/sci/ - Science & Math

0/10, NASA's budget is tiny compared to other elements of the budget.

>>2813879
Even if NASA, FBI, CIA, NSA and the entire american military was disbanded and the money used to pay the national debt some dumbass politician would still manage to fuck up things and run the country into the ground.

It would be something like this: If the rich becomes super-ultra-rich, the wealth will trickle down. So for anyone with a fortune of 10 million USD or more, the taxes are in the negative, that is, they get paid. And because there's so many poor people it's only right to tax them progressively up to 100%(or more, by giving them tax-debts), the minimum taxation level would be $1000/month or so just for being located inside the american border. Unless you're rich of course, then you get free money.

Just realize you live in a nation of morons and stop trying to ruin the things you're still good at.

bump

We spend orders of magnitude more money on Middle East wars than we do on NASA.

>>2815443

It makes me sad to think that if we'd just invest the money we spend on securing oil through the Middle East into research for alternative energy sources, we probably wouldn't have an oil problem.

First off, the patents off NASA's discoveries net the US 8 times more money than it uses.
Second off, China spends about 90 billion on its Department of Defense while you guys are pumping in excess of 717 billion blowing up sandniggers.

If anything you should DOUBLE NASA's budget and give the amazing superprojects to work on. Manned mission to Mars, Europa drill probe, advanced railgun launch systems, a moon base and asteroid mining

>>2813890
>trickle down
hahahaohwow.jpg

>>2815452
oil companies dont want that and sadly they have more of a say in where the money goes then we do

Mercury probably has the most potential for human exploitation and colonization of the planets in the solar system.

Hard vacuum (good for manufacturing, VERY good for space launch). No weather. Crazy amounts of solar power. Probably much better mineral resources than the moon, and way less bitching about visible changes. Far from Earth, a good neighborhood for using nuclear rockets.

This is the planet we'll strip mine to make low-solar-orbit power plants and put our fusion ball properly to work for us.

>>2815453

That may be true, but NASA has still fucked space exploration.

Multiple competing agencies, including military and civilian, government and private, within the US would have done better.

Who knows if Sea Dragon would have been a success? Now we'll never know.

>>2815545

How do you propose avoiding immolation every day?

>>2815578

Don't <sweat> the details.

>>2815545
That'd be great if IT WASN'T SO FUCKING HOT

The Moon is a better alternative.

>>2815569
NASA didn't fuck up space exploration, Nixon and every single government official did. Sure, there is shit like SpaceX which could do it better. But at the moment NASA is the best shot for unprofitable space exploration ventures.

>>2813879
>1024x1024
Hot damn I got a new texture picture!

>>2815578
Underground polar bases or when the technology is ready, a sunshade with comets collided into uninhabited parts of Mercury and then electrolyzed for a thin oxygen atmosphere with some lakes and shallow seas.

>>2815586

I just think defence money would have been easier to get than research money.

And never mind NASA, the moonshot fucked space exploration as well. I think if we went there ten or fifteen years later, we'd still be going there now. Instead they blew a load of money on a fast and dirty solution to the problem. I'm not saying it wasn't a beautiful, awe inspiring thing mankind did, because it was, I'm just saying they squandered it.

THE COUNTRY IS BROKE GUYS WE NEED TO CUT NASA'S BUDGET AND PUBLIC RADIO AND ABORTION AND EDUCATION FUNDING

WE JUST CANT AFFORD IT ANYMORE LOL

>>2815607
>I think if we went there ten or fifteen years later, we'd still be going there now.
Nixon cut NASA Future Reference Missions which included Man on Mars by 1981, a base on Mars by 1988 and Jovian manned exploration by 1990. In the moon years they spent around 33 billion of today's dollars for about a period of 7 years. I reckon it was worth it.

>>2815545
Mercury cannot into gravity, enjoy your lack of muscles

>>2815578
>How do you propose avoiding immolation every day?

>>2815584
>That'd be great if IT WASN'T SO FUCKING HOT

It's not hot. It's bright. No atmosphere. "Hot" doesn't make any sense unless you're talking about burning your feet when you go for a walk in an unshaded area.

Only stuff can be hot. Vacuum is just vacuum.

This is seriously not a problem. You can deal with this with a shiny tent.

Let me just make it clear that I'm against ridiculous space program spending on shit like mars colonies and starfleets, but the space program as it is stands as a money generating venture for the United States. Britain has recently started its own space agency with increased funding, in the knowledge it will pay off in a recovery from recession. Innovation and technological advance are immensely beneficial.

Even if it didn't generate technological advances and money in the long run, it's certainly a better way to spend money than the billions used on decadent luxury every day. We hear a lot more complaint about money spent on space technology than money spent producing Bentley's and diamon rings..

>>2815631
It has 0.38G's, slightly stronger than Mars' 0.376G

>>2815641
>ridiculous space program spending on shit like mars colonies
>ridiculous
>mars colonies
Securing the survival of our species sure is ridiculous

>>2815641
>Mars colonies
>ridiculous

>>2815597
Terraforming is seriously not the thing to do with Mercury.

