What would I do without my good friends at bowhunting.com? I am not sure I could function without the uplifting feeling I get from reading the posts of others and thinking at least I am not that guy.
I don't mind space exploration at all. I think we need it, but the rhetorical questions I have are 1) is it worth the CURRENT costs considering the national debt and 2) why does NASA only seem to be interested in finding life on other celestial objects? When it comes to space exploration, are there other properties or types of rocks or gases out there that we don't even know exists? Shouldn't we be focused on finding new celestial properties/gases so if we find them we can leverage them to produce energy, improve military weaponry/enhance security, or protect life on this planet rather than spending so much time/money looking for other life? How can NASA, with a straight face, say "we are close to finding life on other planets"? That's a moronic statement because you either find it or you don't, there is no close. They just say it so funding continues, plain and simple. So in my opinion, I am ok with spending money on space exploration, but I wish they would put more time, money, and focus towards more than just searching for "life".
The search for extra terrestrial life gets all the headlines, but that's a very small part of what NASA actually does, and it's really only a subset of any overall mission.
Where can I see how the time/money is allocated? If you are right, then they need to show that and talk more about what else they do. Maybe it's a fault of the media.
+1! It is said that the mineral wealth in space is to be had aplenty. Asteroids impregnated with precious stones and metals, it always seemed to me that if that were the case that's where our focus should be. It would make the program support itself and make the endeavor (no pun intended) worth while. It would solve many many problems with one change of focus. They should have been focusing harder on cheaper means of reaching orbit and developing jump stations on the moon as staging points for those types of missions than wasting money on searches for life that may never be fruitful and even if they are...would be light years away. No benefit to searching for life, focus on ours and stop the crap.
Not specific about budget, but just an idea of some of the goals. http://www.nasa.gov/about/whats_next.html
Just food for thought. NASA's budget is one half of one percent of the overall federal budget. We spend 7% on interest from our debt. Unless we can get the debt under control, that number is going to continue to grow exponentially. I'm all in favor of spending for research, technology and development, but we need to get the elephant off our backs and get the national debt in check. Something the last two administrations have failed miserably at.
It would if it were verifiable but life even 1 light year away can only be speculated upon unless it's developed far enough to be capable of transmiting communications or has developed sub-light travel. We certainly can't go that far and verify life in person. I already feel confident there is other life out there anyway, I doubt they are going to find an amoeba slurking around on any of the planets in our solar system and if they did what does it prove. Any aliens capable of traveling here, we don't need to seek out, ones outside our solar system are pretty much unreachable to discover via our exploration so...our time and resources would be better spent exploring for resources. There's nothing that says we can't search for primordial life as we explore for resources anyway.
And so it is! Did you get this photo off Nasa's dark web, double secret site? I wonder if Germ saw any skunks there?
Well some speculated that the original image showed a being with visible breasts, I guess they were right.:p
Yep, that's why I was asking what their motives were and whether or not they could better utilize their time and money. I'm quite ignorant in the the area of NASA's budget or what their goals are but it seems like they're so focused on finding life on other planets so that's why I asked. I guess I also didn't realize that so many people believed that there was life on other planets. Hooker, as a libertarian, why shouldn't NASA be privatized? Backing out on your morals, eh? Just kidding
