Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Maniac on January 03, 2004, 11:09:35 PM
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It landed and has sent its first signals...
WOOOT!
To follow whats happening : http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/status.html
0500 GMT (12:00 a.m. EST)
With Spirit on the surface, it will use motors retract the airbags. This operation could take an hour to complete. Then the lander will open up like a flower, lowering its petals to reveal the rover tucked inside. Since Spirit has landed with its base petal down -- the best case scenario -- the opening will take less time.
Next, the rover will deploy its power-generating solar panels. Then it can begin taking some pictures of the landing site. Those initial images, if snapped this evening, could be released by NASA within hours.
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They said it will be at least 9 days until the rover even moves.
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Cool.
I find it amazing that they can send a thing like this so far, land it on another planet and controll it from from earth in the first place :)
Mankind rule :D
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Originally posted by Maniac
It landed and has sent its first signals...
WOOOT!
To follow whats happening : http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/status.html
Another USA hating post by Maniac....
;)
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LOL :D
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It's all about the oil.
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LOL
Great news
I recently met up with a friend from grade school, was the smartest kid in class, etc. Works for NASA. He was one of the lead programmers that created the navigation program/starfinder/etc for Stardust, the craft that just made the flyby behind the comet.
Its just amazing to think what it takes to compute gravity, trajectory, etc to made something navigate out there.
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As someone over at AGW said, use the Spiriit to find the Beagle :)
Well i have to watch the pics tomorrow, getting late here 7 o clock in the mornin...
"When you walk outside today, if it is clear, you can see Mars. Just think, we just landed a rover on that planet. That is very sobering," JPL director Charles Elachi says.
Amen.
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Originally posted by GScholz
Ah, I see the Martians took our European bait, allowing the Spirit slip through their defences! Soon we will send Star Destroyers! :D
JU88's NOE
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congrats NASA.
Ahh, just send a P38 with Ack-Ack up there..... he sure has the alt experience ;)
...and prolly the skill to B&Z all them little green men to :)
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Yeah its funny how they can calculate rover positions out of their engineer arse better than you can do with GPS on earth.
It would be funny if someday some aliens would be sending similar rovers to earth and we didnt have clue from where theyre sending them. It would drive us nuts. :p
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Obviously the Nasa boffins didn't subscribe to the "I know! Let's put it into the middle of a big bouncy ball and see if that works!" school of space exploration...
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Originally posted by _Schadenfreude_
Obviously the Nasa boffins didn't subscribe to the "I know! Let's put it into the middle of a big bouncy ball and see if that works!" school of space exploration...
Actually they did.
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First image sent:
(http://personales.ya.com/xavimm/Mars.jpg)
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Originally posted by Tuomio
Actually they did.
Twice (previous NASA probe landed same way).
It's an NASA idea originally.
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LOL DA98!
Good one! We been invaded by the damn Martians for centuries...
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Originally posted by Tuomio
Actually they did.
Well the Nasa bouncy ball obviously is of superior quality to the British bouncy ball
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The head of Mars Air Defense probablity just lost his job. There not going to be too happy about this. I expect a counter attack any minute.
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Dont worry Otto, Ack-Ack is prolly grabbing alt :aok
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In a few days one of the little green men will come by and turn it off like they have all the others.
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Originally posted by _Schadenfreude_
Well the Nasa bouncy ball obviously is of superior quality to the British bouncy ball
Yeah that might be true. Maybe they didnt test the lander enough, as it werent even part of the mission initially. If the Opportunity will land safely, the airbags will be quite reliable.
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Perhaps the WMD is on Mars? I think we should be told.
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http://largefiles.maasdigital.com/mer2003-music-640x480-1000k-cp.mov
60MB quicktime CGI of launch and landing, extremely cool.
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Wow, they landed within 200 meters from the planned spot. They didnt have to make any corrections to the flight path in last 8 days, talk about mathematical models being spot on with reality.
Image taken by some helpful martian:
(http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/mer2004/rover-images/jan-04-2004/new_overhead-380.jpg)
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Originally posted by Dowding
Perhaps the WMD is on Mars? I think we should be told.
You'll never find them if they are. You have to be able to land something there, first.
