John F. Kerry

In continuing my pro-nasa propoganda pr tour, im going to attempt to endeavor to answer the oft asked question: what does nasa do for me? wouldn't nasas money be better spent here on earth? To answer these questions (in short, A TON, and NOT A CHANCE, respectively), im gonna periodically add new posts to this thread noting the various real-world applications of nasa technology. This thread will note things nasa has acomplished that not only help with space exploration but have direct corrolations to improving life and technology used on earth...


so the first in this series is

NASA - Sailor Reflects on NASA Technology That Saved His Life

now nasa and space rockets are responsible for gps itself, that much is fairly obvious, because without satelites we wouldnt have gps.... but here nasa uses even more advanced radar and satelite to augment gps capacity at sea and in rough weather.... nasa money = 1 life saved.... millions with better geographical data.... next installment comming soon.


ps anybody else add some too if u want to.


komps posts about the walking robots are another really good example of this kind of idea... in 20-30 years we may have robots to take military equipment into the worst terrain in the world- up mountains ,etc, so troops can avoid the most exposed positions.... more lives undoubtably will be saved....


so the real question is - can we afford to NOT fund nasa?

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Nasa under Obama

Mercury

I'm glad we have NASA to watch out for asteroids and map other planets with the occasional space robot. Those missions are worth the cost.

verklingen

anyone who thinks nasa hasn't helped us or isn't worthwhile is a dimwit. one amazing exploit was turning astronomy from a purely observational science into an experimental one. if we could all get behind space exploration the world would be a mighty fine place

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“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”

cantSEEme

im a supporter of a nasa, but at the same time, im a realest. there are SO many things right now that could use the funding better than nasa, like for example, our schools. if future generations keep getting dumber, who the hell is going to fly the rockets?

over-simplification, but still....



edit: also, i should say i support the endeavors of this thread.

Canuck Wisdom

I agree, but at the same time, instead of cutting funding to Nasa, in a perfect world, we could use military funding to bring everyone up to comfortable standard of living, which would in my opinion greatly lower the need for militaries around the world, and then we could all work together on space exploration.

Kinda ala Bill Hicks.

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-Knowitall A&P type-

stoneric

Does the fact a particular technology was developed because of nasa mean it wouldn't have been developed otherwise?

verklingen

you mean without government funding? probably

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“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”

stoneric

Talking about cutting military spending in this country is verboten.

stoneric

If the common denomenator is only government funding, then nasa isn't necessary. Not that I'm against it if we have our priorities straight.

Kompressor

Don't forget what the first A in NASA stands for. A lot of what NASA does relates to weather prediction/management as well as renewable energies. Hell we wouldn't have known about the hole in the Ozone layer if it wasn't for NASA.

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Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought. -H. Bergson

kamikazi89

it wouldn't have been possible without em

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theorangejulius

yea NASA's cool. i especially dig the 'earth observatory' side of it...you know, looking at ourselves from space in order to better understand our spaceship.

not crazy into the idea of spending public dollars on getting humans in space or on other planets though, especially in times like this. i'd rather spend dollars on preserving our own planet than on figuring out how to live on a hostile one. how bad will we have to fuck this place up before mars looks like a good alternative?

Canuck Wisdom

Good thing Im not in your country.


OH wait, our government is your ball-less bitch

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-Knowitall A&P type-

zerodown

Is nasa worth it?

Well thats a tricky question, it only leaves you two answers, yes or no, and yes will win. What you need is a question that will make people THINK about it, like: Considering all the different uses to which your tax dollars could go to, how much of your tax dollars is nasa worth?

Now there is a good question that will make people analyze the issue, make them think about an answer, make them look for information to form an answer, and most of all make them think what other things they think should be a higher priority than nasa when its time to cut the cake.

Is nasa worth it? Thats like saying, should we be killing babies? Of course its needed, but its a matter of priority, how much are you willing to sacrifice from somewhere else that needs the money too? Capitalism 101

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"I've seen people so poor all they got is money."

We have to learn to unlearn
Its not contradiction, its amendment
Not everything we see is reality
Not everything we hear is the truth
Not everything we're taught helps us grow
~Cultura Profetica

"La locura se lleva en la cabeza y las drogas en los bolsillos"
~Roberto Iniesta

John F. Kerry

"Is nasa worth it? Thats like saying, should we be killing babies? "

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Nasa under Obama

verklingen

zero i assume you're referencing the various wars we're waging around the world, but that doesn't help me make sense of what you're saying

i don't want to keep discussing my assumption so i'll wait for you to clarify: how is questioning the benefits nasa's pursuits like questioning killing babies?

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“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”

zerodown

No, I wasn't referencing to anything specific at all, thats the point, its not war only, how about hunger? housing? health? employment? corruption? are those higher or below nasa on your scale? Its not just one thing. If I was in charge of assigning funds in government, I think nasa would have a pretty low priority to me, I would rather work on current more important issues before covering nasa.

How many other subjects can you find that you would put ahead of nasa?

__________________
"I've seen people so poor all they got is money."

We have to learn to unlearn
Its not contradiction, its amendment
Not everything we see is reality
Not everything we hear is the truth
Not everything we're taught helps us grow
~Cultura Profetica

"La locura se lleva en la cabeza y las drogas en los bolsillos"
~Roberto Iniesta

verklingen

i see where you're coming from but nasa has done/is doing many important things to help us better understand our planet, whether by studying it directly or inferring from comparisons that studies of other planets make possible.

i have to ask: what is nasa to you? an argument against nasa on grounds that its funding could be better used for other social purposes (i consider the science nasa facilitates a social purpose as well) seems silly to me given how small its budget is compared to, say, the pentagon. so i guess i would put a few things before nasa but there's no reason we couldn't cover nasa while tackling the problems you listed given an ideal situation (i.e. drastically shrinking war/defense spending)

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“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”

zerodown

I don't doubt their importance, I doubt the priority we set on it. Yes nasa is important, and it is responsible for many contributions, but we already have everything we need to coexist with one another, I think nasa and the pentagon too, as well as many other institutions full of old geezers should recieve a lot of budget cuts and focus on more important things.

But thats just me, so yeah, I agree that nasa is very important, but I look at it in terms of priority, if we haven't fixed the problem of housing for example, why shouldn't we use nasa's funds to house the homeless? Priority, and yeah we have programs for the homeless and other issues, but they don't work, its like a medicine that makes the pain go away but the illness is still there, until it works like it should I think we should set priorities and cut a lot of dead weight on government(nasa, pentagon, cia, etc...) so that we can progress as a society.

__________________
"I've seen people so poor all they got is money."

We have to learn to unlearn
Its not contradiction, its amendment
Not everything we see is reality
Not everything we hear is the truth
Not everything we're taught helps us grow
~Cultura Profetica

"La locura se lleva en la cabeza y las drogas en los bolsillos"
~Roberto Iniesta

verklingen

i can get with that, i just believe that the advancement of science goes hand in hand with the progress of society. the cia and pentagon, not so much

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“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”