Today we all looked at pictures from Mars. Soon a little robot car will be deployed, drive around and look for signs of life (Sounds like me after a late night party!).

Some say "Who cares, there are plenty of things to discover and problems to solve here on earth." Others say, "that's great, we should be doing this because of the human need to keep discovering and reaching out into the unknown." Others say it is worth doing because of all the valuable information we learn that is applicable to all of us here on earth. So what do all of you think?

 

I love the space program.

The technical fallout into our everyday lives has been and still is incredible.

Besides, someday I'd like a future relative of mine to go zooming across the universe in their personal spacesportster.

Something about on the level of Heinlien's "Adorable Dora" at the very least.

fltsfshr

 

I believe it is worthwhile. Discovery is important, we can't assume we know everything there is to know.

It may not be beneficial in my lifetime, but it could benefit future generations.

 

Great topic for a thread, Bill.
Be prepared though....this could start on helluva debate. Is it worth the taxpayer money and inherit danger?.....Whenever there is a tragedy like Columbia or Discovery, this is brought to the forefront. I personally feel that the brave souls, American or Russian, that have perished in this greatest of adventures would not have it any other way. They died doing what they always wanted to do, and knew their work and sacrifice was for the betterment of all mankind.

But what will we discover out there? Where we came from? How we were created? Does science serve God, or does God serve science? See what I mean?



Man....I really stepped in it and I'm probably gonna get flamed for that, but ....what if? I think we have to try and find out.

 

Great thread Bill. I've loved the space program since I was a kid. Is it worth the billions? Who knows. I'll let others decide that. I have to believe that the financial benefits here on earth make the program cost-justified. Pretty hard to convince someone like Osama Bin Laden though.

 

I'm as much of an insider here as Pete Rose in baseball, but....

I now work for NASA HQ, and have been involved in NASA science since Apollo 11. As a graduate student, I took Moon rocks on tour to the larger towns in Oregon, and I was amazed at the public interest. Frankly, I think the interest is still there, but like the rest of science, NASA is suffering because congress is a bunch of lawyers, and writers a bunch of journalism or English majors, and we scientists are not sufficiently involved in communicating our exciting results with the public.

NASA's budget is a tiny part of the federal budget (about 0.5%, if I remember right), so questions of national defense or eliminating poverty vs. NASA exploration are incredibly naive. I think NASA's budget is a very small price to pay for the inspiration that exploration gives us all.

If y'all have technical or science questions on the Mars missions, let me know.

djlyellow

 

I'm in favor of Big Science. As a society, we're enormously wasteful. The cost of space exploration is a drop in the bucket versus the cost of all our other adventures. I think the Iraq bill is now around $150 billion and I wouldn't be surprised if it winds up being five times that much when all is said and done. In a society that has no qualms about throwing outrageous amounts of cash at war, television, drugs, fast food and lobby groups, I find it very refreshing to, every once in a while, hear about a more elemental, more elegant achievement.

The bottom line is that without the recent Mars news coverage, the few minutes of attention we spend on it would instead be spent on listening to George whining about terrorism, Kobe whining about maintaining focus, Britney whining about her accidental marriage faux-pas, or the local news about the latest murder, rape or arson. I don't know about ya'll, but I get more than enough of that already.

 

This stuff really fascinates me!

The one photo that I saw today looked like an overhead shot of the rover. Was this photo taken by the orbiting probe? If so, what is the height of the probes orbit?

 

djlyellow,

I have a technical question. If they do find signs of life on Mars, and it turns out to be female, will we finally have the answer to all our questions?

 

Bill

This is a topic that needed to be discussed. Great thread.

I am in favor of the space program. I am in favor of the major investment in science and scientific research that it requires. Any program that furthers human knowledge is worth the effort and investment.

We need to have vision. Think of vision that our parents and grandparents had when they built the bridges, roadways and infrastructure that we enjoy today.