Neil Armstrong: Obama killing off U.S. space program..

[rightwinger]

Manned space flight is a waste of money.

Robots can do it cheaper and better.

More R2D2 less Buck Rodgers

 

[rightwinger]

Tbh, his plan for commercial Space industry fails.

NASA had a local workforce. Now this commercial place will bring in workers from other areas and basically force the current locals to move due to lack of jobs (and a job is almost an extinct species here).

GUBMINT can't do anything right.......only private companies can get us to the moon

 

[ba1614]

Isn't their mission now to make muslims feel all warm and fuzzy?

 

[uscitizen]

I wish he were cutting spending on NASA, but a basic 5 second google search proves Armstrong's words to be nothing but jibberish.

NASA Budget - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

We are privatizing space travel.
In othwer words directing tax dollars to privte industry.
The right should love that.

 

[JoeB131]

I think the problem is, when we can't keep the roads in repair, we really shouldn't be worried about the value of putting a man on Mars for a few days when we can put a robot on Mars for a fraction of that and learn a lot more because it will be there a lot longer.

I think the other part of the problem is, having been to the moon, where else can we go? Mercury and Venus are too hot to put anything on, and while the gas giants are pretty and all, they are just that, big balls of liquid methane.

Again, I'm going to hit my favorite drum. We could afford a Space Program in Neil's day at the same time we were fighting a major war, laying down a huge interstate highway system, and creating large social welfare programs, because we had near full employment and a vigorous industrial/manufacturing base. Now we are losing that base, and not surprisingly, we can't afford to do the other things, whether they are easy or hard (to paraphrase JFK).

Both parties are to blame for this. The Republicans for advocating the free trade stupidity that allowed manufacturers to send all the good jobs overseas, and the Democrats for insisting on ridiculous laws that make it impossible for people who choose to stay here to operate without drowning in paperwork to make sure that they aren't killing a snail darter.

 

[American Horse]

The cuts are being planned by the administration, not congress. Read the link.

You read it. And go slow. Here, let me help you.

Before they get to this part:

President Obama's proposed 2011 budget did not include funds for Constellation, therefore essentially canceling the program.

There was this part:

However, due to its congressionally authorized funding falling victim to Office of Management and Budget cuts, earmarks and other unexpected financial diversions, Constellation fell behind schedule. An administration-appointed review committee concluded the Constellation program was "not viable" due to inadequate funding.

It says the program was pretty much ruined by congress. Obama's plan is best. We need to develop "NEW" technology. Not just go to the moon to prove we still can.

The cancellation of programs described by Zubrin is not about going to the moon. It's about planetary science missions and the support they need on the ground.

Congress approves final budgets but the administration determines which programs within an agency go forward. The administratrion has determined to cancel vital research/exploration missions. Some of them are listed in the link I posted:

Here goes again:

. . . in its new budget, the Obama administration intends to terminate NASA’s planetary exploration program.

. . . The Mars Science Lab Curiosity, being readied on the pad, will be launched, as will the nearly completed small MAVEN orbiter scheduled for 2013, but that will be it.

. . . the plan from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) also leaves the space astronomy program adrift and headed for destruction.

. . . The now-orbiting Kepler Telescope will be turned off in midmission

. . . Webb Telescope, [the replacement for Hubble 5-times more powerful] ... is not sufficiently funded to allow successful completion

. . . The ostensible reason for the administration’s decision to kill planetary exploration and space astronomy is budgetary discipline.

. . . Yet while federal spending has grown 40 percent since 2008, NASA’s funding has remained virtually the same.

 

[American Horse]

I think the problem is, when we can't keep the roads in repair, we really shouldn't be worried about the value of putting a man on Mars for a few days when we can put a robot on Mars for a fraction of that and learn a lot more because it will be there a lot longer.

<SNIP>

FYI - virtually all funding for roads and bridges in the US comes from gasoline taxes collected at the pump, and those monies are dedicated to the Highway Trust Fund. No general funding (as pays for NASA programs) goes to the maintenance of our roads. It's all targetted by use taxes. The outcry that our roads and bridges are falling apart is misguided and off topic.

