NASA Authorization Bill of 2013

[Kerbface]

He's making the point that if you don't have the money to fund massive projects, you can't understand the problems involved. It's like yelling at any professional outside of your profession for doing a bad job, when can't make any educated critique of it.

Well, apart from the fact that many people here are engineers, scientists etc., I'm pretty sure most of the issues being complained about in this thread are nothing to do with NASA's talents in overcoming technical obstacles and more to do with choices being made as to their current objectives, which is more a problem with the politicians who get to make these decisions despite knowing very little about them.

[zekes]

"To stop in space is to surrender"

-Who said this? it's true.

[M83]

...which is more a problem with the politicians who get to make these decisions despite knowing very little about them.

I find it a bit too much of a hasty generalization to say that politicians don't understand space. Do they understand it on say, people like us' magnitude? Doubtful for most of them. But they're not completely daft just because they went into civil service and not a scientific field.

I think if anything, all of us Americans who are interested in space should start talking to our representatives instead of complaining about it all. I'd love to see us band together instead of having political bickerings.

[Themohawkninja]

Well, apart from the fact that many people here are engineers, scientists etc., I'm pretty sure most of the issues being complained about in this thread are nothing to do with NASA's talents in overcoming technical obstacles and more to do with choices being made as to their current objectives, which is more a problem with the politicians who get to make these decisions despite knowing very little about them.

Exactly, it's all political/monetary. Hence why nobody has much room to talk, because I doubt there are any billionaires on this site.

[Kerbface]

I find it a bit too much of a hasty generalization to say that politicians don't understand space. Do they understand it on say, people like us' magnitude? Doubtful for most of them. But they're not completely daft just because they went into civil service and not a scientific field.

I think if anything, all of us Americans who are interested in space should start talking to our representatives instead of complaining about it all. I'd love to see us band together instead of having political bickerings.

Well, let's just say I haven't seen much evidence that the politicians in question know much about running a space agency considering what I've seen. I probably don't either, but when you see constant perfectly good projects cut to start new ones, which are then cut themselves, and things like the SLS which are generally considered rather unnecessary, it doesn't really appear they're making great decisions. I'm not an expert in this field, so it's probably not my position to judge, but I know a lot of people here are, so I tend to trust that they have a decent understanding of the situation unless it's suggested otherwise (Until I have a more thorough understanding, which I think I'm slowly developing, what else can I do?). I'm not saying they're completely daft either (though it would definitely appear that a lot of politicians are rather daft) but obviously it's unlikely that a politician is going to know the best decision to make in a scientific field unless they've studied it themselves, which is why the people in that field should have more power in the decision making process.

I'm not American so I can't really talk to my representative about anything to do with NASA.

[Stargate525]

Agreed. There are several very wealthy groups, with the means to pull it off, that are seriously talking about tethering asteroids. There has been found one in the belt that, if the calculations on its composition are correct, would be worth several trillion in Rare Earths, crash several of the mineral markets, and make some techs based on these materials able to be mass-produced.

[M83]

Well, let's just say I haven't seen much evidence that the politicians in question know much about running a space agency considering what I've seen. I probably don't either, but when you see constant perfectly good projects cut to start new ones, which are then cut themselves, and things like the SLS which are generally considered rather unnecessary, it doesn't really appear they're making great decisions.

I completely agree with that, considering where NASA's gone in the last decade or so and all the wonderful stuff that got ruined by bureaucracy and political garbage. All I'm trying to point out is that (and this doesn't apply so much to you, since you're not American) is that at the end of the day, American citizens are still operating in a democracy where we as citizens can change the representative should we not like their stance on things like space exploration, and I just hope overall that people like us who love space realize that we have the power to make these decisions when it comes election time. It'd warm my heart to see people like us KSP players work together in contacting the people in charge instead of just complaining about politicians, which achieves very little.