China's Space Program

LateX'Dog · 10 Jul 2013 at 08:16

http://imgur.com/a/yPK5h

Inspiring the young and pushing innovation.

This is something NASA used to do.

This is where we should be spending our money on, not waging wars and bailing out companies.

Jez · 10 Jul 2013 at 08:20

Goldeneye exists :eek:

Flukester · 10 Jul 2013 at 08:21

Maybe they can fake some more space walks :-)

How is shooting people into space better for the economy than waging wars and bailing out failing companies ?

Wars actually generate massive income, I would take a guess they generate more than they cost in lucrative defense contracts. It's just a shame we will eventually run out of lesser country's to bomb the *&^& out of lol

LateX'Dog · 10 Jul 2013 at 08:24

Flukester said:
Maybe they can fake some more space walks

How is shooting people into space better for the economy than waging wars and bailing out failing companies ?

Youtube Neil DeGrasse Tyson, he'll explain it much better then i can.

850 Billion dollar bank bailout is more then the entire budget of NASA. :eek:

American defense budget 2011: 664.84 billion dollars

Nasa budget 2011: 17 billion dollars

paradigm · 10 Jul 2013 at 08:25

Wars also generate technology.

Without WW2 NASA wouldn't have been borne when it was.

Derek W · 10 Jul 2013 at 08:45

LateX'Dog said:
http://imgur.com/a/yPK5h

Inspiring the young and pushing innovation.

This is something NASA used to do.

This is where we should be spending our money on, not waging wars and bailing out companies.

Yes that's exactly what we should be spending the budget on......cos the tax payer would prefer that than what the government currently spend it on :rolleyes:

Basher · 10 Jul 2013 at 08:51

LateX'Dog said:
Youtube Neil DeGrasse Tyson, he'll explain it much better then i can.

850 Billion dollar bank bailout is more then the entire budget of NASA.

American defense budget 2011: 664.84 billion dollars

Nasa budget 2011: 17 billion dollars

Are you suggesting we scrap the defense budget and put it all on going in to space!?

Skillmister · 10 Jul 2013 at 09:01

Basher said:
Are you suggesting we scrap the defense budget and put it all on going in to space!?

No. He's saying that even doubling NASAs budget would make such a minuscule difference to the defence budget and enable them to do so much more.

This is a good video

the total amounts (in nominal dollars) that NASA has been budgeted from 1958 to 2011 amounts to $526.18 billion dollars

Less than the defence budget for 2011

Kishywish · 10 Jul 2013 at 09:02

Those pictures are undeniably cool.

yer_averagejoe · 10 Jul 2013 at 09:19

While it's a shame that NASA funding has been cut, private companies (spaceX etc) are doing a damn good job at picking up where they left off. SpaceX has huge ambitions and with a guy like Elon Musk behind it, it is a force to be reckoned with.

paradigm · 10 Jul 2013 at 09:58

Would it not have made more sense for someone like SpaceX to join/fund NASA?

Seems like a lot of experience/infrastructure/heritage/etc to let slip into mediocrity.

elmarko · 10 Jul 2013 at 10:24

Really we should be aiming to create a "Global space agency" with representation from all around the globe - to pool resources & try to agree to some get decent funding from the nations who can afford it.

LordSplodge · 10 Jul 2013 at 10:34

LateX'Dog said:
This is where we should be spending our money on, not waging wars and bailing out companies.

Agreed. Perhaps China's space program will prompt another space race.

Flukester said:
How is shooting people into space better for the economy than waging wars and bailing out failing companies ?

It's good for the future of mankind. Having all our eggs in one basket (Earth) isn't a good idea. It's altruistic, alas fighting each other over oil or whatever God you think is right seems to be more important.

paradigm said:
Wars also generate technology.

They do, but with a focus on war. Space research brings us a broad range of new technologies.

Amp34 · 10 Jul 2013 at 10:50

elmarko said:
Really we should be aiming to create a "Global space agency" with representation from all around the globe - to pool resources & try to agree to some get decent funding from the nations who can afford it.

We can't even do that in the EU! Unfortunately every country wants something different or regades on their funding promises. Another example would be the ISS.

LateX'Dog · 10 Jul 2013 at 10:54

paradigm said:
Would it not have made more sense for someone like SpaceX to join/fund NASA?

Seems like a lot of experience/infrastructure/heritage/etc to let slip into mediocrity.

What i think would make more sense is for NASA to open up its funding from members of the public, i'm sure people could spare £1-£5 x the amount of people who are interested in space, you could be pumping in easily couple of hundred million a month into there budget.

A world wide space program funded by the people would be incredible.

valkynaz · 10 Jul 2013 at 10:57

elmarko said:
Really we should be aiming to create a "Global space agency" with representation from all around the globe - to pool resources & try to agree to some get decent funding from the nations who can afford it.

If there had been a "global space agency" from the start you wouldn't have had the event that kicked it all off from the start, the space race of the 60s. It was basically a decade of willy waving and who could wave their willy on the moon first. And look where it got the human race, a man on the moon less than 7 years after the pledge was made using technology that isn't even comparable to what you have sitting in your pocket.

Competitiveness breeds innovation and creativity.

[FnG]magnolia · 10 Jul 2013 at 11:04

Can we have a poll for important GD matters such as those raised here?

1. WAR science is better because guns and pew pew pew.

2. SPACE science is better because Tyson 'Bad Ass Over Here' is all up in this hoopla.

LateX'Dog · 10 Jul 2013 at 11:09

valkynaz said:
Competitiveness breeds innovation and creativity.

I don't think that's true any more, it used to be true in the older days, but people now innovate because they want to.

People want all these cool technologies and are willing to work for it, give people the opportunity to create and they will. We live in a industrial era that squashes creativity and dreaming.

"Don't learn this, you wont get a job in it" is a phrase a lot of people often say, may we should allow them to create that job for them instead of closing the door on peoples dreams.

"We discovered earth for the first time with Apollo 8, how did this effect culture?

The pale blue dot picture was the picture used to identify earth and thinking about earth as a whole, not as a place where nations war.

1970 - Comprehensive Clean Air Act
1970 - Earth Day
1970 - Environmental Protection Agency
1971 - Doctors without Borders founded
1971 - Clean Water Act
1972 - DDT banned
1972 - Endangered Species Act
1973 - Catalytic Converter introduced
1973 - Unleaded Gas introduced

That is space operating on our culture. And you can't put a price on that."

Amazing.

paradigm · 10 Jul 2013 at 11:15

LordSplodge said:
They do, but with a focus on war. Space research brings us a broad range of new technologies.

But without the focus on war, we wouldn't have things like radar. Or closer to the thread, any of the propulsion systems (or indeed carcasses of the ICBMs) to make the rockets used in the space race of the 60s.

They are not mutually exclusive, and one will always lead to an advance in the other.

LordSplodge · 10 Jul 2013 at 11:19

paradigm said:
They are not mutually exclusive, and one will always lead to an advance in the other.

Never said they were.