 

[rightwinger]

I think the problem is, when we can't keep the roads in repair, we really shouldn't be worried about the value of putting a man on Mars for a few days when we can put a robot on Mars for a fraction of that and learn a lot more because it will be there a lot longer.

<SNIP>

FYI - virtually all funding for roads and bridges in the US comes from gasoline taxes collected at the pump, and those monies are dedicated to the Highway Trust Fund. No general funding (as pays for NASA programs) goes to the maintenance of our roads. It's all targetted by use taxes. The outcry that our roads and bridges are falling apart is misguided and off topic.

Putting a man on Mars is frivolous when we are arguing about where to get the money to help flood victims.

Build robots and let them roam Mars to your hearts content

 

[uscitizen]

The cuts are being planned by the administration, not congress. Read the link.

You read it. And go slow. Here, let me help you.

Before they get to this part:

President Obama's proposed 2011 budget did not include funds for Constellation, therefore essentially canceling the program.

There was this part:

However, due to its congressionally authorized funding falling victim to Office of Management and Budget cuts, earmarks and other unexpected financial diversions, Constellation fell behind schedule. An administration-appointed review committee concluded the Constellation program was "not viable" due to inadequate funding.

It says the program was pretty much ruined by congress. Obama's plan is best. We need to develop "NEW" technology. Not just go to the moon to prove we still can.

The cancellation of programs described by Zubrin is not about going to the moon. It's about planetary science missions and the support they need on the ground.

Congress approves final budgets but the administration determines which programs within an agency go forward. The administratrion has determined to cancel vital research/exploration missions. Some of them are listed in the link I posted:

Here goes again:

. . . in its new budget, the Obama administration intends to terminate NASA’s planetary exploration program.

. . . The Mars Science Lab Curiosity, being readied on the pad, will be launched, as will the nearly completed small MAVEN orbiter scheduled for 2013, but that will be it.

. . . the plan from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) also leaves the space astronomy program adrift and headed for destruction.

. . . The now-orbiting Kepler Telescope will be turned off in midmission

. . . Webb Telescope, [the replacement for Hubble 5-times more powerful] ... is not sufficiently funded to allow successful completion

. . . The ostensible reason for the administration’s decision to kill planetary exploration and space astronomy is budgetary discipline.

. . . Yet while federal spending has grown 40 percent since 2008, NASA’s funding has remained virtually the same.

Umm think about what the spending growth since 2008 was for.

 

[American Horse]

Umm think about what the spending growth since 2008 was for.

. . . That misses the point.
If NASA FUNDING REMAINED THE SAME since 08, it didn't go to what you allude. I fear more "croney capitalism" in NASA with this administration, but that's just my opinion.

 

[Seawytch]

I'm a huge fan of the space program...always have been, but its my understanding that two unpaid for wars, unpaid for tax cuts and an unpaid for Medicare Part D program topped with Wall Street Greed and malfeasance has left this country in a bit of a pickle financially.

I mean, we're supposed to be on a budget right? Justify spending on NASA when the GnOP wants to cut Social Security and give coupons for old folks to purchase Medicare.

Come on Private Industry...time for you to take over without all that government welfare. Where is my commercial space flight?

 

[Full-Auto]

I'm a huge fan of the space program...always have been, but its my understanding that two unpaid for wars, unpaid for tax cuts and an unpaid for Medicare Part D program topped with Wall Street Greed and malfeasance has left this country in a bit of a pickle financially.

I mean, we're supposed to be on a budget right? Justify spending on NASA when the GnOP wants to cut Social Security and give coupons for old folks to purchase Medicare.

Come on Private Industry...time for you to take over without all that government welfare. Where is my commercial space flight?

you made some fair claims on things not being paid for. I cant help but notice you didnt list the unpaid items from the left even though they had there hand in the things you just listed. why is that?

 

[Si modo]

I'm a huge fan of the space program...always have been, but its my understanding that two unpaid for wars, unpaid for tax cuts and an unpaid for Medicare Part D program topped with Wall Street Greed and malfeasance has left this country in a bit of a pickle financially.

