NASA should have never been allowed to suck on taxpayer's money.

Agreed! Before spending BILLIONS on space travel, and on something just because there exist a possibility that we could learn from something, let's put the money back home where we need it. Someeone wants to look into space and imagine possibilities great just commercialize it, keep the government spending money here first.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_Budget

That's funny becuase it looks like we have spent more on the Iraq war then we have spent over the last 50 years in space.

Personally I would rather have spent that money on space (not necessarily space travel, but space research)

Our lives are BETTER for having this knowledge, I see nothing that has been made better for many of the things we spend trillions on . . .

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/07/AR2008030702846.html


Now I fully realize you are not arguing for that money to be spent on war. However I cannot help but think that if money is available, then it is human nature to waste it on petty things. Space research is not a petty thing. It may be that one day all of humanity is saved by the knowledge we gain. If you have a cause that needs funding then perhaps you should organize a lobby for that cause, but to say that money is wasted on something like space research as a throw away statement is in my mind ignorant when set next to the things we spend money on that have NO persistent value the way knowledge does.

i am more disappointed in the humanitarian program towards american citizens in the u s

I didn't read the whole thread, so I apologize if I'm saying what's already been said. I think the most disappointing aspect of our space program is that the only time NASA makes the news is right after it's blown something up on accident.

Aye!!! I am extremely disappointed with the space program! Even the shuttles were built in the 80s and to make it worse, they were out of commission for a year or something? So USA ended up hitching a ride with the Russians, the same damn rockets and technology they used in the 60s.

There is really nothing new, ever since the shuttle program!

It seems like people and scientists and nations are more interested i wars and killing each other than moving forward.

I'm disappointed in our space program for a few reasons, first that it was Nazi scientists that made it possible and were initially running the thing. Now because Mr.Obama is openly planning to pin the Pentagon to NASA. It's easy to show how the militarization of space has a multitude of potential hazards, the least of which is one explosion in space, in orbit, could in fact ban future generations from ever getting off this blue speck.

but you would get some serious money invested into the program that way
ive always said if theyever built a colony ship i would be the first to volunteer if i had to scrub the toilets with my personal toothbrush to get on it lol

Maybe the answer lies in your reply. There aren't any new nazi scientists to make progress.

its all a hoax

I'm devasted, not the least because it seems so stagnant lately that I have serious doubts that the future of spacefaring peoples is in the hands of the government. I hope instead for a private avenue to open up and really be the way into the heavens. I think that every result that NASA has attained is remarkable, but there is not enough in my opinion. The public is hungry for more of a natural sense of place in the cosmos, and politics trys to dab into this, but it is not lasting enough. There would really have to be motivation for long term action, or quick booting from some private source of funds. If you want to really feel like this century is begining quite slowly as regards human space involvement, read Carl Sagans "Contact, a Novel." It is likely in a library or selling used real cheap online somewhere. I think the reason that my dissapointment arises is not so much the missing thrill of an outgoing to the outlands, but rather a missing sense of interantional community that would spring up when humans collaborate reagardless of country on a project. I used to dream of the constructive powers that could be had if but a tiny amount of a national defense budget is spent on things that benefit all of humanity, and not just this region or that. So it bares in my mind a failure that is as much the common man's responsibilty as it is of an official program. Space or no space, society could feel more at home in the universe if any transnational actions were pursued, even lawful business.

the militarization of space is not going to happen, not without breaking the space treaty of 1969

as for nasa, I am disappointed because in all this time they could have done something other than sending people up to a space station, like, why not build a space dock, use those unmanned probes to mine asteroids for resources which would significantly reduce cost, maybe use the ISS as a stepping stone?

instead they send probes, they left the moon alone thinking it was just a dead rock, and any mars missions were scrubbed, and why? because things took a turn for the worse here on our tiny island in this vast sea of stars, famine, war, overpopulation, just to name a few.

priorities shifted, and people began forgetting about the dream, to reach out beyond that blue blue sky and say, HEY, WE EXIST! WE ARE HERE AND READY FOR WHAT COMES NEXT!

honestly they don't need to build a large base on mars, or the moon for that matter, like the dwarves of myth living underground provides the most economic and long lasting solution, there are even HUGE lava caves that look like they were cut with plasma!

so yeah, I'm a bit disappointed, nasa isn't really reaching for anything more meaningful than looking at worlds which take years to reach with robots, I truly hope groups like virgin galactic, the space mining company here out of golden colorado, and other groups like space X, and whatnot, can really push things along in terms of stepping outside the fence and into the fields beyond, because if the government wont, and commerce won't, then who will? certainly not us everyday citizens, not yet!

well,Barry is ecstatic about it!