Yeah, Baby! Back to the Moon!

[Forty Two]

Meanwhile the dickhead wants to cut funding for the Earth science division and try bury evidence for climate change. NASA have gone rogue. He has also put a woman in charge of education who would have kids learn creationism.

What a pathetic attempt to make Trump seem like some kind of friend of science. Fucking desperate.

Is USA Today like America's Daily Mail?

I don't care who he's friends with. I have no loyalty to a team. If he does move forward to boost the space program and get us back to the Moon, I fully support that effort, even if I oppose other things he's done or doing or will do. A manned Moon mission, and a Moon base are key steps toward getting our ass to Mars, which I also fully support. We had a trillion dollars that we flushed down the toilet in 2009 for "stimulus." I think the best stimulus would have been to double or triple the size of NASA, and get our ass to the Moon AND Mars and spend stimulus money on that

[L'Emmerdeur]

We had a trillion dollars that we flushed down the toilet in 2009 for "stimulus."

OK, bleat about the stimulus package that actually helped Americans, but ignore the bullshit war that cost more than twice as much in dollars while resulting in the death of thousands of Americans, their allies and Iraqis.

[The stimulus package] cut taxes by $288 billion. It spent $224 billion in extended unemployment benefits, education and health care. It created jobs by allocating $275 billion in federal contracts, grants, and loans.

[source]

I support the idea of getting NASA back to the Moon, but your sneering dismissal of the previous administration's successful effort to aid the recovery from the recession only makes you look like a stooge.

[mistermack]

The only thing that will make America go back to the Moon, is if China decides to go there.

Look out for an immediate programme, and never mind the cost, if that happens.

[Svartalf]

Frump won't ,ever order the US back on the moon, he's much too afraid of Science for that

[Brian Peacock]

The moon is the best planet... totally the best... all the other planets are overrated... Mars: overrated. Pluto: overrated. Earth: so overrated...

[pErvinalia]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/poli ... /97415554/
oh, boy oh boy oh boy oh boy!
Let's do it, folks!
Yes, I am full bore behind "Get your ass to Mars!" Mars is the next step.
But, I said this 8 years ago, and I'll say it again, canceling the moon mission and the Constellation program was a huge mistake. We needed to get back to the moon while the people who were involved in Apollo were still around enough to help us. Just think, if we had continued Constellation with fervor, we'd be counting the months down to a new lunar landing.
Now, we have all these grandiose plans of going to asteroids and Mars, and yet we haven't even mastered the Moon, yet. We can't send astronauts on years long missions to Mars when we aren't even sure how we'd function for months on the Moon and back. The Moon is 250,000 Km from Earth, and Mars is from 54 million KM to a maximum of 401 million Km. The Mars trip is many orders of magnitude more difficult than the Moon trip, and we haven't yet made Moonshots routine. To some extent, just to go back to the Moon we have to reinvent the wheel, metaphorically.
So, if there is talk of getting us back to the moon now, I applaud it. Let's go! Get your ass to the Moon!

Since the mid-seventies the species seems to have lost its vision and aspirations. The TV science programs of that era, such as "Tomorrows World" and "Towards 2000" predicted 1 day work weeks & Moon bases by the 80's and Mars bases by the year 2,000. We saw confirmation of that in the movie "2001, a Space Odyssey".

Then it all went to pot. Although it was possible to do those things governments lacked vision & became frightened by the prospects. Not since JFK has there been a visionary president. Hopefully, Trump is that president... we'll see.

But without a new, vigorous space program science education will continue to suffer, and the only excitement for the young will be wars and rumors of wars. Still, the species only has 19 years to go... Too little, too late.

Oh Galaxian. You've been brainwashed and co-opted by the people who need you to believe the moon landings were real. Such a shame to see you fall so low.

[pErvinalia]

Did the Mexicans pay for that wall in your brain?

[Forty Two]

We had a trillion dollars that we flushed down the toilet in 2009 for "stimulus."