I mean, we're supposed to be on a budget right? Justify spending on NASA when the GnOP wants to cut Social Security and give coupons for old folks to purchase Medicare.

Come on Private Industry...time for you to take over without all that government welfare. Where is my commercial space flight?

So, instead of being prudent with the budget, Obama ADDS more debt?

And, cuts the space program.

 

[rdean]

These right wingers are so dense. What is it they don't get.

Rocket Technology has only improved "a little" since the 1960's. And those improvements are because of computers and composites. But the technology is basically the same.

Republicans keep saying, "Get government out of the way and let business take over". Only we know that doesn't work. Because business doesn't do much research. Why? Because research is "risky". Get it? Research is "risky". Companies grow by buying up other companies. And then laying off people.

Republicans are conservative. They want things THE SAME. They have no new ideas. No vision. Delusion aren't "vision".

What Obama has done is move away from trying to visit the top of Mt. St. Helen's on a pogo stick.

NASA has turned towards developing new methods of moving a payload into space. Away from "building". That, they are leaving to "private companies".

What has ALWAYS worked best in this country is a partnership between Universities, Business and Government. Fucking dumb ass Republicans have demonized Government and trashed Education. And they have set up business as a "False God". We've got to stop listening to these awful people. They can't think, they are stupid, they don't have facts to back up anything they say, they are delusional. I don't think they are lying on purpose. Their delusions keep them from recognizing their lies.

 

[Si modo]

Obama and Democrats hate science.

 

[rightwinger]

Obama and Democrats hate science.

Republicans make up their own science

 

[Seawytch]

I'm a huge fan of the space program...always have been, but its my understanding that two unpaid for wars, unpaid for tax cuts and an unpaid for Medicare Part D program topped with Wall Street Greed and malfeasance has left this country in a bit of a pickle financially.

I mean, we're supposed to be on a budget right? Justify spending on NASA when the GnOP wants to cut Social Security and give coupons for old folks to purchase Medicare.

Come on Private Industry...time for you to take over without all that government welfare. Where is my commercial space flight?

So, instead of being prudent with the budget, Obama ADDS more debt?

And, cuts the space program.

Added more debt to save the economy...just ask economists who almost universally agree about what the Stimulus did for us.

The President, I'm certain, did not want to HAVE TO bail the country out with a stimulus, but Reagan, Bush I, Clinton and Bush II left little choice. If he had a choice, I'm sure he would much rather be spending money on toys like rockets to the moon than saving us from a Depression.

Sorry, but if I have to choose between space exploration and grandma not eating cat food, I'll take Grandma not eating catfood.

 

[rightwinger]

NASA would have been better off if they let Buzz Aldrin be the first man to walk on the moon.

Not only did Armstrong flub an easy first man on the moon line, he turned into a recluse after leaving NASA

Buzz Aldrin has been the one selling the space program since the first moon landing

 

[American Horse]

I think the problem is, when we can't keep the roads in repair, we really shouldn't be worried about the value of putting a man on Mars for a few days when we can put a robot on Mars for a fraction of that and learn a lot more because it will be there a lot longer.

<SNIP>

FYI - virtually all funding for roads and bridges in the US comes from gasoline taxes collected at the pump, and those monies are dedicated to the Highway Trust Fund. No general funding (as pays for NASA programs) goes to the maintenance of our roads. It's all targetted by use taxes. The outcry that our roads and bridges are falling apart is misguided and off topic.

Putting a man on Mars is frivolous when we are arguing about where to get the money to help flood victims.

Build robots and let them roam Mars to your hearts content

These are differing paradigms of improtance. One does not preclude the other. As a matter of fact, assisting flood victims can be radically enhanced by endeavors in space, even by mere spinoffs.

And the robots for research purposes are the very parts of the budget which are being cut; I.E. Webb Space Telescope is a robotic astronomical observatory in space, it's already in production, and the administration and maintenance of it is being lost to budget cuts BY THE ADMINISTRATION.

 

[Full-Auto]

Obama and Democrats hate science.

Republicans make up their own science

Yes the continued comments from the left like


Maybe, could be, possibly and might be are powerful arguments you guys have..