Candidates’ space ideas lack launch pad
64 Comments Published by clay May 5th, 2008 in Education, International, Travel.One thing the presidential candidates haven’t been talking about is a space policy. Jeremy Hobson takes a look at whether the candidates have any plans for the final frontier.
What should we do? Why? Click on the link and listen to the story.
O noes!!!!!!!!!!1111111 Barrak wont send us to mars!!!!!!!!!!!111111eleventy
I’m sorry, but I could give a crap about NASA. I’m pretty certain that there are bigger issues in this campaign (Iraq, economy, Jeremiah Wright…) to worry about. I’m sure that space policy is important to some extent, but unless the Martians start bombing us, I’d say we can go ahead and focus on oil prices instead of Mars. I’ve got no problem with Barack taking money out of NASA and spending it on education, John McCain’s saying nothing so I don’t have any opinion on it, and Hillary’s opinion doesn’t matter because she isn’t going to be the Democratic nominee.
/GObama
Space. The final frontier. In a day and age when a good majority of american children still say “I want to be an astronaut when I grow up”. In a nation with such movies as “The Astronaut Farmer” and “Armageddon” where John Everyman goes to space. I think it is no surprise that while we were playing “make-believe” with goldfish bowls over our heads, that our grip on that vast expanse of space slipped.
It is no government secret that NASA has one of the smallest budgets of any branch of governmental administration. It is also no secret that the air force has a larger space program than NASA (it was even advertised on television).
So why do the presidents-to-be keep quiet on the subject, because we suck at it. And everyone knows that a political campaign should make you feel good, not make you face the facts and learn that your leader is willing to do the same.
Space will always entrance us, and if yo make it easy to get the education to go to space then you won’t get the geniuses who can persevere when the proverbial shit hits the proverbial fan.
My answer is that it doesn’t matter if the government boosts or cuts funding, people will still dream of the final frontier.
I agree, we’re facing a lot more crucial issues than playing spaceman to an even greater extent. I don’t believe a great astroid is about to kill us all or that aliens plan on bombing us any time soon.
Quit wasting all this time and money on sh*t that doesn’t even matter! We’ve got bigger issues aside from the final frontier.
This is absolutely my least favorite topic when it comes to politics. Who the hell cares about space when we’re having so many disasters on our own planet? Seriously? This is just aggravating that anyone would even bother to ask these candidates about what they think about Mars. And if what Clinton’s advisor said about her INCREASING NASA’s budget is true, then I may have to rethink my adamant support for her because I don’t think there is a stupider move than taking money we need to help our own economy and get ourselves out of debt and this stupid war and putting it towards exploring Mars. For what? Video of some rocks? The possibility of protozoic life because of the possibility of water existing on Mars? OH SHIT, WATER. Big woop. A regular person who is $100,000 in debt wouldn’t go out spending money on designer clothes…so why would a country with a gigantic deficit like ours use our income like it’s something disposable? $17 billion? Really? Ugh.
Eff NASA.
I definitely agree with ANDY LAFFIN when he says that we have bigger things to worry about. Im sorry but space is not what we need to concentrate on. Yes its nice to know whats beyond us but I think its a luxury we cant afford. During the space race we needed something to do, we werent in a real war or as mr. purther says were in two wars and all the jobs in the US werent going abroad. During that time we were patriotic and wanted to see the US succeed, now we just want to see us not in a recession or a “slow economy” as mr. bush says. We need to bring jobs back to the us, give every one who needs it healthcare and get our troops home from a place that doesnt want our help. Please future president dont fuck us up any more than we already are.!!!
I would have to agree with all of the above. There are more important issues at hand that should be taken care of instead. Space can wait.
Like Gabi said, we can’t even afford this.
And since we’ve been at war, we’ve only been loosing more and more money.
i think that at the momnet we have bigger fish to fry. this space thing isnt as important to us right now as the gasoline prices or preetty much the rest of our economy. i think they should focus on thta first before going on to space. keep it going but they need to get their priorities straight.
omg! seriously? Space at the moment isnt even as important as earth is. Our country is facing bigger issues that we need to focus more on. i mean at the moment we dont really care about space or any other country or space. our priority right now is our economy we need to fix our country’s economy problem first before we start spending money as if were disposable. we have gasoline prices going up, the war in Iraq, immigrations problems and more. seriosuly i think that we should maybe discuss space later, once we fix our economy. we need to get our troops back from war, and create more job opportunities for everyone.! i believe that these are way more important than space.!!!!
we cant afford to be spending money at the momen for something that we dont even need!