OK, bleat about the stimulus package that actually helped Americans, but ignore the bullshit war that cost more than twice as much in dollars while resulting in the death of thousands of Americans, their allies and Iraqis.

I don't ignore that. The fact that we also wasted hundreds of billions on a war doesn't change the fact that a moon base and lunar exploration technology, with a view toward branching out to Mars, would have been a far better use of funds than most of the Stimulus package. The scientific advancement would have been fantastic, the spirit and morale boost for the country would have been incredible, and the boost to STEM education among the youth would have been exponential. More engineers, physicists, designers, developers, materials scientists, and the hundreds of thousands of folks that would have been need for support personnel and support industries would have been immense, and it would have produced something.

[The stimulus package] cut taxes by $288 billion. It spent $224 billion in extended unemployment benefits, education and health care. It created jobs by allocating $275 billion in federal contracts, grants, and loans.

[source]

I support the idea of getting NASA back to the Moon, but your sneering dismissal of the previous administration's successful effort to aid the recovery from the recession only makes you look like a stooge.

[/quote]

You don't have to pay extended unemployment benefits to people with jobs. Funding industries is what provides jobs. Creating a market creates jobs. Check out how many support industries survived off of the space race in the 50s and 60s.

Data shows that the Stimulus Package was a waste of money: http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/pet ... e-of-money

It is not just that the $789 billion package has not had the effect the White House promised it would; it's that it may actually have been counterproductive, actually lengthening the recession by effectively taking money out of the private economy, where it could have been used to create jobs and for investment purposes. Instead it has been parceled out by the government, which has been unable to track where it has gone or what impact it has really had on job creation. And that has led to any number of fallacious statements by senior administration officials about jobs "created or saved."

Wasteful projects by the bucket load -- shovel ready -- lol -- http://www.businessinsider.com/mccain-1 ... cts-2010-8

The U.S. Forest Service Replaces The Windows in a Visitor Center That Was Closed in 2007 (Amboy, WA) for $554,763 http://www.businessinsider.com/mccain-1 ... r-554763-1

The University of North Carolina (Charlotte, NC) Developed An Interactive Dance Software for $762,372 http://www.businessinsider.com/mccain-1 ... r-762372-2

A rail extension is to be built to get to professional sports stadiums and a casino (Pittsburgh, PA) for $62 million http://www.businessinsider.com/mccain-1 ... -million-3

An abandoned train station is to be converted into a Museum in Glassboro, NJ) for $1.2 million http://www.businessinsider.com/mccain-1 ... -million-5

A town replaces for $89,298 new sidewalks with newer sidewalks that lead to a ditch (Boynton, OK) http://www.businessinsider.com/mccain-1 ... nton-ok-10

Upgraded Office Space and Indoor Parking for Kansas Politicians (Topeka, Kansas) - $39.7 million plus: “The school finance crisis in Kansas continues with no end in sight,” announced the Lawrence Journal- World, but that has not stopped Kansas lawmakers from directing federal stimulus funds towards the cost of renovating and upgrading their own offices and the statehouse. http://www.businessinsider.com/mccain-1 ... 1#11-20-11

The list is long and distinguished. A massive program involving scientific advancement and exploration, technological development and the advancement of human knowledge would have been far and away a better use of funds.

But, the Constellation program was canceled, because while we could spend hundreds of billions of dollars on various useless and/or one-off items, we couldn't toss a few billion to the Constellation program and to get us a Moon base at Clavius Crater.

[Forty Two]

Frump won't ,ever order the US back on the moon, he's much too afraid of Science for that

If that's true, then he can fuck himself.

[Forty Two]

The only thing that will make America go back to the Moon, is if China decides to go there.

Look out for an immediate programme, and never mind the cost, if that happens.

And so it should be.... we have the capacity and the capability to do it, so we should do it. If the Chinese are an excuse, then so be it.

Let's build a Moon Base!

Just in case....