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Unbelievable video, Pfunk. I've read about what it would do, but to "see" it is absolutely amazing.
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thus proving that it wasnt the martians who shot down the european probe...it was NASA!!!;)
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Originally posted by Tarmac
Unbelievable video, Pfunk. I've read about what it would do, but to "see" it is absolutely amazing.
Yeah it is amazing how they can control the rover from so many miles away.
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Originally posted by Tarmac
Unbelievable video, Pfunk. I've read about what it would do, but to "see" it is absolutely amazing.
If i remember correctly, that video was produced by somebody free of charge (some student perhaps). It has better FX than regular Hollywood flik so i'd say that he has some talent..
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Get the damned thing off my lawn...
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Mars? Big deal. The real challenge for news media will be how they report probes heading for Uranus.
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Wooot! Congrats to the guys and gals at JPL!
Daniel
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(http://www.dragg.net/users/pennywitt/marvin/marsprobe.jpg)
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Don't worry.. we'll find oil soon enough.. or some sort of mineral similar with better combustion properties... and then those organisims will be considered terrorist then we'll have to send over some inspectors.... well... you know what happens from there...
We get a tax increase!
-BM
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lol, good one eagler.
dago
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Didn't see if this link was already posted, so here it is again if it has. http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/m2k4/frameset.html
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My wife had the audacity to ask me what the goal is with this Mars mission (as well as space exploration in general I believe she was thinking). I had to think on that one a bit. I don't think she really understands the "explorer spirit".
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Originally posted by AKIron
My wife had the audacity to ask me what the goal is with this Mars mission (as well as space exploration in general I believe she was thinking). I had to think on that one a bit. I don't think she really understands the "explorer spirit".
different aspects to research in space...Medicine being 1 of the premiere searching area's.....
but that question will always be Fundamental......"Are we alone"
the probe landed in a dryed out lake bed(or sea or ocean...they not sure).....so there thinking is 'WATER....LIFE'....or finding proof there WAS life on Mars.
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Originally posted by AKIron
My wife had the audacity to ask me what the goal is with this Mars mission (as well as space exploration in general I believe she was thinking). I had to think on that one a bit. I don't think she really understands the "explorer spirit".
looking for a place to export the liberals to of course ..
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Why was your wife audacious in asking that question? Was there some risk attached with questioning the logic of the endeavour?
Space exploration is an expensive diversion that will only ever benefit multi-national resource exploitation corporations and the ultra-rich, despite the fact its foundations are being paid for out of the public purse. All claims of medical breakthroughs through little forays into space (as justification) are shown for what they are, if you compare terrestrial progress with its astro equivalent.
Our trains suck and thousands freeze to death on our streets each winter, but at least we can send a failed probe to another planet. Yay.
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I disagree dowding, we must keep exploring and expanding. I imagine the same could have been said when Columbus was petioning funds for his voyage..
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Let them eat cake, Dowding. I want to go bouncing around mars on a rover some day!
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You'll be lucky mate. You're destined to be one of the saps that subsidises very rich people bouncing around mars on a rover, and no mistake.
Read Red Mars et al by Kim Stanley Robinson. I bet it works out just like that.
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Originally posted by Dowding
Why was your wife audacious in asking that question? Was there some risk attached with questioning the logic of the endeavour?
Space exploration is an expensive diversion that will only ever benefit multi-national resource exploitation corporations and the ultra-rich, despite the fact its foundations are being paid for out of the public purse. All claims of medical breakthroughs through little forays into space (as justification) are shown for what they are, if you compare terrestrial progress with its astro equivalent.
Our trains suck and thousands freeze to death on our streets each winter, but at least we can send a failed probe to another planet. Yay.
She wasn't. I was only poking fun. Space exploration has had many unexpected and unintended benefits over the decades. These benefits were never really the "goal" of the program though. Space exploration has always been about exploring. She is more of a practical nature and I think sees little benefit in spending so much effort (money) in exploring a seemingly barren and worthless planet. I was suggesting it to be absurd not to recognize the importance of space exploration, which it really is not.
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Originally posted by Dowding
Why was your wife audacious in asking that question? Was there some risk attached with questioning the logic of the endeavour?