ok, unless we decide to put railgun equiped satilites in orbit to launch attacks that cannot be traced back to us on suspected terrorist cells, space is not something we need to worry about. and even if we are, NASA is a civilian branch of the government so my initial unless is irrelevant. the way i see it, we have 2 options: option 1 is we leave space alone indefinantly and use the money to fund our schools until we finish in the middle east and get our funding back or option 2 (the better one i think) is we get the fuck out of that area and put the funding into what is actually important and worry about winning wars when it is A) possible and B) necessary. i say “possible” because we have turned iraq into vietnam and basically are at the point where its just a matter of how long before we decide to quit and since we are calling the mess we are in now “the war on terror” we are inherently saying “the endless war” because as long as there are people willing to die for a cause we will never win because it will never end. i really dont care which one we do as long as we dont cut funding to our schools.
i think we should keep funding the space program but not make it a priority. Yes its obvious that our stat-alights up there are extremely important to our economy. We all depend on cell phones, gps, weather forecasts, but we don’t need to be trying to send stuff out to pluto to find life. How much of a benefit can we have from finding life out there? or how much will it help us if we find out something will destroy the world? Is there anyway to really stop it?
As far as importance to campaign… their space policy won’t make or break my decision. How they will take on the iraq issue, how they deal with the bad economy, and how they deal with education will make my decision.
Why are we worrying about our space program? shouldn’t we be worried that our aerospace engineering companies have lost MAJOR contracts to foreign companies! If we can’t make a boeing then why in the world should we be sending stuff that has to go way farther than a few hundred thousand miles away.
Is it really fair to focus on a few students wanting to go into the NASA program when billions in our country are struggling through elementary school due to lack of funding?
Maybe NASA should be sold to a private company. They can invest in it. If private companies don’t want to… then why should all of America pour their money into it? Aren’t we in major debt as it is?
Honestly, I could care less whether the government plans to fund the space program. I don’t believe that it is a big enough issue right now. There are bigger issues right now, such as the war in Iraq and rising gas prices and global warming. Funding that space program just seems like a topic that not many people have on their minds right now.
Of course it is important to know what goes on in space and study the other planets, but it doesn’t seem like a big problem that the presidential candidates should be worrying about. Right now with everything else going on in the world, the space program just gets pushed aside. I’m sure that someday the government will fund the space program when everything calms down. There are more important issues at the moment.
Wow, I was really truly right when I said that Hillary’s opinion doesn’t matter! Losing NC by 14 points and (more or less) statistically tying Indiana have Hillary so scared that she’s canceled her appearances on all the morning talk shows tomorrow! Maybe she’s finally realizing that she won’t be POTUS. One can only hope…
Oh yeah, I need to stay on topic… NASA SUX!
Screw our planet, we need to think about the rest of the universe…dumb..
I think it’s stupid that people are making a bigger deal of funding space programs, than our own problems. we’re in what? 2 different wars right now? our gas prices are higher than a mother, we need all the money we can get as it is. It’s nice to know about the rest of the universe but no one really cares right now. I’d rather know what’s going on here on earth, in America, Iraq, Afghanistan. NASA is a great program, and it is very important… but not as important as it was before we began 2 wars.
i plan on living on the moon in ten years, so the next president better make that fuckin happen for me. =]
…and i want a space monkey and a space dog and a space ship and a space wench and a space house and a space tree and a space guitar. MAKE IT HAPPEN FUTURE PRESIDENT!! cause how many americans currently care about things like healthcare anyway =] the only thing americans should care about is making space guitars and space *all of the above*. so NASA if i have one thing to tell you its “fuck everything that you are doing, and work on the things that I want ten years from now”.
…but seriously who really cares about the whole space issue?
at most maybe 1 outa every 50 people?
i dont really know i made that number up cause i dont give a shit NASA
finally to the most serious issue at hand.
Obama, Hillary, and McCain are on a boat heading
for a waterfall and death is unavoidable.
WHO GETS SAVED?
….the american people =]
I will have to agree with everyone else! NASA REALLY! COME ON! Yeah it would be nice to go to Mars but now isnt the time! American and going to Mars should not be on anyones platform of anything… We are almost going through a resession, be are do under in gas prices and we are worried about weather or not we are going to Mars in the near future!!! That ISNT HOW OUR TIME SHOULD BE SPENT OR OUR MOMEY AT THAT!!! is going to Mars going to help us in any way? are we going to find a magical bacteria that will solve all our problems! I Highly doubt it so kick rocks and lets focus on the important things!!!!! THINK PEOPLE!!!!!
