Just watched Senator John Glenn on NASA TV. Apparently this "vision" of Bush's to go to Mars (establishing a moon base to do so) is usurping not only the Hubble but also the International Space Station and the reasearch that it can avail. I'd say he was ripping the pres. a new A****** but he is all too much the statesman and gentleman, unlike our president who's prescience appears to be more smoke and mirrors and bravado than any kind of intelligence or sanity. Mmmm, as an aside, seems Senator Glenn doesn't have all that great an opinion of congress either, so it goes.
I'm just looking at the rerun of the commision on the president's proposal. John Glen details exactly what is being planned, curtailment of all and any experimentation on the international space station unless it aids the moon to mars mission. This flies in the face of a lot of planned experimentation by countries all over the world for immediately rewarding research. Also building a base on the moon to use to launch vehicles to Mars just doesn't make sense at all. Just what the hell kind of cowboy mentality must now dictate how human science gets developed? 32 billion dollars invested in the space station and now it is to serve only one purpose, to put a notch in some cowboy's gun handle? How much investment is being tossed out to allow the Hubble to go without maintenance? This plan of the president's is insane.
We had fifteen nations working with us as partners on the space station. Without consultation they were informed that the US was going to usurp all previous agreements and go for mars using the international space station. NASA subcontractors are having their contracts curtailed, promises are being broken. Ah yes, me thinks we have the most megalomaniac of a president in the white house that I have ever known, at the least. I hear that some believe a good case can be made that he's the worst ever.
Ignorance, unilateralism, exceptionalism, waste, and lasting resentment will obviously be the legacy of this administration in so many fields.
When you put it THAT way, it's really quite remarkable how similar Clinton and Bush really are, hype! John Glenn is a liberal Democrat. Why would we expect him to have a different opinion?
True enough. President Bush: Furthering the American leftist agenda by mistake since 2001! The Hubble is designed to expire, and already has a replacement; ibid for the shuttle. The ISS is a worthless endeavor and always has been. Glenn's arguments are not entirely without merit but they're surprisingly vitriolic, prompting me to suspect that their motivations are mainly partisan rather than purely scientific.
So, we might as well push up Hubble's expiration date? The ISS was a joint effort. Do you, Stokey or Bush, speak for all? Did you see Glenn's presentation? Nothing vitriolic about it, MR. AD HOMINITIS, Stokey ole buddy. The current administration just has little regard for science, something you hold in common with them, ole Stokey ole pal. Means to an end or an end to the means? Me thinks some sacrifice truth to claim the science they want almost as if they believed they were god or some superior being worthy of dictating to all the way they want it rather than looking to how things might really be. Oh heck, excuse me, I really should go do something worth while. This forum is the pits, P I T S It has collected a lot of low life... so to speak.
the ISS was only a joint effort in the sense that the war on iraq is a joint effort, both are 99% US made (in money and manpower). As big a waste as the ISS is I'd prefer that the little use it can offer is focused on an actual goal (long term colonization on mars, the moon, etc.) instead of 6th grade science fair projects and the difficulties of oragami in zero gravity.
I understand that there are hundreds of experiments that were planned that have been cut short most with viewable profit to humanity in the near term for the sake of mars and the moon. The ISS is one of the very first usable outposts. We need to figure out what we can do with the potentials of space based living and manufacture in order to build some credibility to any venture rather than allowing some vain attempt at greatness that is a massive waste of human skills and resources. Any one have the statistics? I doubt that claim comparing the joint ISS and the Iraq invasion. I would think the ISS expenditures would have substantially higher percentage involvement by other parties than as with the Iraq invasion and occupation. I could be wrong. Does that matter? I don't think so, really. YAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWNNNNNNNN! "aH, SHUCKS, Clem" "I just shot anudder hole in mer vooot." "What ya go and do that for, Clyde? You go and keep shootin dem holes in der voooot 'nd ur wont have nuthin' left to stand on!" "Oh, I know it, Clem" "Hurts like the dickens too, it doer, Clem." "My Oh My, Clyde. You're a purty site fer sore eyes, dat bein dat you make me eyes sore , hork, hork, hork, shnuck shnuck." "Chortle schnorkle hork hork, Clem, dat deres a goo un, schnuck, schnuuk."
Just one bright eyes? I count about a dozen there. Which one appears the easiest for you to harangue?