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Space Shuttle Return to Launch
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Sage

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PostPosted: Tue Jul 12, 2005 7:53 pm    Post subject: Space Shuttle Return to Launch Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

I'd just like to make the announcement that the space shuttle Discovery will tentatively be lifting off tomorrow (July 13) at 3:51 PM Eastern time. This will mark the space shuttle's return to flight after the Columbia tragedy about 2 and half years ago. There has been serious effort put into the investigation, safety modifications, rearrangement of people (managerial-wise), and being extra careful from now on. I hope all goes well.
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Leb

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PostPosted: Tue Jul 12, 2005 8:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

They made the last repairs and whatnot to it today. I'd say that after the Columbia incident there'd be no way anything could go wrong, but the #7 cockpit window fell off while the damn rocket was sitting on the launchpad.

Probably a fluke, but still.
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Neclord

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PostPosted: Tue Jul 12, 2005 10:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

That's pretty darn pathetic about the door falling off. Unexcuseable really.

I do hope everything goes as planned for the launch. Shuttle missions have been declining and soon may end completely.

A sad thing to me. They can spend billions and billions of dollars on war and the military but not on a space program with infinite possibilities for discovery.
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Sage

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PostPosted: Wed Jul 13, 2005 12:12 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

NASA plans on retiring the shuttles in 2010 so shuttle missions will end relatively soon. That is also why they aren't completely overhauling the things. And yeah, the window falling off was very bad, to say the least.

Military, etc always comes first. Whether it needs as much as it gets, few can say for sure. On a side note, NASA's budget (as a % of the national budget) has been shrinking over the years. So despite the president's initiatives to go the moon again and eventually Mars, he isn't allocating enough money to do it in the timeframe he wants. As a matter of opinion, he's about 10 years off, at least. Then there's the technical problems....but this thread isn't about that.
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Lunarblade

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PostPosted: Wed Jul 13, 2005 1:24 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

While NASA certainly has its own share of problems, I think this is definitely a step in the right direction. By the way, if the shuttle missions are done by 2010, what will happen afterwards? Is there a new program in the works?
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PostPosted: Wed Jul 13, 2005 2:23 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

Of course it is a step in the right direction because just stopping outright because of a freak accident seems a bit drastic. Even so, if they were going to after a big accident they would have done it the first time the space shuttle essentially blew up. I think the previous time was some time in the eighties but dont hold me to that since my memory is not very good.

I can only really assume that something will take it's place by then and may be in the preparing stages right now. I mean they wouldnt be planning a change over already if they didnt have something planned out for the following years. Hey I still have a dream of one day going into space. Not that it will probably ever happen but hey I wouldnt like it if I had to grow wings and fly there. :D
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Leb

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PostPosted: Wed Jul 13, 2005 3:54 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

Are you sure you guys have that right about closing up shop in 2010? How are we doing the moon and Mars missions that Bush allocated hundreds of millions of dollars to?
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Vextor




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PostPosted: Wed Jul 13, 2005 4:26 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

He allocated 1 billion dollars to be precise. However, 1 billion dollar is a paltry amount of cash to allocate to the space program. It would even cover the most elementary of expenses. The US military budget for 2005 is about 420 billion dolalrs. The military budget has increased by about 140 billion dollars in the last 4 years. Meanwhile, NASA's budget is merely about 15 billion dollars, and annual increases have been about 400 million dollars.

Developing new spacecraft takes billions of dollars. Even the B-2 bomber costs more than $1 billion to produce, and that doesn't include design.

Also, it was only the temprary window cover that fell off. Not the entire window, let alone an entire door.
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Leb

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PostPosted: Wed Jul 13, 2005 5:02 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

I don't know all that much about space program expenses, but didn't they say we'd be back on the moon in a decade, and have a moon base in the next couple? I was pretty sure this was to get it started, and presidents down the line would decide what to do with it.

It seemed pretty important because one, it was essentially Republicans admitting that the earth won't be around forever, and two, it was responding to China's advancements in the field.

And the B-2 was pretty silly to produce, though. I don't see them working off the debt they incurred (but I suppose that's the whole idea)!
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PostPosted: Wed Jul 13, 2005 5:46 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

I have mixed feelings about the space program in this country. Maybe I don't understand the immediate benefits of exploring the moon or Mars or Uranus (hehehe... *cough* sorry), but I think that $1 billion could be better served--I dunno--buying text books or hiring more teachers or fighting cancer. *shrug* Just a thought.

