Comments on: Obama orders manned space program review

NASA's fiscal 2010 $18.7 billion budget request includes near-term funding boost for post-shuttle moon program, but $3.1 billion in cuts through 2013.

[davideconnollyjr]

It's a shame. No input whatsoever, except a "policy review," and 3.1 billion in cuts. I HOPE President Obama is not more interested in shoveling boat loads of money to social programs and expanding the war in Afghanistan than understanding the universe. This is penny wise, and pound foolish- you can extend the safety net, extending unemployment benefits, and food stamps, provide everyone with free health care (except the veterans, who Janet Napolitano has courteously informed us are actually potential terrorists,) a while, and invade foreign countries, and all that is great for a president, but understanding the universe, what constitutes it, and how these constituent particles behave will benefit mankind in the long term, and serve to improve our ability to use less of our time, and brains on just surviving, and more time evolving.

[ExWinUser]

After Obama easily wins the next election, he'll help take care of NASA. Don't worry.

[Commander_Spock]

Re: "[....It's a shame. No input whatsoever, except a "policy review," and 3.1 billion in cuts. I HOPE President Obama is not more interested in shoveling boat loads of money to social programs and expanding the war in Afghanistan than understanding the universe....]"

Well, they made us become familiar with names like "Tora Bora"..... (Took First Blood); so, what is with wrong with returning fire-for-fire!

"Lest We Forget 9/11"!

[Commander_Spock]

This should read: "so, what is wrong with returning fire-for-fire!"

[BtmnHatesRbn]

How about Soetoro orders his birth certificate reviewed then we'll see is he's allowed to review anything else.

[Dalkorian]

Keep crying, retardican infant. Your tears are helping to rebuild our nation and clean up the mess that you left behind in your incompetence and greed.

And keep your hands in your own toilet stall, pervert.

[Hernys]

So they have a program for space exploration that it seriously delayed, has monstruous budget overruns and that cannot achieve, even with optimistic assumptions, their long term objectives, but they are still moving forward with it, while a much more feasible approach, DIRECT 2.0, based on known and available technology, could reach the more ambitious goals in a shorter timeframe and saving billions?
That's taking good care of people's money.

[kilternkafuffle]

@davideconnolyjr:
Obama is very pro-understanding the universe, and he's increasing the science budget to a historical percentage of the GDP, which is awesome. I think NASA's budget does deserve curtailing though. We don't need to go to Mars right now, we need to solve the shortage of water and energy on earth, feed the hungry, cure diseases, and end the gaping inequality between men and women, and whites and minorities. Mars can come after that.
@BtmnHatesRbn:
Obama's birth certificate - http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/51/BarackObamaCertificationOfLiveBirthHawaii.jpg/614px-BarackObamaCertificationOfLiveBirthHawaii.jpg happy now? please stop being an idiotic believer in everything you hear - you are a shame to your country

[8301]

"We don't need to go to Mars right now, we need to solve the shortage of water and energy on earth, feed the hungry, cure diseases, and end the gaping inequality between men and women, and whites and minorities."

NASA could land a man on Neptune using only a rubber band and a Ziploc baggie before we solve any of those problems with every bit of currency on Earth.

Besides, of all the areas you might think of where extraneous money is to be usurped, you pick the one agency with the potential to find solutions to all of those problems? Really? You think NASA is the most unworthy recipient of wasteful government spending? Have you seen the federal budget?

[CommonSense101]

We will always be able to find excuses to postpone the exploration of space. Yet, those excuses will always presume that our earthly challenges can be met by a new government program or an extra infusion of cash. If permitted to rule, this mentality would have us sink untold billions into well-intentioned but unsuccessful social programs. And because we will never resolve these social issues, they will forever be obstacles to the exploration of that final frontier.

Ironically, the solutions to our planet's energy challenges, resource shortages and life-threatening diseases may lie in the further exploration of space. Manned spaceflight has already given us satellite technology and inspired the personal computer. What future technologies await discovery? What life-improving innovations may help us feed the hungry or meet our energy challenges?

We'll never repair the deficiencies of the human condition by restraining the human spirit.