Space exploration is an expensive diversion that will only ever benefit multi-national resource exploitation corporations and the ultra-rich, despite the fact its foundations are being paid for out of the public purse. All claims of medical breakthroughs through little forays into space (as justification) are shown for what they are, if you compare terrestrial progress with its astro equivalent.
Our trains suck and thousands freeze to death on our streets each winter, but at least we can send a failed probe to another planet. Yay.
Like I said ...
a place to stick "these" ppl :)
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Mars is far from worthless - it is not the moon - it's thought to contain lots of usuable mineral deposits. The water locked in aquifers and at the pole would be very valuable too.
But the inventions and spin-offs from space exploration pale into insignificance beside the developments spawned from dedicated research through applied science. But if spin-offs are the yardstick, I'm willing to bet there are more from military research compared to those from the zero-g jollies called space 'exploration'.
I hated astronomy and astrophysics. I think that's why I have such a jaded view of it all. ;)
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Originally posted by Dowding
Space exploration is an expensive diversion that will only ever benefit multi-national resource exploitation corporations and the ultra-richplanet.
That all well and good. But, if we could just get it to exploit the Third World, oppress minorities we'd have a National Treasure.
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Originally posted by Dowding
and spin-offs from space exploration pale into insignificance beside the developments spawned from dedicated research through applied science. But if spin-offs are the yardstick, I'm willing to bet there are more from military research compared to those from the zero-g jollies called space 'exploration'.
The fact that you have to put NASA up against "applied science" speaks volumes for just how much they have developed. I'd venture to say that there aren't many single organizations that have come up with such a wide array of innovative ideas in the last century.
Space exploration is exactly that... exploration. It's a fundamental desire for mankind to want to learn more, see more and do more than their predecessors. It's also pretty normal to have portions of that society that fail to understand why that is.
MiniD
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I think we need to spend much more on NASA. Another bonus to space exploration is the necessity for cooperation among the developed countries of the world as we go farther and farther.
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Originally posted by Halo
Mars? Big deal. The real challenge for news media will be how they report probes heading for Uranus.
Shi........ not my anus.
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AKIron: My wife had the audacity to ask me what the goal is with this Mars mission (as well as space exploration in general I believe she was thinking). I had to think on that one a bit. I don't think she really understands the "explorer spirit".
"Explorer spirit" is when a person or a group of people personally and voluntrarily donate their time, money and effort to some kind of exploration.
When a bunch of big-government bureaucrats use exploration to justify their salaries forcefully extracted from subjects, it may be avarice or arrogance but hardly and "explorer spirit".
Accusing NASA of "explorer spirit" is as false as accusing the government of being "fond of murder". They are not really in it because they like to kill people - it's only a pretext to gain more power and wealth.
Dowding: Space exploration is an expensive diversion that will only ever benefit multi-national resource exploitation corporations and the ultra-rich...
Right - and not because of the results achieved but because of wealth redistribution involved in the process.
GRUNHERZ: I disagree dowding, we must keep exploring and expanding. I imagine the same could have been said when Columbus was petioning funds for his voyage..
What was the result? The actual profitable for the society use of the newly-discovered continent did not start for a few centuries.
The only product that it was cost-efficient to bring from America with the level of technology that existed then was gold and silver - which ruined the Spanish economy by indicing inflation.
The discovery and exploitation of America a few hundred years later - when the european society and technology developed further - would have likely been less brutal, wastefull and more productive.
There is always an optimal return on limited amount of resources. If Mars exploration going on now was expected to bring fruits in 2050, starting it ten years from now would still have brough the same fruits by 2050 at much lower cost.
Dowding: exploration pale into insignificance beside the developments spawned from dedicated research through applied science.
Exactly - just take a look at the HHMI (Howard Hughes Medical Institute, $11 billion endowment as of 2002). Give a few hundred million a year to a few hundreds selected scientists and let them work on whatever they think interesting - with no paperwork required to justify grants, etc. Take Bell Labs, IBM, Xerox research centers and others.
