To the Moon Alice!

[clone52]

My opinion on the benefit of future space exploration is this: Humans throughout history have been explorers and conquerors. Not a lot of land left to explore on earth (although under the sea has plenty), so that means humans will want to conquer. Thats not great for us, so exploring space is great.

Was just reading up on some of the more tangible benefits. Here is a good article.

Here are 10 reasons why space exploration benefits Earth

Space exploration benefits Earth — Here’s 10 reasons why investing in space is our best hope for humanity.

thenextweb.com

Its not so much about finding things in space that benefit humans, but instead the research to make space travel possible has massive benefits to everyone here on earth.

 

[cysmiley]

Yeah, my daughter (Aerospace Engineer) introduced me to a NASA IT tech when I was in Houston. Said the Apollo program to the moon was powered by a computer that had less capacity than a cell phone, and that was 15 years ago. Operating memory was limited to 640K bytes, all the early chips were able handle. So IBM had to program all navigational OPS into 640K.

Edit: All Apollo TV had to be analog, via microwave shots. Not enough digital capacity, and microwave antennas on the capsule and moon the size of the ones on your house.

 

[Tailg8er]

My opinion on the benefit of future space exploration is this: Humans throughout history have been explorers and conquerors. Not a lot of land left to explore on earth (although under the sea has plenty), so that means humans will want to conquer. Thats not great for us, so exploring space is great.

Was just reading up on some of the more tangible benefits. Here is a good article.

Here are 10 reasons why space exploration benefits Earth

Space exploration benefits Earth — Here’s 10 reasons why investing in space is our best hope for humanity.

thenextweb.com

Its not so much about finding things in space that benefit humans, but instead the research to make space travel possible has massive benefits to everyone here on earth.

Makes sense, hadn't really thought of it that way!

 

[CascadeClone]

Can anyone explain some of the benefits to mankind/the US that we've gotten from space exploration over the past ~50 ish years (and/or what we're hoping to accomplish in the next 50)?

Don't mean to sound naive, but genuinely curious. And I'm not trying to suggest we stop space exploration by any means, just wondering what exactly we're gaining with the billions we spend on it each year.

Other than it being cool/fascinating, what do we gain from landing a robot on Mars? Or why do we need astronauts living on the moon for months?

• GPS so you don't get lost and die in the wilderness
• Weather satellites so you don't get killed by surprise hurricanes
• Microcomputers so you don't die lugging a cell phone the size of a Corolla
• Tang so you don't die of scurvy

It is not overstating to say that you would almost certainly be dead in a ditch without NASA.


I am a small government libertarian leaning guy, but the money the US spends on science (NASA, NSF, etc) is really a good investment. It doesn't all pay off, but some of it pays off fantastic. Science lottery tickets, but your win chances are 1:2 instead of 1:100000000000.

All that said, NASA isn't real efficient in their spending, mostly due to schedule overruns and delays, Congressional interference, and contractors (Boeing, Lockheed, etc). SpaceX is trying to do the same thing, for about 10% the costs. But I am still good with the NASA.

 

[CascadeClone]

My opinion on the benefit of future space exploration is this: Humans throughout history have been explorers and conquerors. Not a lot of land left to explore on earth (although under the sea has plenty), so that means humans will want to conquer. Thats not great for us, so exploring space is great.

Was just reading up on some of the more tangible benefits. Here is a good article.

Here are 10 reasons why space exploration benefits Earth

Space exploration benefits Earth — Here’s 10 reasons why investing in space is our best hope for humanity.

thenextweb.com

Its not so much about finding things in space that benefit humans, but instead the research to make space travel possible has massive benefits to everyone here on earth.

You know how your parents would send you outside to play, or sign you up for sports or band or summer camp -- to keep you out of trouble?

Same concept here.

 

[stateofmind]

• GPS so you don't get lost and die in the wilderness
• Weather satellites so you don't get killed by surprise hurricanes
• Microcomputers so you don't die lugging a cell phone the size of a Corolla
• Tang so you don't die of scurvy

It is not overstating to say that you would almost certainly be dead in a ditch without NASA.


I am a small government libertarian leaning guy, but the money the US spends on science (NASA, NSF, etc) is really a good investment. It doesn't all pay off, but some of it pays off fantastic. Science lottery tickets, but your win chances are 1:2 instead of 1:100000000000.

All that said, NASA isn't real efficient in their spending, mostly due to schedule overruns and delays, Congressional interference, and contractors (Boeing, Lockheed, etc). SpaceX is trying to do the same thing, for about 10% the costs. But I am still good with the NASA.

And we just hit 8 billion people and will soon be 10 billion. I miss the days of map reading and just the strong surviving.

 

[1100011CS]

Can anyone explain some of the benefits to mankind/the US that we've gotten from space exploration over the past ~50 ish years (and/or what we're hoping to accomplish in the next 50)?

Don't mean to sound naive, but genuinely curious. And I'm not trying to suggest we stop space exploration by any means, just wondering what exactly we're gaining with the billions we spend on it each year.

Other than it being cool/fascinating, what do we gain from landing a robot on Mars? Or why do we need astronauts living on the moon for months?

"We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too."

 

[BoxsterCy]

I was having a hard time getting to sleep last night so I just happened to see the launch. It was a nice surprise! This launch, then a manned launch in 2024, followed by a lunar landing in 2025. If all that is successful the plan is to have annual launches with a long term plan of building a space station around the moon and a station on the lunar surface that astronauts can live in for months at a time. Amazing stuff! Hope we actually follow through with it!

