Why are we ending the Space Shuttle program

[Beachguyj]

Without a replacement for it?

 

[Harke the Boeotarch]

Because you need the money to bail out the banks.

 

[hotatlboi]

Because Bush cancelled it in 2004.

The replacement turned out to be way over budget and unworkable, so we have nothing right now. I doubt NASA will ever launch people on another government rocket.

However, private industry is picking up the slack here. Boeing and SpaceX are both developing capsules for human flights that will probably be available in a few years.

 

[stevexxx]

the program isn't necessary and taxpayers should not have to pay for it.

 

[quasar]

One of the reasons I went back to Florida was to see a night time take-off. Absolutely amazing, and a memory I'll never forget!

 

[Swellegant]

Space exploration is an interesting scientific research application and a lovely little nationalistic morale-booster... one that costs an unholy crapload of money that we really need to be spending elsewhere.

Exploration of any kind must have a commercial application to be truly viable... Columbus never would have left Spain if his investors didn't think there was gold on the other end of the trip. There is little or nothing on the moon or Mars that is of any use to us, so there's no need to keep pouring billions of dollars into developing ways of getting there.

And really, why should the government fund this? If the telecoms want their satellites in space, and the pharmaceuticals want zero-gravity research, they can build their own damn shuttles.

 

[hotatlboi]

Living in space is dumb. Homeless people could have had homes with the money wasted by Nasa

Totally uninformed statement.

We've gotten a huge return on investment that has improved many aspects of modern life with the money invested in NASA, which is really not that much compared to what we spend on other things.

NASA will continue the amazing science they have been doing for the last few decades, the only difference is they are going to shift away from government operated human space flight.

 

[borg69unimatrix]

Living in space is dumb. Homeless people could have had homes with the money wasted by Nasa

I don't believe it's dumb. It very well could save our race, as we know it, someday. It's only a matter of time before another extinction level asteroid hits the Earth. The more we know about space travel, and terra-forming, the better our odds are.

 

[landers]

Because satellites and other space-destined equipment can be sent up much more efficiently than in the cargo hold of the space shuttle and people don't need anything bigger than the command capsule part of the shuttle to get into space.

 

[Iudicium86]

To those who say there's nothing commercial viable in space, you need to study science and cosmology more.

Helium 3 is in great abundance on the moon which is an important element in alternative energy research. It's a key to achieving nuclear fusion, a holy grail in future energy sources.

And we do already know of great resources in space and tracked locations. In fact, known near-earth asteroids only 1 mile in diameter are estimated to be worth up to $20 Trillion each.

Saturn's moon Titan is also rich in natural fuels such as methane and ethane.

A $20trillion dollar asteroid is only the teaser of the vast resources and commercially viable options space offers.

[edit]why did Titan auto hyperlink to a porn site?

 

[ChickenGuy]

Without a replacement for it?

There IS a replacement for it.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_(spacecraft)

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

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


If it keeps to the planned schedule, then we'll be back in space in as little as 5 years.

In the meantime, astronauts will still be using the russian Soyuz spacecraft for getting into orbit and to and from the International Space Station.

There's now a continuous crew of six on the station, and a regular rotation and replacement of three of them every three months. They launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

 

[thewiz]

I am old enough to probably remember the history of space flight. Anyone remember slide rules? They were the little sticks that were shown in "Apollo 13" and preceded calculators of today. A calculator? The first ones cost $179 and could add, subtract, multiply and divide and, for maybe $100 dollars more, could even do a square of a number!! Wooo! Now, today, we have solar calculators that are given away free in cereal boxes.

Most of your cell phones have more calculative capacity than the computers that put man on the moon. Your video camera that you paid $139 for? It has the ability to edit and digitize that was equivalent to most movie studios of the 60's and 70's.

What spurred these innovations? The space program. Add to it much of our flame retardant sleepwear that saves thousands of children's lives and prevents homefires (driving the numbers down each year)...they were the result of research into putting people in space.

Space exploration fueled science, technology and mathematics. I remember wondering why the hell I had to take physics since I was going to be a journalist or cop. When we got the first computer in the newsroom for which I worked, one of the drawbacks is you had to use an ohmeter to adjust the mother board. Guess what I had ignored in physics?

As for the space shuttle, it was obsolete. The computers and much of the equipment which launched and managed the program was from the 70's...anyone still using your 70's cell phone or computer?

 

[hotatlboi]

If it keeps to the planned schedule, then we'll be back in space in as little as 5 years.

Relatively little chance of that happening with the current budgetary scenarios imo.

 

[JUB]

Funny how people say it is unnecessary when NASA actually helps us with communications, advancements in heart surgery and many other benefits. I suggest people actually read a little before making such ridiculous comments.

"Thanks to NASA technology a "cool" laser is providing thousands of patients with an alternative to heart bypass surgery."

http://techtran.msfc.nasa.gov/at_home/hospital1.html

Here's some great resources.....

http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/nasacity/index2.htm
http://techtran.msfc.nasa.gov/at_home/athome.html

 

[Lord Booticus]

Because Hollywood was willing to pay a lot for the sets .

 

[borg69unimatrix]

We owe GPS's, Google Maps, and satellite communications/TV to them too.

 

[mark1111]

Lets not forget Teflon. A creation of the space program and now traces of it are in nearly every American.

 

[SLOPPYSECONDS]

cause not let george bush play with it

haaaa

 

[jwa007]

Two words: Voodoo Economics