I was listening the other night and there was someone talking about a one-way flight to Mars. This is not the same segment I heard, but echoes the ideas. The speakers argument was that there have already been people who were willing to risk to fly on a shuttle known to be highly dangerous so there will be people willing to go on a one way mission to Mars.

Unfortunately Nasa and the government look at it as a suicide mission rather than scientific exploration and would probably never do it.

mem_313

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Location: Beachside, Paradise
Gender: Female

Posted: Jul 22, 2011 - 12:01pm
justlistening wrote: I vaguely remember that - I was about 12 or 14 at the time and filtered news accordingly ;) A fitting name though and cool that Ford made it so. I remember Apollo 11 and watching it on our Black and White TV. And cutting the record of that landing off the back of my cereal box and listening to him talk about walking on the moon.

bokey

Gender:

Posted: Jul 22, 2011 - 11:56am

aflanigan wrote:

It's great that he recognizes the massive cost and (some of the) failed promises surrounding the Shuttle program, but it's too bad he doesn't connect the dots to realize what others have regarding the increasing pointlessness and wastefulness of manned space flight. As Bob Park has pointed out, we have two NASAs: The glamour NASA that sends humans into space to mug for the cameras and do "science" that does nothing to advance scientific knowledge, and the "other NASA" that is focused on doing real science, quietly and without fanfare expands the boundaries of our understanding of the universe through technological advancements utilizing unmanned exploration of the solar system, and beyond. The retirement of the Shuttle program should be seen as an appropriate time to reassess our national fixation with continuing manned space flight at all costs. It makes for stirring speeches by politicians, and great movies like Apollo 13. But we shouldn't let our reality be driven by fantastical notions, especially in financially pressing times like these.

Wow. Just wow. We should stagnate as a nation and a race in order to squander our resources on being world cops and bombing other countries that haven't done a frigging thing to us, rather than try to advance ourselves?

justlistening

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Location: So. California
Gender: Male

Posted: Jul 22, 2011 - 11:48am

I shared Coaxial's link with a few people here at work and one of them sent me this photo. Thought I'd share. Gene Roddenbery came to our highschool in 1976 when I was a freshman. He screened a blooper reel from Star Trek and fielded questions about the upcoming (rumored) Star Trek movie (it was still three years away).

Still haven't figured out how they arranged for him to visit our dinky school. My graduating class only had 120 kids in it - I don't think we had more than about 500 total.

It was a highlight though and he was a nice guy. He stuck around and spoke to people in the hallway after the presentation.

justlistening

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Location: So. California
Gender: Male

Posted: Jul 22, 2011 - 11:40am
GeneP59 wrote: I remember the write-in campaign that forced NASA to name the shuttle the Enterprise. I vaguely remember that - I was about 12 or 14 at the time and filtered news accordingly ;) A fitting name though and cool that Ford made it so.

GeneP59

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Location: On the edge of tomorrow looking back at yesterday.
Gender: Male

Posted: Jul 22, 2011 - 11:34am
justlistening wrote: I remember the write-in campaign that forced NASA to name the shuttle the Enterprise.

justlistening

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Location: So. California
Gender: Male

Posted: Jul 22, 2011 - 11:29am
Coaxial wrote: Here.

GeneP59

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Location: On the edge of tomorrow looking back at yesterday.
Gender: Male

Posted: Jul 22, 2011 - 11:25am
NASA contracts with private sector for next generation spaceship.

Coaxial

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Location: 543 miles west of Paradis,1491 miles eas
Gender: Male

Posted: Jul 22, 2011 - 11:09am
Here.

Xeric

Location: Montana
Gender: Male

Posted: Jul 22, 2011 - 11:01am

aflanigan wrote:

Yeah. But. No kid was ever inspired to become an astronaut (or an aerospace engineer or a poet) by a datastream from a robot. The reasons to do personed flight may indeed be more emotional than rational: that fact does not necessarily tender those reasons invalid.

aflanigan

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Location: At Sea
Gender: Male

Posted: Jul 21, 2011 - 12:51pm

mzpro5 wrote:

I posted this on my journal entry but thought more people may see it here.

Ex-Astronaut Story Musgrave Blasts NASA, Washington, Over Space Shuttle Program Failures

winter

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Location: in exile, as always
Gender: Male

Posted: Jul 21, 2011 - 10:54am
GeneP59 wrote: What do you mean wear an ape suit? This is how I normally look!

GeneP59

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Location: On the edge of tomorrow looking back at yesterday.
Gender: Male

Posted: Jul 21, 2011 - 10:53am
winter wrote: You could have worn an ape suit, too, if it meant so much to you. What do you mean wear an ape suit? This is how I normally look!

winter

winter Avatar

Location: in exile, as always
Gender: Male

Posted: Jul 21, 2011 - 10:48am
GeneP59 wrote: I'm sooooo sad that we now have officially become a second rate nation. You could have worn an ape suit, too, if it meant so much to you.

GeneP59

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Location: On the edge of tomorrow looking back at yesterday.
Gender: Male

Posted: Jul 21, 2011 - 10:46am
I'm sooooo sad that we now have officially become a second rate nation.

ScottFromWyoming

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Location: Powell
Gender: Male

Posted: Jul 21, 2011 - 9:51am
oldslabsides wrote: So did everyone wear ape suits? Mine was at the dry cleaners.

JrzyTmata

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Posted: Jul 21, 2011 - 8:12am
oldslabsides wrote: So did everyone wear ape suits? They're still wearing theirs.

Red_Dragon

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Posted: Jul 21, 2011 - 7:24am
So did everyone wear ape suits?

K_Love

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Gender:

Posted: Jul 21, 2011 - 6:58am
I was woken up at 5:54 this morning by the familiar sonic booms that I've been hearing for the past 20 years or so as the shuttle lands. Whenever it happens, my first reaction is still, "omg, wtf was that?!?" Welcome back, Atlantis and RIP, shuttle program. I has a sad.

kurtster

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Location: drifting
Gender: Male

Posted: Jul 18, 2011 - 8:09am
rosedraws wrote: When the Space Shuttle lands, everybody wear Ape suits, pass it on.

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