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Space Shuttle Launch - Page 2

post #41 of 58
8/3/05 at 11:31pm
Quote:
Originally posted by sunilraman
Get this part of the article though... anybody feel like spending up to 1/3 of a trillion govt. dollars?

Spread over 20 years, $200B isn't that much money. NASA's current budget is about $15B/yr, so $10B/yr represents just 2/3 of that. The Shuttle/ISS (and all the ancillaries involved) probably eats up 2/3 of NASA's current budget, so it seems disappointingly reasonable for the next phase of manned missions to continue to do so. If we were serious about manned exploration, we'd double NASA's budget and be willing to invest closer to a half-trillion dollars into R&D and various off-Earth projects over the next 20-30 years.

For comparison, I'll risk pointing out that the war in Iraq is likely to have a 20-year cost of a trillion dollars or so. And that doubling NASA's budget would put a dent in the treasury less than 1/6 the size of the now-annual "emergency" supplemental defense bills. 1/30 the size of the overall defense budget. 1/2 the size of repealing the estate tax. Less than what we spend to subsidize agriculture.[/rant]
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post #42 of 58
8/3/05 at 11:36pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally posted by Towel
Spread over 20 years, $200B isn't that much money. NASA's current budget is about $15B/yr, so $10B/yr represents just 2/3 of that. The Shuttle/ISS (and all the ancillaries involved) probably eats up 2/3 of NASA's current budget, so it seems disappointingly reasonable for the next phase of manned missions to continue to do so. If we were serious about manned exploration, we'd double NASA's budget and be willing to invest closer to a half-trillion dollars into R&D and various off-Earth projects over the next 20-30 years.

For comparison, I'll risk pointing out that the war in Iraq is likely to have a 20-year cost of a trillion dollars or so. And that doubling NASA's budget would put a dent in the treasury less than 1/6 the size of the now-annual "emergency" supplemental defense bills. 1/30 the size of the overall defense budget. 1/2 the size of repealing the estate tax. Less than what we spend to subsidize agriculture.[/rant]

good points. personally, i don't have a big problem with space exploration.

my beef is with NASA human spaceflight, going to the moon (WTF? we've been there, hello?), and all this space-station low-earth-orbit rubbish.

us$10 billion/year for a 2025 target for a (wo)manned colony on mars as a primary objective is what i would say fair enough. if they get burt rutan to do a lot of the stuff

or, no rush, us$5 billion/year, global cooperation with other space agencies to match that, so worldwide us$10 billion/year for a 2035 mars colony target. there. no worries

don't even get me started on usa defence spending \
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post #43 of 58
8/4/05 at 9:25am
I agree about the moon. Why go? We know all about it. It doesn't need to be a stepping stone to Mars. Let's save some time and money and focus on the red planet, for crying out loud.
Living life in glorious 4G HD (with a 2GB data cap).
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Living life in glorious 4G HD (with a 2GB data cap).
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post #44 of 58
8/4/05 at 9:41am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally posted by CosmoNut
I agree about the moon. Why go? We know all about it. It doesn't need to be a stepping stone to Mars. Let's save some time and money and focus on the red planet, for crying out loud.

cool. unless we find oxygen, water, or dilithium crystals that are easily harvested on the moon, fuck it.
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post #45 of 58
8/4/05 at 12:47pm
Quote:
Originally posted by sunilraman
don't even get me started on usa defence spending \

I agree. The budget is a quarter the size it should be.
Hard-Core.
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Hard-Core.
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post #46 of 58
8/4/05 at 2:29pm
All of this really reminds me of a quote from Days of Thunder:
"If you can't control your race car drivers like this, you migh want to think about sticking to something you can control... like used car sales in downtown Charlotte."
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post #47 of 58
8/4/05 at 6:25pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally posted by aplnub
I agree. The budget is a quarter the size it should be.

fair enough but if the US military gets this super huge ass budget to make super-smart planes, hybrid space/jet fighters, and faster-than-light stuff, and hyper aware computers, i want a lot of that tech to roll down to the civilian world.

anyway, like i said, i was a US taxpayer 2000-2002, not at the moment, so, meh... whatever.
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post #48 of 58
8/5/05 at 12:01am
Quote:
US military gets this super huge ass budget to...

