Why I Support The Space Program

It is not an argument, but a sincere opinion....that is ok, if you do not agree......but I am not changing my mind about it....

I agree with you, however, with teaching math to kids and the work we need to do here, as well..... and more science should be taught too........and so many things should improve here......but too much time and money and attention spent on other things not doing humanity or this planet one bit of good....but space exploration is not something that should be dropped.

 

Build underwater cities. much more realistic than terraforming.

 

Yah good point and furthermore, Cosmology is a good study for the accuracy of our math and physics, which becomes refined the more we understand in regards to space travel.

 

I think you both make good points here.

Makes me think of Bioshock

 

a lot of these cleaner technologies i agree and more then agree, we should be transitioning to, it is largely because of the space program(s plural, not just the u.s., lets not forget) that we even have them.

so this isn't a zero sum thing between them. but a lot of development will grind to a near halt for some considerable time, because of what i fore see as a likely result, of what we are doing to our environment.

the technology of getting into space is an interesting thing that inspires a lot of people. taking support away from that, isn't going to solve any of these, yes they are more immediate and pressing problems.

if we stop making wars so we won't have to spend as much on the military, that would do a hundred times more to solve them, then taking anything away from space exploration.

 

I don't agree. In fact, I would say that the space program has contributed almost nothing to our understanding of math and physics. Perhaps you mean engineering, in which case you have a point I would agree with.

 

I am saying cosmology primarily contributes to our understanding math and physics, space travel gives us a way to refine our theories and/or verify them.

I.E.

http://youtu.be/KDp1tiUsZw8

 

I studied cosmology a long time ago. I don't think space travel has contributed anything to our understanding of cosmology, except for the Hubble Space Telescope and unmanned things like that. Manned space travel has only advanced engineering, not science.

 

Lol! I am amused how you are still clinging to that position in response to the video.

 

Must admit I didn't watch the video. OK, I will.

 

OK, I watched the video and there was absolutely nothing there that changed my mind. The astronaut was simply demonstrating something we've known for 400 years. It didn't need to be verified, he just did it for entertainment.

 

I really think this is your attempt to save face but you are clueless about science if you don't think it requires testing and verification.

 

From your comments, it seems that you do not have a good science education. I do. The astronaut was demonstrating an aspect of Newtonian physics, which have been completely verified (except for relativistic effects) for many hundreds of years.

 

Based on your previous comments, naturally I'm skeptical but this was not my forte in school, so if you are educated as you say and unwaivering on this position...

Share an empirical example of objects falling in low gravity prior to the moon landings.

 

Actually the demonstration is not about low gravity; you would see exactly the same thing in any gravity field. The main thing about the demo is falling in a vacuum, no air resistance. This is the key. The principle is that any mass falls at the same acceleration if there is no resistance. And it is easily verified in any vacuum chamber on earth.

 

No example...

Anyways it makes me curious if you think stuff like the Large Hadron Collider is a waste as well because it only verifies stuff like the existence of the Higgs Boson, which had been theorized for half a century..

 

I did provide an example. Simply create a vacuum inside a tall container and drop a feather and a hammer at the same time. Why is that not enough for you? It has been done countless times in physics in the past.

So, when the astronaut was on the moon, there were no scientists who still wondered if gravity behaved like that. It was settled way before.

The Higgs Boson is a completely different situation. No, I don't think that basic physics research is a waste, but that's not what was going on on the moon or in any manned space travel that I'm aware of.

 

I didn't ask for a hypothetical example...

 

WMAP is another example of the space program helping to further develop science:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilkinson_Microwave_Anisotropy_Probe

 

Very stimulating outlook. I once heard that someone calculated that every person on earth could fit in Australia each having a quarter acre of land, which leaves me to believe that unless people adopt a greener way of thinking, it does matter where people go, there will always be mismanagement of land distribution and people will always pollute their environment (Shit were they eat).

I would like to see a calculation of how much land that golf courses waste.

On the other hand, I do not believe that the space program is a waste of money. Building defenses against asteroids, comets, and space debris that people have littered the geosynchronous orbit with is a very wise thing to do.