RE: The Future of NASA
August 5, 2010 at 9:24 am
(This post was last modified: August 5, 2010 at 9:25 am by SleepingDemon.)
Honestly NASA has become such a bureacracy that beyond the science part of it, it's almost impotent in regards to space flight. In the 60's, JFK said within 10 years we WILL be on the moon, and we were, however these days it's like, well, by 2100 we are going to land on an asteroid and by 3000 we hope to land on Mars. They are afraid of failing so they put such a massive timescale on it that most people can't maintain interest. Mars by 2030? What the hell are they going to do for the next 20 years? In 20 years the technology for space travel will have leaped ahead again, and whatever rubbish they have been testing for the past 3 decades will be obsolete.
I say privatize space, completely. There are a few things that NASA does really well. NASA has the best labs, the best phycisists, the best technology. So the sciene part of astronomy should be theirs to keep. However the actual space flight and exploration should go to corporations, where there is no red tape, no restraints. In the early 1900's when the Wright brothers flew, everyone was trying to duplicate it. You had every amateur and enthusiast working on some contraption to get themselves off of the ground, that's the kind of atmosphere we need. I am not a fan of multinational corporations. However if we as a species can use their greed to push our species into space permanently, then i'm all on board. We have to get to Mars. We have to get out of this damn solar system. As a species it is imparative that we become at least a 2 planet species to ensure our own survival.
I say privatize space, completely. There are a few things that NASA does really well. NASA has the best labs, the best phycisists, the best technology. So the sciene part of astronomy should be theirs to keep. However the actual space flight and exploration should go to corporations, where there is no red tape, no restraints. In the early 1900's when the Wright brothers flew, everyone was trying to duplicate it. You had every amateur and enthusiast working on some contraption to get themselves off of the ground, that's the kind of atmosphere we need. I am not a fan of multinational corporations. However if we as a species can use their greed to push our species into space permanently, then i'm all on board. We have to get to Mars. We have to get out of this damn solar system. As a species it is imparative that we become at least a 2 planet species to ensure our own survival.
"In our youth, we lacked the maturity, the decency to create gods better than ourselves so that we might have something to aspire to. Instead we are left with a host of deities who were violent, narcissistic, vengeful bullies who reflected our own values. Our gods could have been anything we could imagine, and all we were capable of manifesting were gods who shared the worst of our natures."-Me
"Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation; all of which may be guides to an outward moral virtue, even if religion vanished; but religious superstition dismounts all these and erects an absolute monarchy in the minds of men." – Francis Bacon
"Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation; all of which may be guides to an outward moral virtue, even if religion vanished; but religious superstition dismounts all these and erects an absolute monarchy in the minds of men." – Francis Bacon