The only reason I see wy military budget would go up in the near future so to replace all the junk that a bunch of peeps with homemade TNT and AKs blow up in Iraq. Forget anything else.
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post #49 of 58
8/5/05 at 12:03am
Nevermind...
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post #50 of 58
8/5/05 at 8:06pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally posted by skatman
Nevermind...

skat, i think i know what your saying maybe...

i'll take a stab at it. philosophically, this is the deal. mankind is ready in this century to embark on the next phase of our evolution: quantum computing, nanotechnology, further delving into esoteric journeys of the mind, colonisation of the solar system, and intial faster-than-light experiments, and a new source of clean, renewable energy, possibly by the end of the century matter/antimatter, definitely effective fusion energy.

the thing is, if we found this all within the next 10 years, we'd blow this whole planet up ourselves.

so, i think the message here is lets sort out this terrorism stuff (i leave it to each individual to interpret what i mean by this) first, then we can think about all that crap. explosives and "small arms" in the hands of terrorists is not fun. nuclear devices in the hands of terrorists is way not cool. but it will happen. antimatter/matter devices in the hands of terrorists. worst parts of the apocalypse

like jodie foster's character's alien-as-dad-image said to her, baby steps...
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post #51 of 58
8/5/05 at 10:02pm
A very nice image. It's my new wallpaper.

http://www.vq30de.net/gallery/ars_sts-114/s114e6459.jpg
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post #52 of 58
8/9/05 at 6:17am
Free and clear and on the ground. Anyone else watch the landing? I saw it on Nasa Tv. They had the infrared camera on so we could see it. Anyone in the L.A. area get up early to watch it zoom by overhead?
MacBook Pro 15" (Unibody)/2.4GHz Core 2 Duo/2 GB RAM/250GB HD/SuperDrive
iMac 20"/2 GHz Core 2 Duo/2 GB RAM/250 GB/SuperDrive
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iMac G3 333 MHz/96 MB...

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MacBook Pro 15" (Unibody)/2.4GHz Core 2 Duo/2 GB RAM/250GB HD/SuperDrive
iMac 20"/2 GHz Core 2 Duo/2 GB RAM/250 GB/SuperDrive
PowerBook G4 12"/1 GHz/1.25 GB RAM/60GB/Combo
iMac G3 333 MHz/96 MB...

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post #53 of 58
8/9/05 at 7:48am
I saw it live, too, though not in person. I'm glad they're wheels stopped and a-okay.
Living life in glorious 4G HD (with a 2GB data cap).
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post #54 of 58
8/9/05 at 5:09pm
I would like to say that... I'm really really really tired.

Happy everything went well.
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post #55 of 58
8/9/05 at 9:23pm
Thread Starter 
our astronauts are back. good on them.
now mothball the fucking shuttle and build a real spaceship.
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post #56 of 58
3/20/08 at 12:57am
Quote:
Originally Posted by sunilraman View Post

skat, i think i know what your saying maybe...

i'll take a stab at it. philosophically, this is the deal. mankind is ready in this century to embark on the next phase of our evolution: quantum computing, nanotechnology, further delving into esoteric journeys of the mind, colonisation of the solar system, and intial faster-than-light experiments, and a new source of clean, renewable energy, possibly by the end of the century matter/antimatter, definitely effective fusion energy.

the thing is, if we found this all within the next 10 years, we'd blow this whole planet up ourselves.

so, i think the message here is lets sort out this terrorism stuff (i leave it to each individual to interpret what i mean by this) first, then we can think about all that crap. explosives and "small arms" in the hands of terrorists is not fun. nuclear devices in the hands of terrorists is way not cool. but it will happen. antimatter/matter devices in the hands of terrorists. worst parts of the apocalypse

like jodie foster's character's alien-as-dad-image said to her, baby steps...

I am in complete agreement.
it makes me think that all this advancing in technology and science in the end is not really in our best interest...
there is no way of making sure only the "good guys" get the weapons just like there is no sure and absaloute way of defining the good guys from the bad - its all a mater of your point of view.
i tend to have a black view of our future and don't find it completely mad to think that within the next decade or two some twit will do something really really stupid and end it all for all of us
http://www.gunvaluesboard.com/
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post #57 of 58
3/20/08 at 1:48am
It's Jubelum's spammy wife.

Anyway, I'll bite.

"there is no way of making sure only the "good guys" get the weapons"

Excellent point! The only way, therefore, of reducing danger due to weapons (guns) is to reduce the availability of weapons (guns)!!!!

It works in every country that's tried it.
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post #58 of 58
3/24/08 at 7:14am
Quote:
Originally Posted by CosmoNut View Post

I've been watching NASA TV in the days leading up to the launch today, and there was an interesting program on there. This guy from NASA led viewers through the step by step jist of the entire mission.

He mentioned that people always ask, "Why use such old computers on the shuttle?" His reply was basically "because we know they'll work flawlessly."

He continued: "With all due respect to Mr. Gates and his company, you don't want to have to hit Control + Alt + Delete in the middle of a launch."


LOL...don't use SeaLaunch then...I suppose none of the truly launch critical software is wrtten in VB...
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