Me to, just happened to have MSNBC on in the background with the sound muted and looked up and caught the launch.

 

[NorthCyd]

How has space exploration improved microchips? Is there some mineral they mine or something? Or something to do with satellites? (Sorry, obviously not informed at all on these things)

Again, not trying to insinuate this is wasted money, I'm just not clear on how exactly it improves/impacts the average Joe's life.

I mean, on a long enough timeline we either head to space or we die as a species. It's a race against extinction and we may not have near as much time as we think. IMO the commercial drive to do it isn't strong enough. It needs to be led by a coalition of governments around the world. In a purely idyllic scenario all of humanity would be united in the effort, but that's a pipe dream.

 

[CloneIce]

Can anyone explain some of the benefits to mankind/the US that we've gotten from space exploration over the past ~50 ish years (and/or what we're hoping to accomplish in the next 50)?

Don't mean to sound naive, but genuinely curious. And I'm not trying to suggest we stop space exploration by any means, just wondering what exactly we're gaining with the billions we spend on it each year.

Other than it being cool/fascinating, what do we gain from landing a robot on Mars? Or why do we need astronauts living on the moon for months?

I think the issue is actually that our Space programs budget is too small. Look at how tiny it is compared to all the other programs.

Also I’d sign up today for a 1% income task that went to the Space program.

 

[algonacy]

We went to the moon!

And to be clear, above was the comment that the first manned space capsules had less technology than your cell phone and that is wrong by a huge factor. The truth is they had less technology than your TV remote control that you bought in the 1990's. But they had brilliant minds behind them performing the calculations and doing the hard work. Truly amazing.

 

[qwerty]

Again, not trying to insinuate this is wasted money, I'm just not clear on how exactly it improves/impacts the average Joe's life.

Space tech in dodge balls.

 

[CYDJ]

Do you have a cell phone? Computer? Microwave?

NASA’s budget is also a drop in the bucket compared to Social Security or Defense

I assume you mean microwave ovens?

If so, how was the Microwave involved with space exploration. As I understand it they concept was discovered by a Raytheon engineer in 1945 while experimenting with the Magnetron to explore its possibilities with ground to air radar (pretty big thing in 1945 I'd guess.) He then fiddled with directing the microwaves into a box, it became a huge and expensive item for commercial restaurants, then one failed attempt at a domestic unit was attempted by Raytheon and it finally entered the household kitchen in 1967 when Raytheon brought the technology to Amana and had them further develop it.

Maybe there were some developments by NASA, but I am unfamiliar with them. I am interested in the connection though.

EDIT: Now that I think of it, I think military advancement (radar for WWII) was really what drove the improvement of the magnetron tubes that generate the microwaves we are discussing now. The development of the Magnetron (1920s and then greatly improved in the 1940s) pre-dates any real aspirations for space. I think technically, we have to thank war for the microwaves and the microwave ovens, no?

 

[Agkistrodon]

• GPS so you don't get lost and die in the wilderness
• Weather satellites so you don't get killed by surprise hurricanes
• Microcomputers so you don't die lugging a cell phone the size of a Corolla
• Tang so you don't die of scurvy

It is not overstating to say that you would almost certainly be dead in a ditch without NASA.


I am a small government libertarian leaning guy, but the money the US spends on science (NASA, NSF, etc) is really a good investment. It doesn't all pay off, but some of it pays off fantastic. Science lottery tickets, but your win chances are 1:2 instead of 1:100000000000.

All that said, NASA isn't real efficient in their spending, mostly due to schedule overruns and delays, Congressional interference, and contractors (Boeing, Lockheed, etc). SpaceX is trying to do the same thing, for about 10% the costs. But I am still good with the NASA.

GPS was a DOD project.

 

[CloneIce]

Nothing directly mined from space. It's more of a push the boundaries of tech to get us there. Just like war does.

Not yet. But in the future we’ll be mining asteroids.

 

[Turn2]

GPS was a DOD project.

Ehh...

A team of U.S. scientists led by Dr. Richard B. Kershner were monitoring Sputnik’s radio transmissions. They discovered that, because of the Doppler Effect, the frequency of the signal being transmitted by Sputnik was higher as the satellite approached and lower as it continued away from them. They realized that since they knew their exact location on the globe, they could pinpoint where the satellite was along its orbit by measuring the Doppler distortion.
The GPS satellites were initially manufactured by Rockwell International and are now manufactured by Lockheed Martin.

 

[CycloneVet]

Nothing directly mined from space. It's more of a push the boundaries of tech to get us there. Just like war does.

One of the most enlightening things I have ever done and it was a simple walk in the courtyard at Lackland Air Force base. They have a bunch of planes sitting there that you can look at set up in basically chronological order in which they came out. The technology of aircraft from the beginning to the end of WWII was astounding.

This is like that, money, research and setting goals like this drives progress.

 

[Agkistrodon]

Ehh...

All of whom were funded by DOD.

 

[CascadeClone]

GPS was a DOD project.

True, but money spent by NASA made the rockets to put the sats up cheaper and better. The inverse is also true, money spent on ICBMs helped develop the tech for NASA.

 

[ImJustKCClone]

try to see one in person if you haven't. its so cool

Saw most of the Apollo missions from my front yard. My father worked at the cape in the mid-sixties, as a Boeing AE on loan to NASA.
I can't tell you how excited I am about this launch!