Worried about future of Space Travel

[Person012345]

Space commerce

The Isle of Man has become a centre for emerging private space travel companies.[65] A number of the competitors in the Google Lunar X Prize, a $30 million competition for the first privately funded team to send a robot to the moon, are based on the Island. The team summit for the X Prize was held on the Island in October 2010.[66] In 2010 the Island was named the fifth most likely nation to reach the moon next.[67] In January 2011 two research space stations owned by Excalibur Almaz arrived on the Island and were kept in an aircraft hangar at the airfield at the former RAF Jurby located near Jurby.[68]

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Fifth most likely

[zapy97]

You do realize we still have the most powerful economy and the most powerful military in the world, right? Despite our recession, China still can't outdo us. (Yet)

"Crippled and weak" are two adjectives I would NOT apply to the US.

Back on topic...

I think the future of manned spaceflight lies in the corporations like SpaceX who are gambling on huge profits. They'll make space travel affordable- and everything else will follow that.

no the us is not the strongest nation, maybe militarily, but it is germany that has the best economy, we just have alot of political power in the world, the US is slowly losing because we have not been on the ball with any thing that has to do with our own nation and people making attacks on us. the thing is that the US is currently having embacies bombed and raided, while people in Washington D.C. have done nothing, so right now we have been not been doing enough to have a good space program, i am not saying catholics aren't christians i am saying that they are not the exact same thing like how a muslim might be a shiite or a hitite, because they are differant things. if you open your eyes and experience the world religions like i am trying to you will understand that you have to look closly at what you call something before you say that catholics, mormans, and christians are the same because they aren't if you want to say that there is one mostly unified religions in the world would be judaism

[Navy4422]

MODERATOR COMMENT: Please stay on topic this is starting to turn into a flame war

[Warshawski]

no the us is not the strongest nation, maybe militarily, but it is germany that has the best economy, we just have alot of political power in the world, the US is slowly losing because we have not been on the ball with any thing that has to do with our own nation and people making attacks on us. the thing is that the US is currently having embacies bombed and raided, while people in Washington D.C. have done nothing, so right now we have been not been doing enough to have a good space program, i am not saying catholics aren't christians i am saying that they are not the exact same thing like how a muslim might be a shiite or a hitite, because they are differant things. if you open your eyes and experience the world religions like i am trying to you will understand that you have to look closly at what you call something before you say that catholics, mormans, and christians are the same because they aren't if you want to say that there is one mostly unified religions in the world would be judaism

I think you're mistaking per-capita and total economic throughput for one another, fellow. They're not the same thing. Yes, Germany has the strongest economy atm. However, their total production of everything is a drop in the bucket against us and China. Look it up.

And I think, once Obama has the election out of the way, we're going to be retaliating rather nastily against those who have done us wrong.

I love space!

[phoenix_ca]

Sigh. *rolls eyes* Whatever.

As for spaceflight, it's still up to the likes of NASA to push the boundaries of the frontier further. No venture capitalist is going to accept an expedition to somewhere new in space. It's costly, risky, fracking deadly, and that's at the best of times. And since no-one's done it yet, completely unknown. The only values you could set for risk analysis are "arbitrarily high".

So, show governments and investors that there's a practical reason to go to space and explore. There's a whole list of good reasons that return very practical information with practical applications here on Earth. Knowledge of the greenhouse effect is directly related to our research of Venus, for example. Not to mention, it's a very cheap investment given the potential returns. It's just very, very risky, so it isn't in the realm of pure venture capitalism. There is no capitalist market that will go beyond LEO, and maybe the moon; not until someone else does it first and figures-out how to do it without getting themselves killed.

[zapy97]

i think once mitt romney wins and his 4 years are past we will be in a better position to have space travel in the US, hopefully because if obamma win the us is surely doomed

[Nikolai]

As for spaceflight, it's still up to the likes of NASA to push the boundaries of the frontier further. No venture capitalist is going to accept an expedition to somewhere new in space.

I agree with this. In an ideal world, IMHO, NASA would be allowed to follow its charter and do research into cutting-edge stuff, and they'd contract private enterprise to do stuff that's more routine (the way that they contract trucks and planes that they need).

Without a substantial safety net, businesses are disinclined to commit themselves to the untried.

