for space exploration is miniscule. The technology just isn't there and is not being developed. There is a third possibility: Population control. However, as much as people balk at having their 'right' to breed like rabbits regulated and controlled: It will probably be war... Link to comment
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