The stories about "spin-offs" are mostly lies.
miko
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Originally posted by miko2d
AKIron: My wife had the audacity to ask me what the goal is with this Mars mission (as well as space exploration in general I believe she was thinking). I had to think on that one a bit. I don't think she really understands the "explorer spirit".
"Explorer spirit" is when a person or a group of people personally and voluntrarily donate their time, money and effort to some kind of exploration.
When a bunch of big-government bureaucrats use exploration to justify their salaries forcefully extracted from subjects, it may be avarice or arrogance but hardly and "explorer spirit".
Accusing NASA of "explorer spirit" is as false as accusing the government of being "fond of murder". They are not really in it because they like to kill people - it's only a pretext to gain more power and wealth.
miko
I guess it's difficult for you understand about national pride. It even goes beyond that, pride in human accomplishment. Certainly only a very few men have ever physically walked on the moon and none have set foot on Mars. However, if you didn't feel the excitement and gain a sense of achievement when Neil Armstrong jumped off that last step then you probably have none of that "explorer spirit" I mentioned.
If you're not interested in seeing what the surface of Mars actually looks like and what it's made of and wonder if there is or ever was life there then you just don't share that insatiable curosity that lives in the heart of an explorer.
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AKIron
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AKIron: I guess it's difficult for you understand about national pride... you just don't share that insatiable curosity that lives in the heart of an explorer
Oh, typical ad hominem attack based on totally bogus premises.
Every single word here is a fabrication of a closed-minded prejudiced person.
Why do you assume I have to only experience the national pride for exactly the same events that you do?
Why do you think my disagreement with NASA means that I am not supportive of search for knowlege in general?
Probably because you are so limited in your mind that you have no ideas unless they were put into your head by your government.
Guess what - many of us are not like that and we see plenty of venues for the advancement of human knowlege and spirit besides the state-mandated ones.
miko
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Originally posted by Dowding
Why was your wife audacious in asking that question? Was there some risk attached with questioning the logic of the endeavour?
Space exploration is an expensive diversion that will only ever benefit multi-national resource exploitation corporations and the ultra-rich, despite the fact its foundations are being paid for out of the public purse. All claims of medical breakthroughs through little forays into space (as justification) are shown for what they are, if you compare terrestrial progress with its astro equivalent.
Our trains suck and thousands freeze to death on our streets each winter, but at least we can send a failed probe to another planet. Yay.
Your heart is bleeding again Dowding.
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The stories about "spin-offs" are mostly lies.
Which one's are lies Miko?
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miko2d says: "Explorer spirit" is when a person or a group of people personally and voluntrarily donate their time, money and effort to some kind of exploration.
When a bunch of big-government bureaucrats use exploration to justify their salaries forcefully extracted from subjects, it may be avarice or arrogance but hardly and "explorer spirit".
Accusing NASA of "explorer spirit" is as false as accusing the government of being "fond of murder". They are not really in it because they like to kill people - it's only a pretext to gain more power and wealth.
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miko2d then states: Oh, typical ad hominem attack based on totally bogus premises.
Every single word here is a fabrication of a closed-minded prejudiced person.
Before you start calling some close-minded and prejudiced, you might want to look in the mirror. You have never worked at NASA, so you have no clue what it is like for them to achieve what they just did.
Pull the political stick out of your eye and take a closer look at the human endeavor before jumping on anyone about the motivations. Particularly when you have no first hand knowledge of what is actually driving them.
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Miko....what if they find a cheap clean alternative to fossil fuels on one of the planets?
Just saying............
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Rude: Which one's are lies Miko?
Teflon? Computer? Airplane?
Even those that were developed in the course of military research would have been discovered soner or later and the wasted resources would have contributed to still more research that was delayed.
Skuzzy: You have never worked at NASA, so you have no clue what it is like for them to achieve what they just did.
No. I do not need to rely on the government's coercion to make people pay my salary for doing something they not necessarily want.
Pull the political stick out of your eye and take a closer look at the human endeavor
"Political" means using government's power of coercion to extort resurces for the causes you favor.
So in that case you are political, not me. I am all for human endeavor - freely performed, not based on slave labor.
Particularly when you have no first hand knowledge of what is actually driving them.
My property extracted under the threat of violence?
