Apollo 13

[barfle]

The RC cars can provide us with facts about a distant location. So far, they haven't let us make use of that location. Indeed, those facts ARE science.

Raising the human condition, as you noted, comes from technology. As an engineer, I'm pretty sure I grasp the distinction between science and technology. It will take both an understanding of the facts of a location and a technology to deal with those facts to have a human presence off the planet. And it will take VALUE from that presence to make it viable. If it's just going to be a bunch of gummint dollars spent determining if a rock that's two hundred million miles away is schizt or granite or quartz or pumice, that's not value. It's data, but not valuable data.

Will Mars ever have value to us? I'm a lousy fortune teller, but I hope so. The human spirit wants to explore. At least mine does.

[Shapley]

All we need is a report, real or not, that there is oil there, and we'll be drilling by 2012...

[jamiebk]

All we need is a report, real or not, that there is oil there, and we'll be drilling by 2012...

Or that we can reduce greenhouse gasses by some means

[Shapley]

Oil will send private enterprise there to drill. Reducing greenhouse gases will send government-funded enterprises there. Thus far, private enterprise has not jumped on the reducing-greenhouse-gases bandwagon in heavy numbers. I don't think they're sold on the economics of it.

[Shapley]

Scientists Race To Head Off Space Catastrophe

The concerns over collisions with orbiting space junk are increasing. In addition, as the article points out, companies that own orbital satelites are concerned over the liability should one of the satelites, or the residual pieces of a destructed satelite, collide with another vessel, manned or unmanned.

[Shapley]

NASA's Secretive 'Rebels' Trying To Win Obama Over To Their Side

The scientist, who work for NASA, having been spending their spare time on an alternative design to NASA's shuttle replacement. They hope to win support for it from the new administration.

[Haggis@wk]

Cosmic hand...Cool!

[piqaboo]

Very cool!
three fingered. Might be a cartoon character...

[Shapley]

NASA To Search Solar System For Lost Planet

Never mind the millions they've lost over the years, now they've lost a whole planet...

[piqaboo]

Are they sure its not Pluto they are looking for? It was a planet two years ago, but now its not....

[Shapley]

Alas! Poor Pluto. I knew him well.

I think they would have been content to keep Pluto a planet, until the tenth planet, Eris was found. Scientists had intended to name Eris after the TV character Xena, and its' moon after her sidekick Gabrielle. Given that Xena was bigger than Pluto, it was hard to reject Xena's designation as a planet so long as Pluto reamined one, so poor Pluto had to be demoted to keep Xena out of the astronomy books.

[Haggis@wk]

How an intern stole NASA’s moon rocks.

[BigJon@Work]

To revive an old topic of dicussion in this thread; how about a space fountain, instead of a space elevator?

[Haggis@wk]

Return to the Moon
Unless it's profitable, it won't be permanent

[dai bread]

To revive an old topic of dicussion in this thread; how about a space fountain, instead of a space elevator?

Sounds like a giant shot-blasting rig to me. I wonder how long the tubes would last, and if an elevator car would stand 3 hours or more of the bombardment needed to keep it going. And why would the magnet in the top station keep it supported and not simply accumulate pellets and come crashing down? It would be a very big magnet.

On top of that, a space fountain would have to be power-hungry. Moving all that mass around takes a lot of energy, and the recovery system won't be 100% efficient by any means.

I'll let someone else test it.

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

I'll let someone else test it.

You are one smart man. I shall emulate you...

[Haggis@wk]

Fourteen months from today, for the first time since 1962, the U.S. will be incapable not just of sending a man to the moon but of sending anyone into Earth orbit. We'll be totally grounded. We'll have to beg a ride from the Russians or perhaps even the Chinese.

[dai bread]

I find it rather depressing that we are still messing about with a half-built space station rather than establishing a much bigger and more easily maintained (because it's on or in the ground) moon base.

I think a moon base is potentially much more useful than a space station, especially as starting point for interplanetary flights.

Maybe I've read too much Science Fiction from the 1950s and '60s.

[Haggis@wk]

I find it rather depressing that we are still messing about with a half-built space station rather than establishing a much bigger and more easily maintained (because it's on or in the ground) moon base.

I think a moon base is potentially much more useful than a space station, especially as starting point for interplanetary flights.

Maybe I've read too much Science Fiction from the 1950s and '60s.

NASA is already saying that they are going to let the ISS crash in 2016. As I've said frequently, man will go into space, the only thing in doubt is whether he will speak any English

[dai bread]

Yes indeed. I read a report yesterday of an Indian space shot. It wasn't very successful, but I was surprised they'd made the attempt. Mind you, Indians speak English, among other languages.

I also read an article reprinted from the Washington Post and written by Buzz Aldrin, advocating trips to Mars. The article's not clear on the point, but he seems to suggest setting off from a base on the Moon.