I think instead of focusing on space we should think about the issues here on EARTH. If we are spending precious time and money on NASA’s wants, then we’ve already failed. I know for darn sure that higher gas prices and the war in Iraq are more important then funding a space program. Sure its awesome to get the opportunity to learn about space, but it should not be this high on the list of important things to take care of. Issues that we have already faced, could get worse if we just let them slip away and choose not to do anything about them. We should just push the space program aside and take care of our country’s needs first.
I really think we do need to focus more on the issues happening down here on earth with our economy and working on keeping it or getting it stable. But it’d be nice to have some plan for space policies. Maybe not just exploring mars to see whats on it, but more focused on the sattelites and things along those lines to protect us here so we don’t get behind oither countries with this whole space thing. But we do really need to pay a lot of attention to what’s going on on earth, and get all these issues resolved, or pretty close to it.
Well, when it comes down to politics, this isn’t the 70s or whichever era the space race was, where that is our main priority. America is now conceited and thinks issues closer to home are more influential and important. They probably haven’t touched on what their opinion is on NASA and friends probably because that area wouldn’t give them as many votes as saying “Gogo alternative fuels” or something like that.
TO INFINITY AND BEYOND!!!!!!!!
Those are the words of a famous astronaut, Buzz Lightyear. A man who has put his whole life into space. What would he be without a space program. Well he would probably be some fat lazy dude living in a trailer home with pigs as pets. Space, the final frontier. It has aroused our imaginations and has left us pandering about the vast space in which we live in. People will always be curious to know what is out there, but before that we have to eat and make money. I never wanted to be a space man, but I do think it is important to know more about where we live. We as a nation should invest some time and money into a space program, but we have to be realistic, our economic situation right now isn’t that pretty. Who ever gets elected this November, whether it is Hillary, Baraka, or Johnny, we have to fix our problems first or at at least ease em up a bit. E.T and Chewbaka can wait a little bit longer. Once we have progressed more, we can go and invest more time in space. As our technology advances, investing in space programs and lightsabers will be a good investment for our economy.
Honestly does going to space REALLY matter?…
I mean will your vote change on your chosen candidate
Just because they don’t have any plans to take us to space?
It shouldn’t matter that much. Yes the study of space will broaden our horizons and help us discover many things about our future but it’s not a main priority. We should be concerned about our economy instead of going to space. Focus on issues ON EARTH instead of out for example gas prices, pollution, immigration, and our soldiers in Iraq. It is said that Obama will take money from NASA and give it to education..Isnt that what EVRYBODY wants?!?!? To better our education and the knowledge of our children. “The children are our future”, this is a phrase stated everywhere you go, but if the children ARE our future wouldn’t u want to educate them!!!!..duuuuhh!!!
Ok I agree with everyone. I dont really care about NASA and what we do in space. I know it sounds sad but, honestly who cares. Nothing is up there that really needs billions of dollars for us to go look at. Our money should be spent somewhere else like education and the economy. I mean space can wait, it will be there forever, but our economy can not wait. More and more people are becoming unemployed and work is getting harder to find. Our schools need more funding to educate children and give them the proper surroundings to succeed in life. NASA can just wait and spend their time doing something else. Our money needs to be going somewhere that will help everyone and benefit us. How will going to space benefit us? I dont know, I guess thats why I dont really care. But I strongly believe that the government and the presidential candidates should think wisely on how they spend our funding and put it somewhere that will benefit the people and the children. That’s what I think. There is too much that needs to be done with all that money than going to space.
are you kidding me?
I THINK THIS IS A GREAT IDEA.
i mean, who gives a fuck about the american people? who cares if the world is deteriorating slowly day by day. SO WHAT if its costs 100 dollars to fill up your gas tank. Pollution, gas prices, the nations debt issue, these are just minor problems that could be solved any old day. Mindlessly spending even more money on shit america doesnt need is a wonderful idea and its something that could benefit us all. I mean, what in the hell would we do if we couldnt put an old white bastard on the moon to play golf with a monkey named mojo? fuck it. ALL the nations money should be spent on NASA. every last cent. sure were slowly becoming worse than mexico, but hey, al least we can send our grandkids to mars. mexico cant do that. why hasnt our current president thought of this idea yet? it sounds like something that would come from him. if that douche McCain becomes our new president, i think we should convince him to prolong the war and have it on jupiter. If obama is elected, he’ll just say he will but we all know hes just going to stand there and smile hoping we will like him. if billy clinton is elected, she’ll cry…………in space.