Curval: Miko....what if they find a cheap clean alternative to fossil fuels on one of the planets?
I am not against research. I am against government-funded research and for private research.
Cheap clean alternative to fossil fuels is much more likely to be found in a laboratory or a theoredtical study than on an other planet.
miko
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You are too immersed in politics to have a discussion about this miko. Just back away from this thread and allow some people the chance to have a bit of pride in a rather incredible accomplishment.
I will say you have no idea what you are talking about in this area and should stop trying to defend your position. There are thousands of people involved in this project who were happy to be a part of it and are very proud of what they did.
I won't have you pissing on their parade for your personal political agenda. Now,..back away from the thread.
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(http://www.indefinite.org/images/owned/owned_full_metal_jacket.jpg)
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Go Home to the good life I say.
Why chose to live in the US when it is clearly such a dissapointment to you Miko?
Your attitude make me sick sometimes.
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Ban em Skuzzy!!! :lol
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Rude - you've evidently nothing to say, so why bother exposing that fact by posting?
I largely agree Miko.
Government funded research should not benefit the share-holders of private corporations.
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Yeah Miko how dare you point out pork for what it is. :rolleyes:
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Originally posted by Curval
what if they find a cheap clean alternative to fossil fuels on one of the planets?
There are lots of those on earth no need to go to mars for this.
That being said... I'm planning to be VERY rich in 2045 (the year I get to retire) and bui myself a seat on one of those "Mars-airliners", and get a nice mansion with view on the face mountain.
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Well, one good thing about manned Mars missions... it would force engineers to re learn and use. the slide rule. Saturn V moon missions were worked out on computer, and then checked by slide rule to verify the computer's figures. It was more art than science, the idea of striving for perfection and accomplishing the impossible.
A manned mission to Mars and back would be very close to impossible by today's understanding. 12 months in isolation would be a lot to ask. Too dangerous...cabin fever and all.
The ship would have to be built in space, because it would have to be big. If launched from the ground, the Mars rocket would be the size of the Empire State Building.
Les
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Watch out for the monolith SAW, especially if you hear the strains of "Thus spake Zarathustra". ;)
kbman
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Originally posted by Dowding
Rude - you've evidently nothing to say, so why bother exposing that fact by posting?
I largely agree Miko.
Government funded research should not benefit the share-holders of private corporations.
Allrighty then...
Gloria, my fiancée is currently working on the LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna), a joint ESA-NASA mission to demonstrate the existance of gravitational waves.
They need state-of-the-art instruments, a launcher, and that involves private corporations with the technology and the infraestructure to build them... just how exactly is that wrong?
How could you bring forth this kind of endeavour without these companies?
Daniel
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I'm sure they will let me have a super-puter that will protect me :D
(http://fusionanomaly.net/hal.jpg)
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The question isn't how to do it but more how to prevent companies taking advantage of private-public partnerships in suspect deals that generally benefit the shareholders more than the end-user. This is especially apparent in local government - I would guess that it is probably a common occurance no matter what the project. At least where science is involved there is an element of professional integrity which probably mediates the phenomenon.
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Exactly Dowding. That's why NASA will not allow advertisements on their spacecraft.
Les
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...Yet. :)
I can see branded, tampon shaped boosters in the near future; carrying attractive women into space, who happen to be clad in tight, white, all-in-one lycra suits.
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National pride...
Yes, in the first age of Space Adventure the national pride was very important (sputnik, gagarin, mercury, etc...).
But, IMHO, the national pride must have ended when a guy, printing for the first time a footprint on our COMMON satelite, decided to close his phrase with:
...Humankind
And the huge and complete "supenational" cooperation that is the basis of the actual Space Exploration, cannot be denied by the usual neocons on this board.
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I've had some pretty wild dreams about women, and space stations, and ground stations. Women play a large part in these dreams, because they are usually the ones to get me out of an unpleasant situation. They are rescuers.
Les
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What's the point of even trying to have a decent discussion on this board. The nay-sayers have taken control and it is simply pathetic how they denegrate every thread that has anything good in it.
Pathetic and disgusting that no one can have a decent discussion without the political activists stepping in.