Star Trek: The Next Generation
I was under the impression that you have satellite TV, OCM. Even with cable or broadcast, most of the programming is transmitted via satellite anyway.
Got any cordless power tools or a smoke detector? Did your recent trip to the hospital include an MRI or CATscan? These area few of the benefits we take for granted and are directly tracable to the space program.
Go ahead and do a search using “Benefits of the Space Program”. You might be surprised.
Therefore the “was” in your post above, JimT.
What did the Nazis have to do with the U2 program? I’m well aware of the program history and don’t recall Nazis having anything to do with it.
So we highjacked some German engineers in 1944, better us then the Russians who also cleared out a pack.
Posted by gdonovan
08/09/2005 at 09:22 AM
OCM, there’s more to space flight than getting satellites up there for whatever purpose: communication, GPS, mapping, observation, etc. You can dismiss the NASA site if you like, but check out the other sites that say pretty much the same thing. Some people, despite all efforts to the contrary, insist on living in the “dark ages”. There’s not much we can do about them. Don’t become one.
Gdonovan,I’m thinking that OCM meant the V-2 rockets. They were based entirely on the work of Robert Goddard, an American physicist who invented and launched the first liquid fuel rocket.
When he wasn’t being ignored Goddard was being ridiculed by, among others, no less than the NY Times. They later retracted their opinion that rockets could never fly in space “because there’s nothing to push against”, after Apollo 11 blasted off for the moon. Link Link Link
There’s video at that 2nd link if you have something that will play the ogg format. If you don’t, the video is still there, you just won’t be able to see it. WinAmp won’t play it, I’m going to have to find something else to view it.
I’m well aware who fired rockets into London during WWII- Should we not buy electronics from the Japanese to based on the same logic?
Should we have let the Russians grab all the rocket men from Germany after the war and been staring down the gunbarrels of a bunch of Russian lunatics?
Hello, reality check.
Posted by gdonovan
08/09/2005 at 12:38 PM
To my mind, space exploration will not be a serious endeavour until private enterprise is involved. State-paid projects have an inevitable habit of becoming pork barrels for Lockheed, Boeing, Grumman, etc. As the Skipper was/is a Project Manager I’m sure he’s familiar with scope bloat.
A few years ago I read the Lodestar/Rogue Star/Firestar trilogy by Michael Flynn. An enjoyable light read. I recommend it to those who like to follow the space exploration story, as it lays out some of the options.
Of course, going by Arthur C Clarke’s timeline, we are woefully behind schedule. We should have colonies on the moon by now.
always a black hole to suck up $$
So is welfare IMHO & handouts to Africa, yet I see a far greater return with NASA.
Jobs, spin off technology, etc.
Posted by gdonovan
08/09/2005 at 01:44 PM
Good point on private enterprise, DWMF. Gov’t knows nothing about efficiency, they just know budget and “empire” building. “International Cooperation” is even worse. Sometimes both are necessary at the beginning, but it takes private enterprise to properly exploit success and move to the next stages. I note fledgeling private enterprises testing the waters now. Let’s hope they make it. If they are not helped, they shouldn’t be hindered.
Clarke, Heinlein, Asimov and many others gave us the maps and ideas, it’s up to us and later generations to carry through.
All,
The other major cometitor in the CEV bid is proposing an old-fashioned capsule. Picture a cross between Apollo and Soyuz, that seats five.
Until reusable lift technology comes further along, wings on a spacecraft are as useful as screen doors on a submarine.
OCM,
Any teflon-coated nonstick frying pans?
Make long-distance phone calls?
Any piece of clothing that uses Nomex?
A cellular/PCS telephone?
Live in an area prone to thunderstorms, hurricanes or tornadoes and like being warned in advance?
Use a microwave oven?
Use a GPS locator?Most of the above would not be possible without the space program. Those that might exist without the space program, would be a more recent development and expensive as heck. Long distance phone calls would still cost a fortune. (remember the $2 for the first minute, $1 or so for every consecutive minute days?)
The Germans were building on reseach done by an American, Robert H. Goddard, and a Russian, Konstantin Tsilkovsky.
The very definition of a moonbat.
Posted by gdonovan
08/09/2005 at 10:16 PM
Nomex is flame resistant cloth
So you *never* watch the news or consult any weather service? Ever?
Is your computer pretty modern?
Have any clothes lined with thinsulate?
Kevlar was originally invented for use in the space program. It was used to line spacesuits against micrometeoroid impacts.
Composite construction was developed primarily for the space program.
The microminiaturization that allows you to use your computer on this thing we call the “Internet” was paid for by the space program and defense spending.I guess when the next big rock comes by you want us to have spent all the money on social programs so we can all be happy little dolists when the rock hits.
The meek shall inherit the Earth. The bold shall go to the stars.
No- You act like someone with their fingers in their ears going “I can’t hear you”
Who is spoiled?
A number of people point out the impact of spending money at NASA and how it has certainly helped and you are the one acting like a punk.
Now explain to me how throwing cash at some hell hole in Africa is ok?
Posted by gdonovan
08/10/2005 at 09:40 AM
*I* never stated stated earth “evolves” or revolve around NASA.
I stated that for return in investment that NASA was a hell of a lot better.
