It doesn't need to be the nation's. Just yours. Go get a job at SpaceX, or Armadillo, or Bigelow, or Virgin Galactic, or Copenhagen Suborbitals, or the new Google-funded-asteroid-mining project. Or start a nonprofit. Or go mow some lawns and then write a check to Copenhagen Suborbitals (they're actually a nonprofit). Of course, I think for most of us nerds, the excitement isn't "gee whiz, I'm helping", it's "gee whiz, I could FRICKING GO THERE".


So you're saying taxes are bad and oppressive but also good and patriotic? Also, inflation is actually a mechanism by which the rich (bankers) keep the less wealthy in check by sapping the worth of their earnings & savings. Taxation is how people with power over guns and jails keep everyone in check.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48183944?ocid=todmsnbc11

Article discussing an X1.4 class solar flare that was unleashed towards the Earth and should be currently covering the Earth in whatever elements and energy that are unleashed from flares. Supposedly there is no danger to electrical systems.

From what I've read it happened Thursday and it should hit Today and/or Sunday. Aurora's as far south as Washington D.C. and some electrical grids may suffer. But nothing major.

I wish I was North enough to see any aurora's that may happen in California.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48186927/ns/technology_and_science-space/

Seems 3 more space faring people went up to the space station, should be docking Tuesday so they can do a 4 month tour of duty.

Its disgusting that we have to rely on Russian spacecraft to get our people into space. All because we want the private sector to do it, despite no private company ever putting a man in space(beyond the pull of Earth's gravity, suborbital "space dives" don't count). SpaceX is the first and only one to get as far as the ISS, and they did it working with NASA. Elon Musk clearly understands the importance of national public spaceflight. He understands that you need the wealth of a nation to break barriers and explore new frontiers(e.g. the Moon, Mars, and beyond). I wish more of you could understand that as well.

I completely understand it. What it needs is a unified world to accomplish such things, and until we can get past all our petty differences in politics, religion and race, we will never make it past the moon. Ever.

So feel free to find a way for us as a planet to unify to achieve such things. Otherwise, please stop bringing it up like you seem to in a lot of your posts in this topic when someone posts about the other ways and people making it to space. Thanks.

We don't need to unify anyone to go back to the moon or beyond. That's contention I've been fighting this whole time. Waiting for people to get unified behind the concept is exactly why its been taking so goddam long for private companies to even dip their toes in the concept of space travel. NASA can break all these barriers and more if we fund them. They don't need to be beholden to a company, the companies they contract are beholden to them. NASA does incredible things when they're given the resources to do so and only the goal as their constraint. They generate new technologies, new products, even new branches of science to research and explore. When NASA unlocks the mysteries of the universe, it has benefits beyond measure. We don't need to be united to explore space, exploring space will unify us. We just need to invest in it again.

This is a topic about space, is it not? There is only one entity in the history of human existence that has ever really gone into space. We wouldn't even be discussing space if it wasn't' for them. We wouldn't have pictures of nebulae and galaxies and other celestial phenomenon to pore over and examine and argue about if it wasn't for the work of that incredible group. And now the future of that organization is hanging in the balance and I am genuinely concerned. My concerns are relevant.

Bullcrap. We've been discussing and studying space for centuries before NASA.

We studied the sky and what we could see in it. We didn't really know what was actually up there until we started sending probes and telescopes into space to look. If it wasn't for NASA, we'd still be wondering if you could land on Jupiter, or breathe on Mars. Everything we discuss in this topic, from the properties of galaxies, to the chemical makeup of nebulae, is based on research performed or technology developed by NASA. Killing NASA so that private spaceflight can grow is like killing a mother so her newborn infants can grow.

You have it backwards. You kill NASA because it is immoral to use the threat of force to compel people to give up the fruits of their labor. I'm not worried about the loss, because of the obvious and previously discussed benefits to going to space* that will incentivize private commercial development, and the increased funds available to generous space nerds to fund whatever nonprofit space projects they want. I'm working in a federally funded lab this summer, and the researchers here complain about how hard it is to get bureaucrats educated on good science to intelligently choose where funding should be allocated. I mentioned the "good old days" of Bell Labs, and watched their eyes light up at the thought of intelligently distributed private funding.


* We somehow seem to have glossed over this pretty colossal one. In terms of business, the 10 years necessary to get the first stage of the swarm he describes up and running isn't unusual at all.
.

Economics/Sustainability of a Mars Colony: http://science.slashdot.org/story/12/07/18/2327214/joseph-palaia-answers-your-questions-about-building-lunar-machines-and-mars

You clearly have no idea what NASA is or what it has done for you. It's pretty obvious nothing I say is going to change your mind, thus there is no point in discussing the matter further.

Nothing you say is likely to convince me that the government has the authority to take my property under threat of force. That said, as a "space nut" who has read extensively and written numerous papers on the subject, I probably know more about the history and accomplishments of NASA than you do. The two are not related, except insofar as NASA has been funded with money taken under threat of force.

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-spiral-galaxy-20120718,0,4789994.story

Here, have a galaxy that's not supposed to exist. The picture shown is pretty epic.

The only way to see the galaxy was to watch a 30 second advertisement so I could watch a ten second video. During which, the the panned and zoomed around a low quality image (granted, it was a low quality video). So, I decided to watch it again. I had to watch the advertisement again. I closed the tab.

Not to impressed with the LA times right now. It was a good read though.

Sally Ride passed away recently.

http://www.wired.com/geekmom/2012/07/sally-ride-obituary/

But I suppose you guys don't care since she was an tro-lo-lo-lo-lo, and all that, but express yourself respectfully whose accomplishments mean nothing.

Barring political commentary on the morality of taxation and the role of government, I think we can all look up to a woman who was a consummate scientist and pushed the boundaries of accepted gender roles at the time.

NASA will be landing a new rover on the surface of Mars Monday morning that could unlock the mystery of life on the red planet:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/index.html

That's pretty interesting.

Also, if you can't stop with the negative comments in this thread, you'll be banned. We're tired of cleaning up your comments. This is your final warning.

I was being sarcastic, but fine. I'm just pissed off I'm the only one here with enough reverence and respect for the institution that gave space exploration *everything* to bother defending it.