What next for NASA

[PMC]

That's an amazing story x-ray.

Thing is that the space programme is primarily about exploration and discovery, in an age where bigger and better exploding things get all the funding, it's good to see that there's still a place for our more noble instincts.

And it pays dividends in all sorts of ways too.  If it saves one life, then it's got to be worth the investment.

[cecilia]

whabang wrote:
The pacemaker was a Swedish invention, not a NASA one! Besides that, I agree with you. :-P

you misunderstood.
I didn't mean NASA invented everything. I mean that science encourages the attitude that makes such inventions possible. It's not that NASA is the only source of all good things in the universe. simply one example.

and, yeah for the Swedes! :-D

[Speelgoedmannetje]

I think science is a mandatory incentive for our ever-growing economy

[asian1]

Hi
IMO NASA should develop advanced robotics / AI technology for unmanned space explorations into various planets, moons etc.
Robots / exoskeletons are also useful for operating / servicing Space telescope, ISS, satellites etc.

It's better and cheaper to send unmanned missions to various planets, because the same knowledge can be obtained using robots than risking human life.

Perhaps NASA can develop advanced Recycling Technology for capturing and recycling "Space Garbages". The unused materials in the orbit can be used to build future spacecraft.

NASA should develop advanced Earth Environment Monitoring technology for detecting Global Warming, Tsunami, Weather Prediction etc.

The spinoff / result of the above researches will be useful for various applications on Earth.

=====================================================

SPACE GARBAGE

When fragments of satellites and space shuttles separate, what happens to those chunks, floating in space? They just keep floating. One of the things the UN worries about when it talks about space issues is:
What are we going to do with all that space junk! What if it hits a spaceship? What if it lands on a planet?
You might think it's strange, but until now, a lot of people thought it would be OK to just leave junk in space!
Even though the Universe is expanding infinitely, should it be dotted with floating pieces of Earth-generated waste? How do you think space garbage could be detected? How IS it detected? Should space technology be able to pick up after itself before it's allowed out of our atmosphere?
More than 8500 objects which could be classified as "space debris" can be detected through ground-based surveillance and radar

[the_leander]

 "What a piece of work is man! in form how like an angel; in
comprehension how like a God!"

To discover, to learn, to teach, to heal, to love. I can only applaud such actions, and welcome the proceeds of such endeavours.

I only wish that more of the world was dedicated to such nobel ideals.

[Turambar]

Perhaps they could take some inspiration from the craft built for the x-prize?

Im hoping for a moon base though, Im quite surprised they havent built one already to be honest.

Turambar wrote:
Perhaps they could take some inspiration from the craft built for the x-prize?

Im hoping for a moon base though, Im quite surprised they havent built one already to be honest.

Maybe because it's impossible for man to land on it? :-P

/me runs for cover!

[Turambar]

Heh i was waiting for that conspiracy theory to surface.

[whabang]

@Cecilia

True! Science leads to progress, and space exploration is all about science.

[PMC]

What amazes me is that it's now nearly forty years since we walked on the moon.  In that time we've seen the appearence of the digital watch, the mobile telephone (with more processing power than those old Apollo computers), carbon fibre, the desktop PC, the Hubble telescope, Huygens and are even about to soft land a probe on a comet.

Yet we've never sent a human beyond Earth orbit, or indeed returned to the moon.

Where is our spirit of adventure?  Is designing ever more inefficient ways of mass extermination more of a noble passtime?  It speaks volumes about humanity that we'd rather spend out taxpayers money on an aircraft carrier instead.

[Speelgoedmannetje]

PMC wrote:
Where is our spirit of adventure?

Guess it's gone with Yuri Gagarin :cry:

[PMC]

I sincerely hope not...  We've people like Steve Fossett, Ellen McArthur, Richard Branson and Sir Rannulph Fiennes all proving that mankind hasn't quite lost it's sense of adventure, so hopefully the 20th century obsession with making bigger and more spectacular bangs will prove to be the abherration rather than the rule.

For me it's the Saturn 5 rocket and not the ICBM that remains the 20th Century's most impressive piece of engineering.

[Speelgoedmannetje]

I was rather talking about the technological competition during the cold war

[the_leander]

There are theories abounding that this whole mission to mars thing is simply a setup for them to fail at, and when they do fail, due to lack of funding and being not the most efficient thiing ever to come out of the US, the Bush Administration will shut NASA down... The money then moves on to more "deserving" causes.

I don't know what to think about it, part of me wishes it to simply believe its just a conspiricy theory, but part of me does wonder...