Yes the US is in grave trouble, but if they stopped making war with every tin pot nation out there just so that their military industrial machine can keep rolling along
They're not in trouble. Their defence budget just dwarfs any NASA budget or everything else for that matter. We're talking of 100s of billions of dollars every year. It's a choice really. I also wouldn't be surprised at all if the US defence had its own space agenda either. The US will never give up any aspect of space related activities because it's a strategic advantage. NASA is the friendly public front shop window. I wouldn't worry as a whole about our future abilities to get into local earth to space transport or long range exploration.
Almost everyone is disappointed at the financial decision made by the US government. I'm sure they had a valid reason however I must point like many before me - JFK had a vision of a nation working towards a common goal for humanity.....I'm yet to see any leader match that! Maybe China going to the moon may bring out that spirit again... Who knows
I am a big fan of the space program but at the same time i feel we must be practical about it. The famous speach by JFK "...we choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard,...."
Lets think on this, why not chose to fix the problems on this planet first.
Some would say that Space exploration inspires the rest of us to do better. But surely we need to fix the foundations first before we build the house? It seems to me the foundations of humanity are very weak with large cracks called, War, Comericialisim, Captilisim, etc etc. We need to fix these foundations first.
To those that say we need to find alternative planets, well is that because we have already wrecked this planet and now we want o move onto the next place to wreck havoc.
We look to the stars and see the immense beauty out there but we neglect to look through the microscope at our own foundations. There is untapped potential right here on this planet, there is immense beauty right here on this planet, and there is much to much to do to clean this place up. We need to start looking inward instead of outward.
Think on the ships and explorers from timae gone by, why did they explore? and whad did there exploration lead to? We wiped away many a native civilisation in the need to expand empires. We dummped the problems of one nation on another by mass migrating them to collinies. Exploration is a double edge sword. All the good will behind it will not stop human nature from corrupting it.
We need to fix "us" first. This age is all about consume, big TV's, entertainment, fashion, food, etc etc. But where are we at with poverty, homelessness, mental health care, child labour, human rights, climate change...... Whats our budget for these things compared to our Consume budget? Let us first fix this and the other hard things on this planet before we talk about setteling on others.
We speak a lot about Terrorism. But consider this question first.
Why are there Terrorists?
Instead we jumping to how do we stop them.
Again its all about escaping the truth. Some day if we so desired we could travel to the moon instantly, but what will we sacrafice to do it. What will we set aside to achive it?
If we find another planet and we find ways of getting people there do you think it will resolve the other "harder" issues. Or will people be more inclined to think, does not matter we can always find another planet.
Keep on with the same old escaping.
What if we fixed the problems here first and then tackled the problem as one world. Would not a united world that has overcome its shortcommings find better solutions and more quickly and with less expense?
What purpose will we set for ourselves? What will be the best one for our generations to come? Will we leave them enslaved to the "Escaping" or will we look inward and change the world.
It is not governments or nations that need to set this agenda, we as individuals must make a comitment to do our best to change for the better.
To change the world we must change ourselves first.
The problem is that it will take 10-12 years to get someone on the moon and US Presidents can serve a maximum of 8 years. This means the guy who sets it up won't be President when it succeeds and the next guy will get all the kudos.
Geoff
They're not in trouble. Their defence budget just dwarfs any NASA budget or everything else for that matter. We're talking of 100s of billions of dollars every year. It's a choice really. I also wouldn't be surprised at all if the US defence had its own space agenda either. The US will never give up any aspect of space related activities because it's a strategic advantage. NASA is the friendly public front shop window. I wouldn't worry as a whole about our future abilities to get into local earth to space transport or long range exploration.