[pErvinalia]

The University of North Carolina (Charlotte, NC) Developed An Interactive Dance Software for $762,372 http://www.businessinsider.com/mccain-1 ... r-762372-2

A rail extension is to be built to get to professional sports stadiums and a casino (Pittsburgh, PA) for $62 million http://www.businessinsider.com/mccain-1 ... -million-3

An abandoned train station is to be converted into a Museum in Glassboro, NJ) for $1.2 million http://www.businessinsider.com/mccain-1 ... -million-5

Upgraded Office Space and Indoor Parking for Kansas Politicians (Topeka, Kansas) - $39.7 million plus

So? All that money enters the economy and benefits the people who need it the most.

The list is long and distinguished. A massive program involving scientific advancement and exploration, technological development and the advancement of human knowledge would have been far and away a better use of funds.

Evidence for this? Space programs are highly specialised and technical. Any money invested in that will only benefit an elite few in the short term.

[Brian Peacock]

I've got one word to say to that: Velcro.

[Svartalf]

Frump won't ,ever order the US back on the moon, he's much too afraid of Science for that

If that's true, then he can fuck himself.

Who's talked about cutting funds to the earth science division?

[L'Emmerdeur]

We had a trillion dollars that we flushed down the toilet in 2009 for "stimulus."

OK, bleat about the stimulus package that actually helped Americans, but ignore the bullshit war that cost more than twice as much in dollars while resulting in the death of thousands of Americans, their allies and Iraqis.

I don't ignore that.

OK then, show me where you decried the horrible waste of lives and money that resulted from the war in Iraq in comparison to the much more productive option of funding a project to get back to the Moon. You were happy to point a finger at Obama's stimulus package, but silly me, I seem unable to find any reference at all by you to the Iraq war.

The fact that we also wasted hundreds of billions on a war doesn't change the fact that a moon base and lunar exploration technology, with a view toward branching out to Mars, would have been a far better use of funds than most of the Stimulus package. The scientific advancement would have been fantastic, the spirit and morale boost for the country would have been incredible, and the boost to STEM education among the youth would have been exponential. More engineers, physicists, designers, developers, materials scientists, and the hundreds of thousands of folks that would have been need for support personnel and support industries would have been immense, and it would have produced something.

Whether or not any of that is true, and some of it may be, it doesn't support your claim that the stimulus was money that was "flushed down the toilet."

You don't have to pay extended unemployment benefits to people with jobs. Funding industries is what provides jobs.

Your simplistic formula "funding industries is what creates jobs" is not an accurate nor realistic description of how jobs are created. The reality is much more complex than that.

Creating a market creates jobs. Check out how many support industries survived off of the space race in the 50s and 60s.

Are you unable to support your own argument? It's not up to me to "check out" your assertion. I've defended the NASA space program myself, and I agree that it was good for the country both economically and in other ways. It seems likely to me that pushing a new project to go to the Moon would have been a good thing, but that doesn't mean that the stimulus package was the wrong decision.

Data shows that the Stimulus Package was a waste of money: http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/pet ... e-of-money

It is not just that the $789 billion package has not had the effect the White House promised it would; it's that it may actually have been counterproductive, actually lengthening the recession by effectively taking money out of the private economy, where it could have been used to create jobs and for investment purposes. Instead it has been parceled out by the government, which has been unable to track where it has gone or what impact it has really had on job creation. And that has led to any number of fallacious statements by senior administration officials about jobs "created or saved."

Your source is from 2009, the same year that the stimulus was first applied. The economy was just barely beginning to recover. Perhaps you're aware of the fact that national economies may turn on a dime when things go bad, but recoveries don't work the same way. The source I cited was updated just days ago, and examines the overall effect of the stimulus from a historical perspective. It isn't cheerleading for Obama; it points out both the shortcomings and the successes of the stimulus package. It makes clear that your "flushed down the toilet" assertion is simplistic and wildly inaccurate.

[cronus]

Velcro and Teflon...these things come in three's though so what is next? I'll tell you what is next. Choon, that's right Choon. The cheese made on the moon is gonna be the most delicious cheese you'll ever taste.