(Sorry if I'm not as opinionated about some topics as I am about others, hehe. ;))
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PostPosted: Wed Jul 13, 2005 6:23 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

The thing is, the space program is an integral part of American history and they need to keep that going if only out of nostalgia. Kind of like why the Romans kept the building that Julius Ceasar was killed in, rather than forgetting about it millenia ago. They want to keep it going not only for that but, they dont want China showing them up like the Russians did, sending someone into space.

Besides it's a spending that most people can somewhat agree on when it comes to the US. With text books, or cancer, or whatever else there is someone out there who will disagree in some form or another. This way most people are either happy or just say nothing and get on with their lives.
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Leb

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PostPosted: Wed Jul 13, 2005 7:07 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

Actually, the olllld Roman Senate building has long since vanished. They did keep the lot fairly empty, though.
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Vextor




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PostPosted: Wed Jul 13, 2005 10:43 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

If education and medical research is a concern, they should simply not give contract work to the multiple parasitic military conglomerates under the Carlyle Group for billions a piece, instead of slashing budget from the already slashed NASA. Surely the military doesn't really need $420 billion/year when the second biggest spender for the miltary spends less than 1/4th of that (that being Japan, an ally).

Every time the argument of "speace research is a waste" comes up, I feel like kicking something, because space research has brough innumerable benefits to medicine, technology, and education. Countless medicine have been developed through research in space, countless new materials have been developed with make things possible today--we wouldn't have all our handheld devices (such as cell-phones or your i-pods) without the space program. Nay-sayers typically do not understand the purpose of the space program; why do you think astronauts are biologists, physicists, and various other PhDs in scientific fields? They don't go out there to "explore" at all. They go out there to do research because a lot can be done in a zero-gravity, zero-germ environment which would be impossible on earth. New varieties of crops have been developed in space that are easier to grow in harsher climates; this helps with the problem of desertification and hunger in the third world. Genetic/medical research for cancer is also conducted in space. Clearly, these are not a waste. The cosmonauts and astronauts currently in the ISS are not just sitting there for months, they have a very tight schedule of lab-work (main reason why they have a lab module connected to the ISS).

We need more funding for NASA, not less.
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Sualtam Lugh

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PostPosted: Wed Jul 13, 2005 11:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

How important do you deem landing on Mars? Or any other planet? I'm serious. I think we should (We as everyone, not just America) sort out our problems on Earth, before we go exploring. I mean, sure, research what may have happened on Mars. How will that help us directly? Would that money be better spent now?

Now, Like you just said, Sars, everytime you hear "space research is a waste", you wanna cut someone. If you're putting money in to getting to Mars, then say that. That, I see as a waste of money. However, like you continued to say, how they do all kinds of experiments, you know, I wouldn't mind giving money to that. If it's going to help us as a whole, that's perfect. But not to get to Mars. We don't need Technology for Mars. We can't even ****ing get to Mars. I'm bringing up Mars, because that seems to be the closest thing we can get to (Save the Moon. Don't mention Venus. That's completely useless to us, right now.) and that seems to be what everyone's talking about.

"We need more funding for NASA, not less."

As long as it's not going towards reaching Mars, with humans aboard, AMEN!
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Vextor




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PostPosted: Wed Jul 13, 2005 11:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

Actually, trying to reach Mars will bring benefits through research in technologies that is needed for getting people out there. That is, technology required to sustain a number of people for an extended amount of time within limited space and limited supplies, while making sure there is enough fuel to get there and back. This is no easy task, and if this can be done, the benefits is immeasurable. Perhaps they will have to improve the ion pulse engine technology, or develop safer nuclear reactors. They'll have to do a lot of research in ergonomics to make sure people can live with some comfort during the trip which would take about an year (one-way). Human waste would have to be recycled in some way instead of simply being cast off into space (which is what is done currently at the ISS), which would be technology applicable in our everyday lives. Bone-mass loss is also a huge problem when humans remain in a zero-gravity environment, and excercize can only compensate so much; this means some sort of technology is needed to maintain that bone-mass, or some medical advance is required to make the body continue maintaining bone sturcture. This technology will be useful for things such as osteoporosis.

However, bringing humans to mars at this stage is pretty pointless. Sating, "we will take humans to mars" is moreso a political stunt which will die with the end of the Bush administration in 2008. Whether a republican or a democrat follows after Bush, they probably won't continue with the whole "Mars" business, because there simply is not enough cash in NASA to pull off such a thing. It ain't happening in a few decades, if at all.

Establishing a base on the moon is a more realistic goal. A base erected on solid ground is a lot more stable and less costly to run. The moon is also not just a solid ball of rock, and has deposits of materials that can be used to further colonization without having to send materials from Earth. Of course, it'll take a very long time to get all of this done, and even then the moon would remain much like Antarctica: a place for reserach unclaimed by any nation.
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