What has funds sent to Africa got us? Nothing but more dictators in power. What has funds sent to every Islamic nation gots us? Nothing, they still hate us while cashing our checks and laughing.
The border isn’t a money issue at all and you know it, its politics.
Typical moonbat argument- Ignore all facts, smear & ignore holes in your own position.
Just pointing out the obvious, perhaps its time to light up again?
Posted by gdonovan
08/10/2005 at 10:16 AM
Like I said- Ignore all facts, they are just pesky things.
The amusing thing is, you enjoy your lifestyle protected by people who don’t ignore them.
Ironic isn’t it?
Posted by gdonovan
08/10/2005 at 11:03 AM
Without the space program, guarding our borders would be a pain, because surveillance sattelites sure as heck wouldn’t exist.
I’m laughing since the computer you are using was advanced by NASA’s need for powerful computers.
So much for NASA not impacting you life eh? Or are you making posts with a computer constructed of woodchips and shells?
LOL.
Like I said- Typical moonbat arguing.
Posted by gdonovan
08/10/2005 at 03:43 PM
without the space program, guarding our borders would be a pain
Oh so NASA is useful?
Only when you can use them in an argument heh?
Man, this just gets better and better.
Posted by gdonovan
08/10/2005 at 03:46 PM
Remember, OCM, that necessity is the mother of invention. If you don’t need something there’s a pretty good chance that you won’t find a way to make it. If you do, however need something ...
This leads to discovery, which leads to other applications of what you’ve discovered. The Kevlar mentioned above is an example. Invented to line space suits for protection against micro-meteorites it’s been adapted to body armor and I’ve used it in the form of gloves for handling HOT stuff in a welding environment. It’s thin and light, much more so than the alternatives available before Kevlar.
Draven- Sorry about last post, thought it was from oldcatman due to avatar over post, my apologies.
Posted by gdonovan
08/10/2005 at 03:48 PM
np…
OCM, NASA PAID for the ‘invention of this stuff’. They spent the money developing it.
Firefighters wear nomex gear every day. Heck, I had an oven mitt lined with Nomex back in the 80s.
Long-string aramid fibers like Kevlar protect our police officers and soldiers.
And, some of our international guests on the ‘net wouldn’t be here without sattelites.
(Heck, Arthur C. Clarke, the science fiction writer that came up wioth the idea for communications sattelites, uses a sattelite internet connection from where he lives in Sri Lanka. After the tidal wave, his phone was down but his internet was still working...)
Without the space program you wouldn’t even be saying your remarks about ‘little green men from Mars” because you wouldn’t know that they weren’t THERE.
Ok, here’s one.
If it wasn’t for the space program, the USSR would have put intermediate-range ballistic missiles in Cuba in 1963. The construction for the launch facility was initially spotted by sattelite, and a U-2 spy plane was sent over to get higher resolution photos. The entire course of the cold war would have been different if that missile base had been completed.
*some* car air bags are lined with kevlar. usually on more expensive cars.
Kevlar is also used in brake pads, clutch pads, belts and hoses for cars, hunting clothing, Bicycle and motorcycle helmets, tires… the list goes on.
I used to work as a security guard. Most of the guys working armed positions were wearing vests. I was in an office building- i was ‘armed’ with a 5-D-cell MagLite.
Necessity is the mother of invention, but SOMEONE still has to pay for it.
Aramid fiber wasn’t used for ANYTHING before the space program paid for the development of the various indispensable fibers today.
[nature show narration] And now you will see the reaction of the American moonbat when confronted with kowledge it does not wish to have… it puts its hands up to its ears, and repeats “La, la, la, I can’t hear you.” and pretends that the offending knowledge will simply go away. [/nature show narration]
Billions have been poured in research for cancer and other disease for decades, there is no guarantee you will cure anything by throwing piles of cash at it.
What kind of of moonbat argument is that?
Same logic that goes if we keep throwing money at Africa it will get all better?
bwhahaha.
Posted by gdonovan
08/11/2005 at 04:22 PM
My father has lymphoma, thankyouverymuch. My mother died from an asthma attack ten years ago.
NASA does NOT have a big budget. More money gets spent on medical research than gets spent on the space program. More money gets spent on welfare then gets spent on the space program. Hell, more money gets spent on foreign aid than gets spent on the space program.
Just because YOU don’t have any need for the space program and the technology it creates doesn’t mean the rest of us should do without it. Period.
And guess what… people dying of old age is something that RICH PEOPLE pour money into researching, as well as the government. And there isn’t a cure for that yet either. Basically, a DNA strand can only replicate so many times before the protiens that hold the ends together degrade and it starts to unravel. A fundamental design flaw of all life on Earth.
My list of NASA facts didn’t shrink, I chose to focus on one particular item that is in common use.
Late 1960s/early 1970s bore he shit out of me.
Sorry that should have been,
Late 1960s/early 1970s mentalities bore he shit out of me.
high school mentalities bore the shit out of me.
Lefty socialist moonbats with no clue bore me.
Speaking of high school, perhaps you should have never dropped out.
Posted by gdonovan
08/11/2005 at 06:13 PM
Hey getting a clue- Try less then 1% of federal expenditures.
Walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, smells like a duck, it’s a duck.
You are something I can’t imagine all right.
Posted by gdonovan
08/11/2005 at 07:17 PM
08/09/2005 at 01:21 PM
