Real world factual errors

[Buran]

And, of course, the joke is,

"Beam me up, Scotty. There's no intelligent life down here."

[Gryphon]

Buran:
Aww, thanks. But I do wonder -- why don't you care? Would you vote against spaceflight, particularly manned spaceflight? If so, why? Consider that less than 1% of the federal budget goes to supporting space exploration and far more is wasted on useless "pork" snuck into various bills.

Maybe I'm too down-to-earth. XD If that's true, then yeah, I'm for space exploration even after Katrina. Because of that, the recent plans have been under fire. What I do doubt is how competitive NASA is. What I mean to say is... they have no competition, so they have no incentives to drive down their cost and be more efficient. Otherwise, I'm all for the research.

Oh, and as for the "pork"... I keel. Our government can be corrupt and contradictory, but who's to stop it? Yeah, we're the people. Yeah, we have power. But when it gets to the fine details... it all slips through our fingers. Take electing a politician. There're flaws in all of them, if only because there is no one ideal. One group is pro choice, another, pro life. Or, closer to what I was saying, how can you judge integrity?

I know what I'm trying to say, but I'm still searching for the words.

Buranish:
It discusses the history of the US space program, how it's a shadow of what it once was, but why those who worked on it and those of us who believe in it feel it's still important.

Maybe I should go into astronomy and all of that instead. They need a brillaint brain, and this is where to get it, right? XD XD Naw, I'd rather be an entrepreneur. I think of science as more of a security. If I still don't know what to do with my life during or after college, I can at least do that.

[Birdhead]

What I do doubt is how competitive NASA is. What I mean to say is... they have no competition, so they have no incentives to drive down their cost and be more efficient. Otherwise, I'm all for the research.

Uh... the notion of competition applies to businesses, who seek to drive down cost so they can get more people to pay them money so that can, you know, make money. The Space Exploration project isn't- or shouldn't be- a money-making enterprise. It's science, strictly not-for-profit, and the reason I'm confident NASA works to become more efficient is because they don't get enough money anyway. Not to mention it being safer and easier and cheaper! Of course they want to be cheaper! Affordable space travel would turn it into something that could become a profit enterprise, which I guess to some people is the point of science research.

[Buran]

Fortunately, there actually are private enterprises which do make money at space exploration. Take for example Boeing and its Delta 4 rocket and SeaLaunch system, Paypal founder Elon Musk's new company SpaceX, Orbital Sciences and its Pegasus launcher, Arianespace with the Ariane, Space Launch Services' Russian division with its Soyuz rocket ... the list goes on and on. Most satellites are actually commercial vehicles that are privately built and launched.

Manned flight is now commercialized, too. If you have a few million bucks, you can buy an orbital ride on a Soyuz spacecraft. In a few years, you'll be able to spend a few hundred thousand for a suborbital trip on SpaceShipTwo and Virgin Galactic.

But I definitely feel that governments do have and will continue to have a major role in both robotic and human explorations for many decades to come.

[Small town]

I loooooove space sooo much!!!!!!Im not a total space freak but close to it.We just watched "October Sky" in class it was pritty interesting. I had to sit throu a move on Apollo 13 that id seen a bazilen times. Buran did you hear about the guy that paid a bunch of money to ride on a space shuttel. I got my first telascope 2 years ago and i know it inside out its sooo cool. I might not respond quickly.

[Buran]

That's a great movie. I loved it. I'd also recommend Apollo 13 (great docudrama) and Space Cowboys (funny, has some pretty good Shuttle views except for a messed-up RMS arm). Also try 2010 (2001 is slow and boring). Documentaries, try From The Earth To The Moon (HBO). NOVA (PBS) often runs good space topics, too.

[Small town]

I loove Space Cowboys i have it and i think wer talking about the same Apollo 13 movie. I dont think ive herd of the others but I will check them out. Hang on your in St Louis cool. I do watch NOVA every once and awille.

[Gryphon]

Tui:
Uh... the notion of competition applies to businesses, who seek to drive down cost so they can get more people to pay them money so that can, you know, make money.

That part is what I was talking about. NASA is something that uses our tax money, but it has no pressure to be efficient because it has no competition, and the "consumers" have no votes (a vote being the choice to buy or to not). It would be whether the government feeds money into it or not. Do the employees get paid? That's what my arguement is hinged on. If they do, then it's not exactly a non-profit thing, and you'd be relying on people's integrity to be sure things are done how they should.

[Buran]

So what about all the other government agencies that "have no competition" for the jobs they do? Do we not need those, too?

And until recently the technology hasn't existed for anyone else to do a lot of this stuff. The X-Prize (a local homegrown notion) is changing all that, but it'll take time.

[Gryphon]

Buran, you silly. XD I wasn't arguing NASA; I was talking about a potential problem with it. I'm not saying it should be fixed; it can't (I think), unless it loses government funding which... would do a lot more harm than good.

[Buran]

Silly and proud of it!

[Peter Murray]

Originally posted by Buran:
So what about all the other government agencies that "have no competition" for the jobs they do? Do we not need those, too?

Now I'm imagining the Washington tour guide... "On your left, you can see the Blue House, constructed to introduce competition to the Presidency. There was originally a Red House, to complete the set of three, but it was demolished by Senator McCarthy in the 1950s."

[Caitlin]

Hey Gryph, that's about what my mom said when I mentioned thinking about getting a job at NASA someday. She was like, astrophysics may be cool....to you, but the job options are limited. If NASA downsizes, then what? What will you be able to do then?

Being the typical teenager, I just kinda nodded and mumbled summat and went back to reading my book on string theory.

*laughs insanely at PM's joke*

[Buran]

Originally posted by Peter Murray: Presidency. There was originally a Red House, to complete the set of three, but it was demolished by Senator McCarthy in the 1950s."

Bwahahahah.