Space Landing! ...is totally cancelled!

And all other events are pending.

Quote :

Obama space panel says moon return plan is a no go

By SETH BORENSTEIN
AP Science Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A White House panel of independent space experts says NASA's return-to-the-moon plan just won't fly.

The problem is money. The expert panel estimates it would cost about $3 billion a year beyond NASA's current $18 billion annual budget.

I rate this:

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And people are still saying "WELL DUHH LEAVE IT TO PRIVATE BIZNESS" [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] Somebody oughtta put me in charge of NASA, seriously. Gimme four years and I'll have all the deadwood cleared out and you won't be seeing any committees on anything, it'll be me, being Penguin McAwesome, demanding the necessary billions to do what is necessary, instead of being expected to make politicians' empty promises just work. Yeah. Totally.

OMG! A $3 billion budget overrun! That's what, 0.5% of Obama's shiny new budget deficit?

How about the Fed cash in some of that corporate paper they've been buying and. . . sorry, I need to stop laughing. . . and. . . yeah. Never mind.

I actually agree with this decision. The money wasn't there when Bush gave the green light, and it still isn't there. Though the moon base plans they have look awesome and would be a great advance in science.

What's the point on going back to the moon? I personally think that there's nothing to gain from it.

Sorsa A. Jänis wrote:

What's the point on going back to the moon? I personally think that there's nothing to gain from it.

We hardly had a chance to do anything with it before we went back to looking inward at the planet. There's plenty left up there. And now, instead of exploring Mars, or farther, we're making sure every fucking teenager on the planet has cellphone coverage.

We went from the first powered flight to the moon in less than 70 years.

And then occasionally we sent some probes out. Hubble's cool. But everything since has been about satellites and networking, which is fine, but it should hardly be the extent of space.

There's so much to be gained from returning to the moon, but our priorities are jacked up.

By going back to the moon we'd be able to confirm if we landed there the first time. But by NOT going nobody's risking it turning out to be a big con.

And people still wonder why there are all the conspiracy stuff about not landing when we're taking such a long time going back there.

Penguin wrote:

We went from the first powered flight to the moon in less than 70 years.

And then occasionally we sent some probes out. Hubble's cool. But everything since has been about satellites and networking, which is fine, but it should hardly be the extent of space.

There's so much to be gained from returning to the moon, but our priorities are jacked up.

Yeah, seriously. I THOUGHT BY NOW WE WERE GOING TO BE EXPLORING THE FAR REACHES OF THE FUCKING GALAXY AND THERE WAS GOING TO BE AN AMUSEMENT PARK ON THE FUCKING MOON. AND WE'D HAVE A WHOLE UNIVERSE TO EXPEND FOR OUR OWN GAIN!

WHERE IS MY 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY?
WHERE IS THE FUCKING HOPE?

(I hope you know I'm half pissed off, and half milking this shit)

Oh, I picked a hell of a time to take Astronomy.

SYLLABUS:

Sep. 14: Sobbing
Sep. 16: Sobbing
Sep. 21: Sobbing
Sep. 23: Ranting
Sep. 28: Sobbing
Sep. 30: Sobbing
Oct. 5: Pizza Party


...well, college classes should have pizza parties, okay?


but seriously depressing-ass news

I think we should set up teleport research facilities on Phobos and Deimos. Maybe UAC would fund this?

Lapin wrote:

I actually agree with this decision. The money wasn't there when Bush gave the green light, and it still isn't there. Though the moon base plans they have look awesome and would be a great advance in science.

:roflmao: :>

The money wasn't there for the $700 billion pork bill. The money wasn't there for Cash for Clunkers. The money isn't there for any other half cocked plan Obama gets into his head. And yet we've spent $700 billion on pork. We've spent millions on Cash for Clunkers. And Obama is continuing to try to spend money on every half cock idea he gets in his head.

The only difference is nothing good will come of all of that. Something good may come from the moon.

Like free cheese for everyone.

I suppose actually talking about space for, like, five minutes before people start [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]-ing about Obama is too much to ask?

Because it's not like, y'know, you guys have taken the chance to do that in every other fucking topic.

Sorsa A. Jänis wrote:

What's the point on going back to the moon? I personally think that there's nothing to gain from it.

Possibly. But looking towards the future, and the colonization of other planets, it's a logical first step. If we want to go to Mars someday, the Moon is a logical place to start. It's an ideal staging ground for testing semipermanent ground bases, practicing regular offworld shuttle launches, that sort of thing. I think it's inevitable that we expand outward, planetwise, and the only logical candidate in our solar system is Mars. Ergo, Moon first.

Plus, my dad really loves space and spaceflight. And some sentimental part of me hopes I'll be able to buy him a flight on a space shuttle some day, so any advancement in space exploration is good news for me.

Delcat wrote:

I suppose actually talking about space for, like, five minutes before people start [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]-ing about Obama is too much to ask?

Because it's not like, y'know, you guys have taken the chance to do that in every other fucking topic.

It's a fair cop, but in this case, "Obama panel" was the first two words of the extract, making my bitching actually on-topic for a change.

So? And? Who gives a shit?

What business do we have on the moon during this time? Are we in a hurry to create ZAFT? Is there Nazi gold hidden on the moon? Is there an energy crisis and the moon has oil? Are we flying there to pick up a vial of panacea? I seriously want to know what is this "good" you speak of?

What non-retarded explanation is there for looking into new territory when we can't get our shit right in what we already have?

If the Army wants to burn money, then it's a retarded pet project, but when NASA does it, it's necessary?

I'm kind of with Psy-4 in a much less shouty way. If they want to go to the Moon to find helium-3 that's actually there, or build a moonbase that will last for decades/centuries, or learn to live sustainably in such conditions, great. If they want to go back so they can say they did it, or so they can blow raspberries at the Russians, Chinese and anyone else that feels like going to the Moon this week, then forget it.

We have to start building our Moon City at some point.

I want to go to the moon. But we should probably save our money...

Eh, it pains me, but it makes sense. However, it would be even better if they also cut some military spending or at least divert it somewhere useful. Why waste movie on huge planes when it can be diverted to better armor for soldiers; that kind of thing.

With the problems we're already facing, I could live with not going back to the moon for the time being.

We're already blowing up part of the moon. That's awesomer than landing on it.

I think the "international cooperation" aspect has promise - we're not racing anyone to get to the moon because we already won that race. So why shouldn't we work with other nations like we do with the International Space Station?

The part about private, for-profit business getting involved gives me pause. Unless Richard Branson is interested, who else has both the necessary capital and the drive to do it?

"We need to work on the problems we have already" is the dick stupidest thing you can possibly say about exploration and progress, and completely invalidates all your opinions forever about anything as far as I'm concerned. The first lesson anybody with any sense learns from science is that the "useless" shit out at the fringe is where the miracles of ten years from now will come from. Velcro, teflon, kevlar, and plexiglass are solid proof that your pissypants faux-frugalism can take a flying fuck at a rolling donut if you think being in space is too expensive or not applicable to the current state of the world.

Aside from that, easily half the problems we have on earth are caused by overpopulation anyway. Expanding to new territory is always a valid response to that. We won't live on the moon or Mars in fifty years even if we bust our ass today, but every little bit helps.

Fuck the moon, I want to go to pluto.

If you need that much ice, your cocktail is too large.

T.S.Orr wrote:

Fuck the moon, I want to go to pluto.

I stopped caring about Pluto the moment it stopped being a planet.