Author Topic: Redesign the STS  (Read 11384 times)

Offline darkenfast

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RE: Redesign the STS
« Reply #40 on: 11/20/2005 06:07 pm »
A very nice summary, John.  As I grew up watching the Space Program from Mercury on, I was always shocked when some Congress Critter would would come out thundering against "wasting all this money" in space when we could be spending it on welfare here.  Of course, they don't say "welfare" now, they say "social programs", but the hostility against a program that revolves around the best and brightest is still there.
Writer of Book and Lyrics for musicals "SCAR", "Cinderella!", and "Aladdin!". Retired Naval Security Group. "I think SCAR is a winner. Great score, [and] the writing is up there with the very best!"
-- Phil Henderson, Composer of the West End musical "The Far Pavilions".

Offline Dobbins

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RE: Redesign the STS
« Reply #41 on: 11/20/2005 06:26 pm »
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darkenfast - 20/11/2005  2:07 PM

A very nice summary, John.  As I grew up watching the Space Program from Mercury on, I was always shocked when some Congress Critter would would come out thundering against "wasting all this money" in space when we could be spending it on welfare here.  Of course, they don't say "welfare" now, they say "social programs", but the hostility against a program that revolves around the best and brightest is still there.

Just one of the federal welfare departments, Health & Human Services spends as much in two weeks as NASA gets in an entire year and it isn't the only department of the federal government that deals with social programs. Even this isn't enough to keep the welfare addicts away from NASA's budget. There isn't enough money on Earth to satisfy these people. Mondale was the one of the worst but people like him still roam the halls of Congress.

John B. Dobbins

Offline PMN1

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RE: Redesign the STS
« Reply #42 on: 11/20/2005 06:27 pm »
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kraisee - 19/11/2005  1:30 PM

And ultimately, a mega-sized Hubble would also be possible that way too!

Ross.

Given the very large science payloads that could be orbitted, what has the science community particularly the anti Space Station community said about the plans?

Offline PMN1

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RE: Redesign the STS
« Reply #43 on: 11/20/2005 06:36 pm »
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darkenfast - 20/11/2005  1:07 PM

A very nice summary, John.  As I grew up watching the Space Program from Mercury on, I was always shocked when some Congress Critter would would come out thundering against "wasting all this money" in space when we could be spending it on welfare here.  Of course, they don't say "welfare" now, they say "social programs", but the hostility against a program that revolves around the best and brightest is still there.


This is part of an article from Spacedaily a while back that I kept (and added to for UK posters) and post on a current affairs board I look at whenever a critic of space expenditure starts whinging...



The high profile of space exploration makes it appear more expensive than it actually is. Most voters are under the impression that the money would make a genuine difference in the fight against poverty. The size of the social needs are however, way out of proportion with the money spent in space – in the past, now or in the immediate future. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be any social needs left in the US at least after Congress stopped funding the Apollo missions to the Moon.

At the same time people have a strange set of priorities, fingers are pointed government for wasting their tax money in space instead of helping the poor, but they are not feeling guilty for their own scale of priorities, in the US alone last year $976.3 billion dollars was spent on pets, toys, gambling, alcohol and tobacco. It is 63 times the amount spent on space exploration.

These are figures for the US, as the UK has very little in the way of a space program so with the UK spending less per head than the US the difference between what is spent on space research and what is spent by individuals on pets, toys, gambling, alcohol and tobacco will be even greater.

 :)

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