I do believe that science and space travel is very important. We need to know about our surroundings and get people interested for further research. But, there ARE more pressing issues at hand. How can we spend so much on weapons for protecting our satelites when we don’t even have enough money to create weapons to protect our soldiers?
Furthermore, this report was saying how our economy will be worse off if we do not invest more into NASA and space programs because we have to compete with China. We ALREADY have a horrible economy and we already do compete with China. We need to get our priorities straight. Money should be sent towards education in general, not just for children interested in NASA. In order to solve the predicaments that the current government has put us in, we need individuals with different ideas and great minds. By putting further money into NASA we take away from security, education, and many other issues that are more important.
Talk about space travel and tourism is out of the question right now. We can’t even take care of our own planet why should we be able to send ourselves to other planets? Just so we can ruin those as well? I don’t think we deserve visiting outerspace until we can get our planet in order.
i agree with everyone
we have more pressing matters at hand than space and Mars (no offense to the Martians). before we worry about going to Mars, we should worry about our economy. once thats fixed, maybe we can talk space. maybe.
i mean, come on. we cant even friggin keep our own planet stable. and you want to go to space for what? to recreate our chaotic planet somewhere else? dont worry about Mars NASA. worry about how you will pay for your living expenses here on Earth! travel and tourism? dont even go there. most of us can barely afford gas right now. we should worry more about paying for education than space. maybe one of the kids who bennefited from all that money may be a genius and come up with something. who knows. but no space talk ’till the earthlings know how to take care of planet earth
this is seriously one topic that everyone has been ignoring. instead of worrying about going to a different planet, why cant we @ least try to spend the money on our planet that needs to cleaned up after all the pollution that is affecting it. i know that we have been trying to get to mars, but after all these experiments and all the money that has been wasted on mars and on NASA, we are still not getting anywhere, we havent even anything from up there. what is more important is our planet that needs more halp than mars does. what our future president should worry about, is that our prices need to be lower. we have gas prices, food prices, car prices, restaurants, just a simple burger now costs like 3 buck, so yeah. once all this is cleared up, and we all are responsible citizens that know how to take care of a planet, then we could spend the money on NASA and even on Mars.. so that we could later go and visit all those martians! =)
i font think that any of these presidents are ready to make this descision, even our current president doesnt know what he should decide on. obama was the only wond that make some kind of sense, yes we should put more money into the educational part to nasa, because with no education or students to recieve the education there will be no rocket scientists. but hilary doesnt even know about this so thats why she has an advisor to decide for her, atleast obama and mckane state their own oppinions to the people. but besides that point she said that well put more money into it if we need to. that is the biggest thing in ths country that we have so little for already and she wants to put more into that if we need to, that right there is a lie to get voters and in reality where most of us live is not that easy to just say “oh yeah of coarse that place right there needs more funding so lets give them more, what we have to cut money from education in order to give nasa more money, oh well who needs that any ways?” hilary wants the presidency too badly, thats why i dont think shes gonna win, but obama isnt much of a catch either, and like purther said mckane doesnt have too much longer and if he is elected president it will make his time here go much faster. (im still undecided on who i should vote for, if you cant tell already)
I believe that the issues that they are talking about is more important than just the final frontier. I dont think that a lot of people will really pay attention on the frontier. The more important topics is about what they are going to do for the people. Space frontier I think should be discussed when they are elected as president. Will there be any more than just the moon, who knows? When the candidates go to the different states they most likely going to mention what the peoples issues are. So overall this subject I think won’t interest the people well right now but they might be interested in the future.
I agree with everyone here. I mean really who gives a crap about the planets!? I care MUCH MORE about the MILLIONS OF STARVING and ILL people all over our world. I mean wouldn’t you rather see your (if you work) hard earned money that goes to taxes go to things such as homeless shelters and programs like Meals on Wheels then go to something that is NOWHERE EVEN CLOSE AS IMPORTANT like money to NASA for new discoveries and work in space? Think about it. Doesn’t feeding starving children sound MUCH more important to spend our tax money on then for some astrounauts to spend going up in space? And also, And also, going to space costs MILLIONS! And you’ve seen those commercials, you can feed a starving a child for just a couple of dimes or pennies a DAY!
