The space program is out of the public eye because we have a newer and more intriguing enemy than the Soviet block. Granted, if terrorists had the means to build rockets and send them into space, they would. We'd really be into then. It would be like evil reigning down upon us and we would need to fight back with more funding for the Space Program. In reference to your claim Agent that many the inventions would have occurred anyway, that very well may be true, but then I'd argue the Third Reich wouldn't have had their v2 rockets either. A lot of those scientists we put on our payroll to advance our power and knowledge of rockets. Many, and I do mean MANY of our goodies today come advancements made specifically for the military. The computer you type on, the Internet you connect with, are both direct results of technologies created and funded for the military. And while right now space exploration may not be a big issue now, if world population continues at its current rate, then it will be top priority in the future to find more resources and living space.

Same could be said on military spending
[sm=americanasmiley.gif]

 

The space program was funded by congress, the money was given to NASA not the DOD. I don't see any reason to have a space program today. There alot of research oppurtunities that could be funded and actually help more people. If you look at it, who does the space program help? Addition funding for schools and medical stuff will help someone out. I think that we need to send more funding toward hydrogen fuel cells and alternative fuels rather than the space program. We got bigger problems then how are we gonna send someone to Mars.

I never said that military spending was bad, there is actual reason for it. It does help protect us. However, i don't agree that we need to spend as much on the military as we do but it is a better use than the space program. We already have the most advanced everything and nobody is gonna be able to match that. I don't think it should be stopped, but maybe slowing it down wouldn't be that bad.

 

Congress technically would fund anything governmental, but check out how much DOD spending went into NASA durring the cold war...you may be surprised...I agree with your point about finding better uses for billions of dollars...everything has a time.

 

Someday when a Korea or Iran goes Ape$hit and pushes the red button, and we have lazers that are in space, shoot them out of the sky, it will become obvious why we are dumping trillions into the space program.

 

So your telling me that sending a man (or woman) to Mars is gonna help the U.S. blow up missles? That sounds like a crock of BS. And you are reffering to the Star Wars Defense shield which Reagan poured loads of money into even after they found out that it wasn't gonna work. Now bush wants to start it up again.

 

ok sorry to burst everyones bubbles..and make yall get down off ur high horses.. alot of good things have come from the space program.. who has sat. radio?? that was only started in the last few years here... who.. wants a cure for cancer.. who wants.. a cure for that disease where u just bleed non stop from ur pores.. they do that type stuff in zero gravity research stations.. hell.. sky lab came down.. but the iss is still up there folks.. theres still people that are risking their lives to to experiments on things that could help us... its not by means of what we are doing to get further in to deep space.. its what we need to be doing up there to study more of the generalization of the atmosphere.. and what its capabilities are... i bet few of u knew that at the right times in our summer they can see a hole in the ozone layer over antarctica.. now.. to you that might now be much.. but a hole in the ozone means that theres b and c radiations comming in to the earth.. that stuff hits you.. it will kill you instantly.. i would much rather a few billion going in to helping scientists study the earth then us all dying one day because we didnt know that there was this solar storm comming that would block out the sun and kill us.. or maybe because this killer asteroid was comming to hit earth... get ur heads out of ur bums.. go online..and look it up... stop being arogant..[sm=rant.gif]

 

Killer asterioid? You've been watchin a few too many armegeddon movies.

 

U.N. :"Ronnie, you aren't trying to build a star wars system that will give the united States a tactical advantage over the rest of the world are you"

Ronnie Ray-Gun: "well..........errrrrrrrrrrrrrrr we ummmmmmmmmmmmm, we ahhhhhhhhh, well see the thing is, that we WERE doing that, by now we ain't. It won't work, so we stopped building it. Honest............."

U.N. :"ok"

<Ronnie hopes the U.N. doesn't question the 350 billion each year in our budget spent on classified projects>

 

The star wars defense shield, and those classified programs were under the DOD, correct? What does that have to do with funding to send a guy to Mars. Or a probe to Uranus. Or the Hubble telescope. Or any number of programs that send crap to varius planets to take pictures and crap like that. Now if you can tell me how those help cure cancer or fix the ozone, i would be impressed.

 

space program doesnt do much for me ----its not like im gonna be taking a trip to the moon anytime soon--dont know anybody there anyway