I can finally get a life, albeit an Australian one . . .



. . .  
** expired/removed eBay auction **




. . . http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/0 ... index.html

Plaag wrote:Just watched the whole series on Discovery Channel: When we left Earth.
Just amazes me how far we've come in less then 50 years for space travel.  

ShaneG.

yeah, I have been watching some of the episodes as well.
Very intriguing and very Interesting stuff.

What amazes me even more is the almost complete lack of technical advancement (comparatively speaking) in space technologies by NASA and the US in general in the past 15 years. Even more amazing to me is the seemingly complete lack of interest by the general public, and especially politicians in the US regarding space and future space exploration.

It seems that other powers (Read that other countries/governments) are exceedingly interested in making new footprints, or in some cases advancing their footprint in space, while the US seems to be wallowing in past successes and even dwelling on past disasters. We (US) seem to be content to allow those others to surpass us in almost every aspect of space research and planned future space exploration.

Aneoth wrote:
What amazes me even more is the almost complete lack of technical advancement (comparatively speaking) in space technologies by NASA and the US in general in the past 15 years. Even more amazing to me is the seemingly complete lack of interest by the general public, and especially politicians in the US regarding space and future space exploration.
.

Well, (start rant), it's because since the late 60s/early 70s as a culture we've been obsessed with the mantra of "Feed the poor, why are we shooting spaceships into space when kids are starving, why are we flying to the moon when we have inner city crime, why are we building space stations when kids can't read, we need more money for social programs, the homeless, AIDS research and teachers, flying to another planet is a waste of money".  

I guess it all worked out though, because in the last 30 years we have  eliminated hunger, crime, homelessness, and illiteracy in the US while crippling a space program that was once light years ahead of any other in the world. I guess that trade-off is worth it  

Mike B.

(Note: I'm not dissing on social programs, Aids, the homeless or teachers; just the fact that politicians love to toss out these "hot button" reasons for voting down NASA programs, while at the same time also voting down initiatives to improve programs for the above, hoping no one will notice the inconsistancy, or the fact that money often goes instead to Pork Barrel projects)

Aneoth wrote:
yeah, I have been watching some of the episodes as well.
Very intriguing and very Interesting stuff.

What amazes me even more is the almost complete lack of technical advancement (comparatively speaking) in space technologies by NASA and the US in general in the past 15 years. Even more amazing to me is the seemingly complete lack of interest by the general public, and especially politicians in the US regarding space and future space exploration.

It seems that other powers (Read that other countries/governments) are exceedingly interested in making new footprints, or in some cases advancing their footprint in space, while the US seems to be wallowing in past successes and even dwelling on past disasters. We (US) seem to be content to allow those others to surpass us in almost every aspect of space research and planned future space exploration.

Without the US commitment to...for instance...the international space station and similar projects, other countries would be pretty much limited to "advances" that the US made in the 60's...such as satellites, earth orbit and planetary probes.

The idea that the US is falling behind in space is about as real as the original "space race" and its attendant attitudes.

jasonw1239 wrote:Plus how do you design a Mars lander that can successfully take off again and rendezvous with an orbiter.

There was some talk that the long term plans of China was to send volunteers on a one-way trip to mars.

It would circumvent the lander/re-launch issue, but the PR of shooting somebody off on a suicide mission might have changed their mind.

Oh I don't know, if you held out hope that someday in the not so distant future (say, 10-20 years) you could develop an orbiting spacecraft that was capable of traveling to Mars, orbiting the planet, and sending a spacecraft down to pick up anyone who wants to go back home, I think you could sell a one-way mission as being only "temporary, until we go back to get them". Sure it might be a suicide mission, but people die for stupider reasons everyday.  I'd do it if the government promised to compensate my family and heirs in perpetuity (full ride scholarships for my kids and grandkids, full health benefits at zero cost for my family, a nice 100 grand or so a year deposited in all their bank accounts for 20 years or so, etc) and I bet there are a lot of scientist types that might do it for a lot less. Remember, not only could you get the government to be Sugar Daddy to your family forever, but you are going down in the history books, and your name will be pretty much synonymus with space travel for hundreds of years...

Remember soldiers put their lives on the line everyday, with a lot less hope of being famous or making any money off it, and there are plenty of volunteers....

Mike B.

g026r wrote:I'll give them a size check to see if they'll actually work once I get home.

And one final post for those people who might be interested:

There's no way in hell you're going to fit a hardcover in one of these, but for your standard Chaosium/White Wolf/2e AD&D softcover*, it's exactly the right width and length.

I think I'm going to order me a few more.  At $2 for 3 boxes, they're a fairly good deal.

(* Those are the types of books I tested with, for the curious.)

jasonw1239 wrote:I suppose you could look at it that way.

When the USSR put the first dog into space (Laika), the only controversy was political in nature.

Along the lines of "How did we let them get ahead of us?"

It was not until much later that the ethical issue of sending an animal to its certain death, even made a ripple in the press.

If it is a matter of "Let's not let them get ahead of us" then anything could be justified, with sufficient propaganda.  

Yeh, if that happened today, PETA and the SPCA would be all over it.  

"SAVE THE POOCH!"

It would be on every major TV and radio talk show.  The dog would probably be more famous than the president (I bet more people would know it's name...).  Tshirts, web sites, candle light vigils....

Mike B.

Badmike wrote:
Yeh, if that happened today, PETA and the SPCA would be all over it.  

"SAVE THE POOCH!"

It would be on every major TV and radio talk show.  The dog would probably be more famous than the president (I bet more people would know it's name...).  Tshirts, web sites, candle light vigils....

Mike B.

I would be OK with launching a cow or chicken into space...so long as that does not reduce the supply of cows and chickens to eat here on Earth.

Mmmmmm....dog!  Now there's a meal!  

Perhaps we could launch a chicken into space equipped with a device to humanely sever its head as soon as we're done gathering data!

Maybe....explosive bolts to jam a steel rod into a cow's brain so it does not suffer out in space.

Or, we could just eat them and stop whining?  

I say...launch PETA members into space....perhaps with a humane killing method?  

Deadlord39 wrote:I've always thought it would be the ultimate irony to see a planeful of vegans crash-land in the Andes and await rescue for 6 months.

6 Months.  I would last about 24 hours after the inflight peanuts ran out !!!!  What always surprised me about cases like the Andes crash (or similar) that is that people wait so long.  I would be tucking into co-pilot burgers way early...  Got to keep your strength up after all.

Deadlord39 wrote:You may notice that people's morals and ethics generally flow and ebb with the availability of alternatives, i.e. if lettuce is cheap, people become vegans. If not, eggs are OK...

True true     Although it seems to me natural that moral frameworks should vary.  You work to a different set of morals in war time than in peacetime etc etc..