Why do people working at NASA like working at NASA so much?

[blueblur 0]

Ever use Velcro? NASA development. Designed as a way to keep the astronauts and other tools in place in weightless environments.

hell, this isn't worth my time.

In every man's life he will be allotted one good woman and one good dog. That's all you get, so appreciate them while the time you have with them lasts.

- RiggerLee

[Channman 2]

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Finding water on Mars might not be as important as finding a way to put water back into the Colorado.

It might not be, based on the individual. But isn’t the point of exploration to see what’s out there? Or, like Apollo 16, to see what isn’t there? We’re still exploring the earth and finding new things. “Man must explore.” – David Scott
At this very moment 40 years ago, Cernan and Schmitt had awakened from their rest after the final walk on the moon – six hours from liftoff from the moon. Nobody has since been there. We’ve explored a few miles of it and that’s it.
The exploration of the moon has allowed us to figure out ways to exploit it. The GRAIL Mission – satellites Ebb and Flow – will be crashed into the moon. They studied the moon’s lumpy gravity field that has the effect of screwing up orbits and crashing satellites. A satellite released by Apollo 16 crashed into the moon a month after it was released.
I think exploration is pretty amazing. Within 20 years, all of our Apollo astronauts will be dead. There won’t be anyone around anymore to talk about what it was like. I think we will lose an awful lot when that happens.

Just a quick note: I had the oppertunity to work with Gene Cernan during my days with SPACEHAB. Also got his book "The Last Man on the Moon" autographed. One of the escape chutes we used for training I had auto graphed by all the astrounauts including several from Europe, Japan as well as Russian Casmanauts.

I then donated the chute to the future USPA Museum, the official handoff was done by Astronaut Joe Tanner.

[OHCHUTE 0]

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So you don’t think the technology that results from NASA research and funding helps us out? Apparently, solar cells, structural analysis software and high intensity LEDs are things that make a difference….

Yes, I am a libertarian who thinks space exploration is one of the best uses of taxpayer money

You speak of research involving use of stuff on earth. To benefit earthlings. Yet you think space exploration is good use of tax payers dollars? You don't need to do space exploration to learn how to exploit the sun on earth, unless of course if you will put a zillion solar cells in orbit with a wire back to earth to collect all that energy? We had to go to space to invent led's? Last I heard they brought back a spider that rode around for awhile. Perhaps so disabled it can no longer function in the wild. It's down at the Smithsonian. Maybe if we put congress on a spaceship we'll get a better functioning congress--some have signed on I think to SpaceX for a ride. I agree, some research is OK but having to go to space for most of it, is well, a waste of money.

[lawrocket 3]

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Yet you think space exploration is good use of tax payers dollars?

Yes. Because space exploration has no profit motive. The exploration is pure science and technology demonstration. It sets the stage for exploitation, which is nicely left to private industry.

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You don't need to do space exploration to learn how to exploit the sun on earth,

No. But if you want to know more about the sun, it’s nice to not have an atmosphere. And if you want some advance warning of a coronal mass ejection, it’s nice to have SOHO and WIND out there to give at least a couple of hours of warning about the size and magnetic orientation of a coronal mass ejection, which could save millions of lives.

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unless of course if you will put a zillion solar cells in orbit with a wire back to earth to collect all that energy?

It turns out that it’s pretty difficult and resource intensive to fill up a spacecraft for electricity. Harnessing solar power is a pretty good way of providing power and thus technology in solar power was a big focus of the space program. That technology trickles down to the general public.

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We had to go to space to invent led's?

No. But we sure as hell needed something that provided lumens with good efficiency, and thus LED development really kinda took off because NASA contracted for it. It’s being used for other things now, including therapies for bone marrow transplant patients.

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Last I heard they brought back a spider that rode around for awhile. Perhaps so disabled it can no longer function in the wild. It's down at the Smithsonian.

It died a couple of weeks ago.

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Maybe if we put congress on a spaceship we'll get a better functioning congress

They tried that with Congressman Bill Nelson and Senator Jake Garn. Did you know that the “Garn Unit” is the informal term used to measure how bad Space Adaptation Syndrome is? Jake Garn represents the maximum amount of sickness a human being can attain. Most cases of space sickness max out at about .1 Garn. Barfin’ Jake Garn has a lasting legacy in the annals of space medicine research. And Bill Nelson’s taking of a PS seat on STS 61-C bumped PS Gregory Jarvis to STS 51-L.

Of course, a congressperson going into space to see what it is about is like an astronaut making a floor vote to get an idea of what being a Congressperson is about.

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I agree, some research is OK but having to go to space for most of it, is well, a waste of money.

Of course it seems a waste of money to many. The Apollo program was greatly defunded because of opposition to “spending money on the moon while problems exist on earth.” Failing to acknowledge the amount of work that went into doing that.

The public isn’t turned on by the composition of the moon. I just think we sure can learn a lot.

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[billvon 3,111]

> Yet you think space exploration is good use of tax payers dollars?

I do.

>You don't need to do space exploration to learn how to exploit the sun on earth, unless
>of course if you will put a zillion solar cells in orbit with a wire back to earth to collect
>all that energy?

Good idea:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space-based_solar_power

>I agree, some research is OK but having to go to space for most of it, is well, a
>waste of money.

Also agreed. Most scientific research is best carried out on Earth. But some of it is indeed best performed in space, due to a host of reasons (no gravity, better access to areas being researched, better view, more power, safer etc)

[champu 1]

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...we were too busy having a blast... ...attending Preliminary Design Reviews...

Hahaha, sorry I had to laugh at this one.

[Channman 2]

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...we were too busy having a blast... ...attending Preliminary Design Reviews...

Hahaha, sorry I had to laugh at this one.

Me made a funny