[Spacefirst]

First Point: I suggest that if we wait until we solve all the world's social issues then the sun will implode so don't be blind to the fact that some of the solutions of our social issues can be found by what is beyond our own world. We do not know what is out there. That is why we must go. The cure for cancer may be on the mars horizon for all we know.

Second point: Never use wikimedia for a sound reference. It makes you look like someone that claims the president is not a legal American citizen. Even if the reference is correct. Don't do it. Use sound references.

Third point: Our president talks a great game about our future. Our true future is out there. Not on this planet. It is out there. We must push forward.

Fourth point: NASA needs to make sure that they are using our tax dollars without too much waste. Anytime you spend that much money there will be some waste. LM and Boeing and the others need to make sure they do not abuse the cost plus system.

Last point: The science that puts us in space puts us farther ahead than our friends and enemies in science and math. Is this not part of our president's goals?

[8301]

Wonderful. We can give trillions of dollars to banks for bonuses and remodeled offices but we can't set aside a tiny fraction of that amount for pioneering scientific and technological advancement. Nice. Way to go, America.

[tonari-no-totoro]

Unmanned science missions are the way to go. Vastly cheaper and better science output. NASA's manned program is on the wrong track. The space station has cost billions and hasn't resulted in scarcely a single peer-reviewed journal article about new science.

[Spacefirst]

They are a way to start not a way to go. Our future is out there. Not in one generation but in a thousand. We must learn to travel and go beyond our star. Doing so will prolong the human race. Any other choice will tie our fate to our star. We know the fate of our star. The space station has given multiple nations the ability to work together that have for over fifty years tried to kill each other off in a cold war. Science will never win if we have to use the test of cost vs. payoff on research. Science should not be about money but about knowledge and understanding.

[CrimsonCantab]

Dangit, there go my childhood dreams of being an astronaut.

I think what would really help our science output is collaboration with other nations. Sure it's nice that "no one can wrest leadership in space from the United States," but the scientific method at it's core is cooperative, and we can only benefit by making our space projects INTERnational.

[cp256]

Yeah, INTERnational has worked out so well for us so far. How's that U.N. working out for us so far? Oh they hate out guts, but they still think we should pay 24% of all their costs.

Globalize us into space, great idea.

Prolong the human race beyond the lifetime of our sun? At this rate, we'll be lucky to prolong the human race beyond the lifetime of a sunspot.

[Spacefirst]

One must look beyond today and today's political relm. In a thousand generations I am sure that the UN, the 24% costs, and short sighted comments of a world with borders will look as silly as not working together to try and push some number of people a distance from beyond our star.

Hate is human nature. So is the desire to learn. It is up to us to chose which we should follow. Your suggestion is that in a thousand generations our race, the human race, cannot over come political and social issues of today. That seems a bit trivial when faced with a larger problem of the fact that the earth cannot support a never ending growth of humans.

We must learn to make new worlds. If we do not then we shall die.

[TogetherinParis]

NASA cannot say yes to Captain Steven Hiller, USMC, unless President Obama expands our space capability beyond the red Chinese level. Of course it is going to cost a lot of money, even lives. Advancements in technology usually do. How many people died building American railroads and roadways? How many died developing safe airline travel? You don't want to know. NASA is our air port, our railroad, our highway to the stars and we must take it.
NASA is also the solution to the global warming crisis. For instance, we can carry up enough big balloons to choke off hurricane development with shade over the Gulf of Mexico during hurricane season. Deny NASA now and we will deny our children the chance to save themselves. We must carry on. Our duty demands it. We must not falter. It is up to us. We must win the freedom of the generations, now and forever more.

[vulture2]

NASA can provide practical benefits, but only if they are its primary objectives. If we want to develop the technology for practical human spaceflight, Constellation will not provide it. If we want t develop improved weather prediction, medical advances, safer and more efficient air travel, Constellation will not provide them.

As to international cooperation, I've sat at a launch console with a Russian, and worked in a research lab with a citizen of China. Thanks to the space program, I've had the chance to work with people from all over the world. When you get to know people as individuals, you realize we are all the same, and that we can trust each other and work together to accomplish things that would be impossible for one person, or one nation. That is the most valuable thing the ISS program has accomplished.