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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

From an eariler post of 09 Mune 2004 by Chicago Astronomer Joe)

The glory days of NASA are long over. Character and "The Right Stuff" are no longer present, and if we ever had a crisis ala "Apollo 13", I don't have much faith in the present administration to solve problems. The days of Krantz, Shepard and Armstrong seem so far away.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

By MuseAphelion

As for the "Right Stuff" days being past us, I'm not so sure. Granted right now we are doing more of our looking from home. But heck, if you can sit at home and figure out that the lava on Io is vaporizing silicon dioxide into its atmosphere (another article) and still afford to build a new telescope you going to do that instead of making one rocket to send off one probe that may or may not make it to its target. More bang for the buck you might say.

I would like to think (and hope) that someday we will go off to colonize planets or moons. On the day that first ship launches off to go to the Moon or Mars you bet they're going to be talking like it was the good old days of Krantz, Shepard and Armstrong.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

From Astrviewer

dont know where to start with this post .. guess i will start with this.
As for the LP on the voyager space crafts.. It was the best recording type araratus we had at that time and if found by intelligent beings it would be simple to decipher. As in the plaque. the design was made by Carl Sagan and a few other coleagues. Manly all Sagan.

As in NASA we havent even begub to scratch the surface on where we are headed

Just a few spacecraft have been mentioned. In the day of mercury , gemini , and apollo programs were just the begining. In retrospect and reality if it wasnt for federal "defunding" during the opollo missions we would have had a manned mars mission in the early 80s. But thats how politics works.
Now back to the good stuff ....

Lets not forget the space shuttle program " soon to be axed 2010" The I.S.S. even though a money pit .. has performed very well. Now Towards unmanned ...
DeepSpace1 the first craft to fly with an "ion-drive" for propulsion and, had the ability to navigate all its own by using the stars as its guide. << all a first. What about our space telescopes ... Hubble , Chandra , S.I.R.T.F. , XXM and a few others. Casini , Galileo , StarDust , Genesis. All of the spacecraft sent to mars ...
Pathfinder , Spirit , Oportunity , also the craft that are orbiting mars at this moment. Gravity Probe-B testing part of Einstein's theory of realativiy.
So has NASA been on a decline since the good ol' glory days? I say indeed not !! If one takes a look NASA is the best bang for buck spent by us tax payers!! Lets not forget all of the free enterprise fallout that also comes from NASA. Through their research needs and what private corps. and Universities provide for those needs flourish cutting edge technologies and materials along with other materials and so on wich goes back into and fuel our economy. So to say NASA is a "lame duck" is very presumptuous. For the little funding they get and fight for they do alot more for science , space , and technology than ANY other government organization

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

From Stargazer

Hey Guys,

I am not relly sure where to begin this but i will try.

First of all we had planned to go to Pluto some time ago but because our lovely government cut the spending so Pluto had to wait. The money that NASA gets today is basically equal to what they were getting back in the days of the Apollo and Gemini Missions. What we need to do is raise the funds that we give NASA to the current rate that the rest of the government programs get. But all they do is cut the budget. Most of the people in the Houses are against the Space program. Just like Kerry. He has voted against any and all raises for NASA and will not answer any question when it comes to any Space Mission. If Kerry gets into the Oval Office we most likely will lose the Space Pragram. We as Astronomers have to stick together to keep the Hubble and the Space Centers open and running. I dont know if you all have seen the petition to Save The Hubble but I will include a link here just in case. I and many friends have signed it. ( savehubble.org/ ) hope all in here will sign it as well.

Now for the next part of this. As of for the Space Shuttles they were only supose to fly 100 times. Yes they are an aging fleet and do need repair each time they land. At one point they had a escape module built into the orignal design but some idiot decided it was going to make them to heavy so it was removed. No it would not have helped the crew of STS 107 but if something were to happen closer to the ground I think it would have helped. They knew when they were still in space about the problems and did nothing.

I know about this first hand as I know a gentelman who works for NASA and is planning an taking a trip to the ISS sometime here not sure when now that the Shuttles have been delayed until possibility March of next year. And as for the ISS the Pres wants is done by 2010 so that they can retire the Shuttles but in retrospect there is no way we can do that if we only do three trips a year to the ISS. Now for the new planes they are trying to build. Can someone please tell me how they are going to be big enough to do the same jobs the Shuttles are doing now? What will happen to the Science part of the trips? What will happen to the Space Program?

I am sorry for my ranting here but I think the government should really sit down and think about what the Space Program means to many of us. Joe if you want to delete this I will understand. I am just one voice, one lonely Astronomer with a opinion.

Thats just my 2 cents.

Becky

[astroviewerNGC2207]

Not to be redundant ......
But NASA is alive and well and still one of the most scientific ( general & space) organization in the world.
As for HUBBLE it's days are numbered anyway. It can only be updated so many times and in reality has well outlived it's life. But i do agree we should do one more update/mantenance mission . We have over 200 mill. $ in parts waiting in a warehouse.
NASA isnt "DEAD" folks.
If a person just toook the time to read and research in the www.nasa.gov they would see just howmany directions it really goes!! Making specific spacecraft for all kinds of study from weather here on earth, to looking out into our solar system and the cosmos. Cutting edge technologies from propulsion to comunications. It is just endless and in many specific genre of science study.
So honestly is NASA a dead fish? .......
I say most definatly not !!!!


One last ramble .... about the space shuttle program.
They have been and still are the best return vehicles to use. As the 100 times thing .... NASA poised to say even when the shuttle program started that atleast 1 in 100 launches something could drasticly happen.
Space flight is a heavy risk .. thats why astronauts in a sense are heros for the expanding knowledge of sceince in what they risk everytime they strap themselves to a gajillion hoerse power !! lol
Seriously though .. space flight is not 100% safe ... it never will be.
NASA has been in a holding pattern for 30 yrs. after apollo got scrapped. I think in a sense it was a good thing. It gave us the chance to expand studies in all different directions and ramp up for the direction that we have now. First the moon "AGAIN" and then mars.
Hopefully the rest of the world can jump on board for this venture. It would be totally awsome indeed!!

[astroviewerNGC2207]

I could ramble about this for sometime but its hard carrying a onesided convo .. lol
But we should never kick out the viability and success of NASA.
Did you know that it is the most successfull in space missions "manned ans unmanned" ? Out of all other space agencys in the world not one can hold a candle to our achievements.
WEll maybe Russia sending a craft to land on venus twice and take pictures. But they both burned up in less than 40 min. lol We sent a craft that orbited venus and we mapped the whole planet.
No other country has ever been as successfull and i doubt will ever be in the future.