The most important story. . .

[Tulkas12]

What do you mean "miss him" doesn't he still run explorations? Well duh he does I just listened to him Tuesday.

No I miss Art Bell man, I listened to Kaku today actually.

 

[saleg37]

No I miss Art Bell man, I listened to Kaku today actually.

So have you and Greenpeace kissed and made up yet? Pfft, nerds.

Just kidding. So am I. Just not in the sciences.

Anyway, does anyone know off the top of their head what this mission is supposed to do? Is it just to prove that they can? Or is there a specific thing they are researching?

 

[.Shane.]

You guys are not arguing so much about science as you are about policy and economics.

The question is, what is the best ROI for NASAs money? I'm pretty sure that we get a much higher ROI on unmanned missions. Though, policy-wise, the public sure does love to see those astronauts.

 

[greenpeace]

I wish people would more often love to hear people like Michio Kakua and learn about science than to look at some dudes in outer space wasting money

people watching astronauts:
"OOOOOOOOh wow! that guy is amazing, lets see, he's about 150 pounds, so we spend 1,500,000 in taxes to carry that one single dude into space so he can doodle around. Man! that's amazing! I wish I could waste that amount of other peoples money. Whats even more amazing is that mission only cost us around the range of tens of billions of dollars!"

people watching robotic missions:
"How lame!!! that stupid peice of garbage only costs a tenth of the price for a manned launch! And for what?! A hundred thousand times more scientific data, and an ability to go a billion times farther? How pathetic, I mean come on, at max it costs only a billion."

 

[WillJ]

I'm inclined to agree with greenpeace here. I don't see how manned missions are anything but a big waste of money. But Tulkas, since you seem more knowledgeable on the subject than I am, perhaps you could explain how these missions are useful? You (and the other manned mission defenders) haven't really been specific yet, and so far have just thrown around vague ideas like "expanding as a civilization." I understand that, in the long run, being able to live on other planets is a must. But I don't see how our current shuttle missions bring us any closer to that goal, or have major impacts on our daily lives, or do anything else worth spending billions and billions of dollars on.

 

[Shaihulud]

The point in studying space has alot to do with human desires to one day colonize it. Therefore sending men into space is an endeavour which is in line with human desires. We will learn of the various way to cope with zero gravity, different form of food we can cultivate in such an enviroment. Human in space is an inevitable event, we should be proud of this achievement and, yes it is the most important story of humanity.

 

[Neonanocyborgasm]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8562942/

Yes, we are back in space. This after a long hiatus. Our ability to learn and expand as a civilization requires us to expand off of Earth. Welcome back the astronauts with a warm heart.

We're back with the same technology and same missions that have killed astronauts in the past. Yippee kayeeh!

 

[WillJ]

The point in studying space has alot to do with human desires to one day colonize it. Therefore sending men into space is an endeavour which is in line with human desires. We will learn of the various way to cope with zero gravity, different form of food we can cultivate in such an enviroment. Human in space is an inevitable event, we should be proud of this achievement and, yes it is the most important story of humanity.

We can test food without humans there, as far as I know. And sending more men into space won't tell us anything about humans and zero gravity that we didn't already know from previous missions, as far as I know.

Unlike what you assume, sending men into space doesn't necessarily fall in line with "human desires" to colonize space. What if all the men did out there was throw crazy parties? Of course, I know that's not what they do up there, but still, you must tell me what they do up there that's worth billions of dollars. Simply going up there is not good enough.

Again, I'd like specifics. What are some specific things that we've discovered from the past few manned space missions that were worth spending billions and billions of dollars on? What are some specific discoveries that bring us closer (close enough to be worth billions of dollars) to colonizing space?

 

[nonconformist]

Actually you are close here, wehave gotten some plants to grow with centripical force. Orientation of plants is still a real issue in space though. I don't know if they use growth lights or not, I doubt it considering the energy that would use, probably just filter the sunlight.

The problem, I presume, is that there are two different forces actring upon the plant, which essentially confuses it as to where it should sprout roots and shoots?