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I would love for NASA to have gobs of money to play with and use for all sorts of exciting stuff.
I'd also really love for every American child to have a home and a full tummy. How about highways and bridges that are not falling apart? And schools that actually teach our kids to compete on the world stage?
How about we pay our teachers and cops and fire fighters what they're worth?
Oh wait, I forgot, idiot rw's believe that's CommieMarxFascSoshSomething Or Other. They believe we raise taxes on the middle class and give it to the 1%. Stupid.
Once we accept the fact that government spending does not grow the economy it's easier to accept the concept of less funding for toys for big boys. It's no secret that NASA is in the global warming propaganda business now that Hussein cut the Space Shuttle program. What's the sense of sending robots to Mars and keeping a hunk of junk in space? Let China and Russia do it for a change. Clinton sold them the technology.
Private enterprise can do the same thing, cheaper and without government monies
NASA should be focused on automated robotic exploration of space and ASSISTING private industry to gain payload and delivery expertise.
There are issues to resolve in Climate Change and Earth Resources such as upper atmospheric measurements, solar irradiance measurements, ocean studies and other tasks that should be continued.
The rockets and payloads are ALREADY private. NASA doesn't make crap. And the Mars rovers are a prime example of leveraging tech into the private sector. To make a rover -- you are developing the same type of breakthrus required for 21st Century manufacturing automation.
But the days of cowboys riding rockets is probably over for them. And orbiting labs that don't really have a payback or application other than doing maintenance on expensive telescopes.
NASA is a waste of time at this point.
I'm sorry, I'm not a f- idiot like you are, so I can't accept that funding NASA is good for the economy. How rich do you think it would make America to put astronauts on Pluto? Would it end to world poverty if we put a million people on Pluto?
We could end world poverty if we mined the Asteroids. O'yes you talk without any facts. One Asteroid is worth trillions...
We could end world poverty if we mined the Asteroids. O'yes you talk without any facts. One Asteroid is worth trillions...
Which asteroid is worth trillions? And, how much do you think it'll cost to recover the wealth of that asteroid?
Meet Amun 3554. Doesnt look like much, right? Little more than a mile wide, its one of the smallest M-class (metal-bearing) asteroids yet discovered. Unless it ever decides to smash into us a theoretical possibility, but extremely unlikely over the next few centuries it will continue orbiting the sun, unknown and unmolested.
That is, unless Planetary Resources has its way. Planetary Resources is the asteroid-mining company launched Tuesday in Seattle, with backing from Microsoft and Google billionaires, along with the equally prominent James Cameron and Ross Perot Jr.
Its object is to completely dismember poor little rocks like Amun.
Thats because Amun is a goldmine well, not gold so much. But it does contain a cool $8 trillion worth of platinum, an essential precious metal used in everything from jewelry to fuel cells to computers (and one thats currently trading at the same rate as gold $1500 an ounce.) On Earth, only a few hundred tonnes of the stuff are produced every year.
The $8 trillion figure is an estimate based on observations by John S. Lewis, professor of planetary science, author of Mining the Sky: Untold Riches from the Asteroids, Comets, and Planets, and now a consultant to Planetary Resources. He also found 3554 Amun to contain another $8 trillion in iron and nickel, and a mere $6 trillion worth of cobalt.
So, the total payout from one unassuming asteroid? $20,000,000,000,000.
Thats what got Planetary Resources co-founder Peter Diamandis so excited. There are $20 trillion checks up there waiting to be cashed, he enthused at a space development conference in 2006.