[LaydeeDem]

i think once mitt romney wins and his 4 years are past we will be in a better position to have space travel in the US, hopefully because if obamma win the us is surely doomed

Oh yes Romney's plan for space exploration. Somehow make NASA the best without raising the budget. I'm not saying Obama's doing any better either though. I think we need someone who is actually smart to get into office. Why don't we have engineer or scientist presidents?

[Person012345]

How can anyone support romney?

[Tauge]

How about we remove the religion and politics from the thread? I will invoke Godwin's Law if you don't. And I'm sure there's a rule on the internet that invokation of Godwin's Law while religion and/or politics are being argued over...results in a justifiable thread lock.

[Nibb31]

Why don't we have engineer or scientist presidents?

Because engineers and scientists are too smart to get into politics.

[Czman007]

How about we remove the religion and politics from the thread? I will invoke Godwin's Law if you don't. And I'm sure there's a rule on the internet that invokation of Godwin's Law while religion and/or politics are being argued over...results in a justifiable thread lock.

Politics are a crucial part of spaceflight because right now, most major spaceflight groups, such as NASA, are government funded. As they are government funded Congress decides how much money they will get, and different political groups have different opinions on how much money they should receive. But the religion arguments do not belong it this thread and should stop.

[AHO]

We need to cut our military budget, raise spending for research and development, and quit acting like we own the world!!! If all the countries could just work together on this small planet, I swear we could achieve things beyond your wildest dreams.

[Nibb31]

The US military budget is 700 billion dollars. Medicare and Social Security are 1.5 trillion dollars. NASA is 17 billion dollars.

Anybody who thinks that the US is spending too much money on space has their priorities seriously messed up.

[AHO]

The US military budget is 700 billion dollars. Medicare and Social Security are 1.5 trillion dollars. NASA is 17 billion dollars.

Anybody who thinks that the US is spending too much money on space has their priorities seriously messed up.

That was my point... we need spend more on exploration and development instead of wasting our lives away with a military budget larger than the rest of the world's combined.

[zapy97]

The US military budget is 700 billion dollars. Medicare and Social Security are 1.5 trillion dollars. NASA is 17 billion dollars.

Anybody who thinks that the US is spending too much money on space has their priorities seriously messed up.

That was my point... we need spend more on exploration and development instead of wasting our lives away with a military budget larger than the rest of the world's combined.

nibb31 had it right if you look at his figures 1.5 TRILLION dollars are going to medicare and social security, the us military budget is less than half of that AHO so if anything the US should dump 500 billion dollars into NASA from the medicare and social security, then we could truly be the best in the world, that is where the US should go into space with as much as 500 billion dollars into nasa from social security and medicare, because if we cut our military, we will become to weak to defend our borders from invasion, terrorism, and crime (yes the military aren't police in america) so we need to be a military superpower otherwise we will be wiped out and we wont go into space any more, so that is what the truth of these underlying politicts mean,(believe me i am in an economics class) we need to figure a solution on every thing else before we go into space, also we need economic scientists in the white house or we would fall down the drain,

[Sherlock21st]

nibb31 had it right if you look at his figures 1.5 TRILLION dollars are going to medicare and social security, the us military budget is less than half of that AHO so if anything the US should dump 500 billion dollars into NASA from the medicare and social security, then we could truly be the best in the world, that is where the US should go into space with as much as 500 billion dollars into nasa from social security and medicare, because if we cut our military, we will become to weak to defend our borders from invasion, terrorism, and crime (yes the military aren't police in america) so we need to be a military superpower otherwise we will be wiped out and we wont go into space any more, so that is what the truth of these underlying politicts mean,(believe me i am in an economics class) we need to figure a solution on every thing else before we go into space, also we need economic scientists in the white house or we would fall down the drain,

Zapy, this in itself is off-topic, but please, try to use better grammar, for the sake of the people reading it so they can understand more easily.

[zapy97]

Zapy, this in itself is off-topic, but please, try to use better grammar, for the sake of the people reading it so they can understand more easily.

yeah sorry but in a way it is on topic because space is politics, space travel needs politics for it to survive, (well unless you are a trillionare) big countries help make space travel possible that was what i was saying in my rant