So, the ISS is nearing completion, the constellation program for manned missions to the moon and mars is underway, robotic probes are still gathering an immense amount of data on nearby (and faraway) planets and moons, commercial suborbital and low-orbit flights should be coming soon, etc. These should be exciting times, and yet overall interest in space travel seems to be quite low.

Some will argue that the money spent on space travel is better spent on earth; that the billions of dollars it costs to send humans to orbit or robots to other planets should instead be used to help the poor or the sick or the uneducated. I disagree with this assessment, though. Spaceflight may be expensive, but all the money spent goes right back into the economy, paying the wages of scientists and engineers and technicians. Also, when you consider the budget for NASA, it's a drop in the bucket when compared with something like the department of defense. And yet people complaining about unnecessary spending attack NASA's 20 billion budget rather than the DoD's 500 billion.

While it may not seem immediately obvious, there are tangible benefits to space exploration. Many advances in computers, robotics, medical technology, materials science, etc. have all come from research and development for the space program. The Apollo missions were a landmark event in the history of our species that inspired millions of people and stirred up interest in science for people around the world. Maybe we need a similar grand project today. Something audacious like sending astronauts to Mars, not on some tentative 30-year timeline, but as soon as possible, would give nations - the whole world, perhaps - a goal to work towards; give people hope for the future. Technologies might be developed as part of such a mission that could dramatically change the world. Maybe better rocket propulsion systems would make it economical to mine the asteroids, which would provide us with all the metals that we would ever need (We're currently running out of some at a rather alarming rate). Perhaps a breakthrough in growing carbon nanotubes or some similar substance would make a space elevator possible, decreasing the cost to get into space by several orders of magnitude and paving the way for us to truly become a spacefaring civilization. But we'll never know until we try.

Anyway, enough of me trying to wax poetical about space exploration; here are some pretty pictures. Click for huge versions.

Space shuttle Columbia launching at night:


The surface of Mars:


Testing an aerospike engine:


Everyone's favourite ringed planet, Saturn:


Two astronauts doing some work on the outside of the ISS:


The Sun, as seen in the ultraviolet spectrum:

I like space.

*beepbeep* Broken window fallacy detected!


The same could be said about World War II. Any endeavor that involves a lot of engineering will have tertiary benefits. We'd probably get similar results from spending billions trying to arrange deep sea rock formations into images of giant genitalia.

Other the other hand, it's all pretty cool. What'd be really cool is if we built capitol ships in orbit just in case we one day invent hyper drives. If such a device is discovered, I don't want to sit around for a year waiting for a ship to be built that can use it.

I only meant to point out that space travel doesn't, as some people seem to think, involve launching rockets full of 100 dollar bills into the sun.

But arranging rocks into giant genetalia won't save our species when a meteor destroys the Earth.

I disagree with this too.

Mostly because at one point we'll be able to go somewhere else and leave the idiots rotting on a dying planet.

I would support this.

You aren't cool enough to :colbert:.

by piloting it

You mean fuelling.

If we let him pilot he'll probably "accidently" fly it into the moon.

Does it really matter what celestial mass he flies into?

I'd rather not have big chunks of moon raining down on us.

Nice place you got here...lots of space.

I don't think the shuttle could gouge out a chunk that big, and what it does would vaporize while coming down.

Tibby is correct. Crashing into the moon would be an adequately safe way for him to die.

Also, I just noticed this in one of the articles linked.

I say we start pooling our money and start the Massassi International Space Program (MISP)... we could begin tests of new rockets and spaceships, using TE as our test monkey.

....and if he survives, we could have our cheapest rocket "malfunction" and crash into the moon...

Who's in for this?

....anyone? anyone at all...?

no, it'd be a waste of money

No it wouldn't.

If I had 20 billion dollars I would gladly fund the crash-tibby-into-the-moon project.

Ofcourse we could always just strap him to a flying pig.

I always find it surreal that Voyager 1 is still flying somewhere in the void of space since 1977. That's 30 damn years. I wonder, in some distant moment in the future, mankind will retrieve it.

[quote=virgin extraordinaire]And yet people complaining about unnecessary spending attack NASA's 20 billion budget rather than the DoD's 500 billion.[/quote]

Because people like to go after things that are visibly tangible (i.e. probes and rockets) rather than contracts, bank accounts and salaries. The funding NASA recieves is greatly overshadowed by what is spent on bailouts of corrupt banks, failing automotive industry, Iraq War, etc.

that makes me hot

if(getThingFlags(source) & 0x8){
  do her}
elseif(getThingFlags(source) & 0x4){
  do other babe}
else{
  do a dude}

[/quote]



Hey if there were any girls interested in space I could probably woo them with my vast knowledge of the subject. As it stands, I'm just a hopeless nerd.

yes sometime in the distant future mankind will find voyager 1

No, that movie was invalidated by the new movie, remember?

It NEVER WILL HAVE HAD HAPPEN!

i didnt see that new ST film but i reckon it was sh*t

if(getThingFlags(source) & 0x8){
  do her}
elseif(getThingFlags(source) & 0x4){
  do other babe}
else{
  do a dude}

You reckoned wrong, old boy.

No matter how bad this planet ever gets, isn't it always guaranteed to be much, much, much better off than an empty rock floating in space?

Too much garbage in your face? There's plenty of space, out in space![/BnL]

This

It's okay, Ruthven has been embracing his miserableness for so long that everything has lost meaning.

They are stupid people.

Space exploration is one of the most important things to us as a species.

Uh... not really. Just because it's a goal in Sid Meyer's Civilization doesn't mean that it's vital to our species.

I'm pretty sure it is.

Understanding the universe is a great thing to do, a truly great thing in every meaning of the word.

Why?

1. Resources - Humanity is a natural "consumer". What are we going to do when we run out of stuff here? Or better yet, why not look for it on other worlds so that we don't use ours up.

2. Alternative resources - There are plenty of materials that aren't available on Earth that could be mined, or found on other planets or areas of the universe that could act as alternatives for our consumption, ruling out the need for more resources as they could be found in other places.

3. Space / Colonization - Earth is only so big. People won't stop having sex. You do the math.

4. Survival as a species - One day the Sun will engulf this solar system, or at least the majority of it. Our species will be extinct unless we find somewhere else to go. You might not care, but people living at that time will, just as we would if we were faced with it today.

5. Our understanding of ourselves, principles of physics, how the universe works, etc - Self explanatory.

6. Other alien species - For some a long shot, for others it's already happened. The importance of us finding out that we aren't alone, let alone the possibilities of helping each other out as species, is quite possibly the greatest discovery we could find next to proving the existence of an afterlife or God.

I'm pretty sure that's an indication of its importance right there.

None of that makes it vital.

Brilliant idea. Instead of finding ways of reducing our use of the resources, let's find other planets to destroy.



See: 1



And people die. Eventually it gets to a point where more people are dying than breeding. Problem solved.



It's just as likely that mankind will force itself into extinction before the sun goes supernova.



Physics won't magically act different on a different planet.



This is more of a feather in mankind's cap than a discovery that's vital to our existence.



Put down the bong, plzkthx.