Planets are such a ridiculously inefficient way to make living space. Spin some big cans, and you get a million times as much living space for the same materials.

>>2815654
>>2815652

>ohboyherewego.jpeg

I've yet to be convinced there's any actual benefit to colonizing Mars in the near future. It seems to be supported more by scifi fantasizing than reasoned analysis.

>>2815639

Could a person stand in a spacesuit on Mercury?

>>2815664
I don't imagine it would be a popular recreation activity on the day side.

>>2815666
Until you can make O'Neill cylinders kilometers wide they're pretty good. And the point is to have nice destinations. Planets are the preferred habitat it seems. Also, we should do it because we can.

>>2815668
>scifi
Science fiction. Well you're right, it's crazy. In fact, it's even worse than that, nuts.
[angrily slams down briefcase and marches up to the desk]
You wanna hear something really nutty? I heard of a couple guys who wanna build something called an "airplane," you know you get people to go in, and fly around like birds, it's ridiculous, right? And what about breaking the sound barrier, or rockets to the moon, or atomic energy, or a mission to Mars? Science fiction, right? Look, all I'm asking, is for you to just have the tiniest bit of vision. You know, to just sit back for one minute and look at the big picture. To take a chance on something that just might end up being the most profoundly impactful moment for humanity, for the history... of history.

>>2815683

>>2815683
>Until you can make O'Neill cylinders kilometers wide
Child's play compared to terraforming.

>>2815692
samefaggin

>>2815696
Then best let the big boys get to work.
>>2815699
I don't even have that gif

>>2815683

Ok, since we're not going to analyse feasibility and instead make decision on personal bias, let's invest in lots more programs. Why stop at Mars colonies? Let's make escalators through the centre of the Earth, and giant robot suits, and hordes of genetic pig mutant warriors. Think of the possibilities!

>>2815708
>Let's make escalators through the centre of the Earth
To have materials that can withstand those tensile forces and temperatures is a far bigger feat than O'Neill cylinders and terraforming
>and giant robot suits
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hkCcoenLW4
>and hordes of genetic pig mutant warriors
Teleoperated robots work better

>>2815707
>Then best let the big boys get to work.
So... you've got nothing?

>>2815748
I think we have more than enough material in the solar system and Oort cloud for both terraformed planets and O'Neill cylinders everywhere.

>>2815753
That's just a failure of imagination.

First of all, after we've used up the asteroid belt and the oort cloud, and terraformed every planet as well as we can, don't you think we'll still want more living space?

Secondly, when we're getting started or at some point in the middle, don't you think it'll seem more convenient to mine a great big planet conveniently located near the sun, where stuff doesn't drift off into the void if you accidentally drop it, than to run all around this ridiculously huge space trying to catch rocks zipping around like bullets, and process them from raw materials to finished product without installed infrastructure or convenient heat sinks?

>>2815731

I think you're so caught up in this visionary complex you're not letting objective reasoning play any part in your views. No doubt I'm fueling it
by disagreeing, because that's what visionaries had to put up with too right? Therefore when people call your ideas ridiculous and unsupported you feel even more secure in your ideas. It can't possibly be that you've misevaluated the situation, it must be that they're too conformist? And you'll have the last laugh when you're sipping margaritas in your robot suit on Mars?

You haven't provided any substantiative reason why colonizing Mars is a worthy investment for the near future.

Well, that's it for me, i'm off to play Counter-Strike.

>>2815781
>First of all, after we've used up the asteroid belt and the oort cloud, and terraformed every planet as well as we can, don't you think we'll still want more living space?
milkyway.jpg
universe.jpg

>>2815782
What I was trying to convey is that many people would prefer a more familiar environment like a planet. Sounds like you just mad.

>we should do it because we can

this is the attitude america has had since its inception, the attitude that has caused all of the problems that you're now trying to run away from, to other planets.

go ahead and populate mars. the moon too, why not. hell even mercury. eventually you're going to run out of feasible escape locales and humanity will wind up with problems 10,000x larger than anything we've ever experienced yet on one single planet.

Can't take care of yourselves on one planet? Stay the FUCK out of space.

>>2815858

Still no real support, eh? Sounds like you've been watching too much Buck Rogers (with sparkling saucer eyes, in your rocketship pajamas)

There's a very, very simple reason to colonize another planet, and that is that very soon, in the near future - probably not in our lifetimes, but still, very soon relatively, there will not be enough food or space for everyone to live comfortably.

To prevent resource wars or to at least broaden their horizon and export their conflict is the goal of planetary colonization.

>>2815882
>>2815957
>in the near future - probably not in our lifetimes
Do I have to post it?

Also, vertical farms

>>2815957

...except resource and space problems are almost entirely the problem of the massively overpopulated third world. I don't see space colonization as a way out for them, somehow...

>>2815974

The die-off that'll come to India and China in the next 50 years will be very interesting to see. The dryer parts of India are already well past the breaking point, it's only a matter of time before the water table dries up.