Okay so i honestly think that there are bigger matters at hand than consrtucting a good space policy. I mean they’re saying that if there is no space policy that our economy is going to suffer? Come on now, so much money would be invested in the policy, millions if not billions, and that’s suppose to help our economy? I really don’t see the logic in that. I htink that instead of this whole new frontier thing, we should focus more on the current problems that arenot only affecting us but future generations. An example of this would be the raising gas prices, or more significant, the raising food prices. We should construct a better economic plan to settle the numerous arguements about these issues. By focusing more on the current economic problems now, maybe the space policy will be more focused or better yet, should be focused on, in future generations when the ongoing problems would already be solved this generation.
I love the plantes and space…. so i think we can maybe take a little attention to space. yes i know oits not n issuie but i still believe that we should eb aware of it at least a little bit. I think maybe we should pay attention to space a little more. WHat does it hurt, yeah there are other things to worry about but i think knowing about whats going on in space wouldnt hurt at all. I love space so maybe my answer is bias =]
GO HILLARY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OBAMA CAN…………………….
fo real?
to me i mean space and all that is cool you know but i dont think we should be worrying about that right now theres alot of other things going on right now such as the pointless war in iraq, our gas prices, and jsut a bunch of other crap. to me it doesnt matter whether or not the candidates want to go to space or whatever cause honestly i dont see us going to mars in my lifetime anyway
umm i think space is the least of our problems. the president needs to focus on things like Iraq and gas priceses..you know..stuff thats important
yea space is of importance too but not now
I agree with everybody else, in my personal opinion i think that there are many more important things to worry about. For example, like the way gas prices are going up and affecting everybody in several different ways. First of all its stressing people because they aren’t earning enough money and they don’t know how to come up with the money to pay for gas. Some people are even selling there cars and using public transportation due to gas. Or most importantly the fact that we now have to watch what we eat because food is getting really expensive due to the decrease of the dollar. I really don’t think that the economy should be wasting so much money on a policy because that is not going to make the economy any better, in fact its probably going to get us in debt and we really don’t need that right now, we should use that money to help the economy not messing it up even more. We should just focus on the most important things right now like the current issues that are affecting everybody. What I’m trying to say is deal with one problem at a time and the most harmful problem first. Then, we could focus on the policy of space because i mean that isn’t really affecting us and we have much more important things to worry about. Hence, maybe later in the future when our current problems are solved then we could start discussing the whole space policy.
Well I dont really care about space and how it is relating to politics. I understand that it important and everything but it shouldnt be the only thing that the focus is on. I feel that space will be here forever and ever so we should preserve and
maintain it so we continue to know about it. I dont think talking about the final frontier is important when there are other things to be worried about. Poverty and things of serious nature are the most important over space and all its mishaps. But I think that space is a topic that is an issue to be talked about just dont put it higher above things like poverty or drought- you know all of the important things happening in the world.
Just to. Add it is so flippin ‘ hard to write a blog using a darn I phone
why dont we just all get in a spaceship and go to mars and live
there we will then live in space and not care about anything and the space issue will then be solved.
There’s much more important issues that our country’s focus needs to be on, more important than space issues. Seriously! Why are we going to put money and funds into space issues, we have issues here on earth that need to be priority, where we live, with living PEOPLE. Our attention should be focused on the War in Iraq, the gas prices, the economy, issues that affect us daily. It’s only common sense! Spending money on looking for stuff in space for things we don’t know what we’re looking for, just basically going to make some new discovery is pretty much pointless. Putting money for space means taking money away from other significant things, such as education. We’re already facing financial issues as a country. Space should be the last things on our minds.
Even though I love space and everything about it. I would have to agree with what the majority of other have said so far. There are much bigger problems right now here on Earth that we need to worry about, such as the war, gas prices, and everything else. Going to Mars right now should not be a priority for us. We need to focus on the bigger things that are happening on our planet. Although, I do not think that we should not focus on space at all, but should still be on the lookout and thinking of ways to stop global disasters that can come from space such as an asteroid. In 2036, Apophis, a 320 meter long asteroid may come in close contact with the Earth. It is most likely not going to hit the Earth, but it if an asteroid were to hit the Earth we would not really be able to stop it.
Well while I was listening to this podcast and reading along the whole time I was thinking is space traveling really more important than the fact that we are all going broke with gas prices? But then I stopped and thought well if people are worrying so much about the space policy it must have a great effect on our economy. Towards the end it talks about how it affects weather predictions for farmers, but I have farmers in my family and if they are any good they should be great weather predictors so weather in my opinion isnt as important as the things mentioned in the end like high food prices oil prices and forclosure rates. Our country is in a recession and you people want to worry about space? So basically i dont care much for the space program right now. So what we fall a little behind on our space explorations yeah Russia might discover something or some other country might but come on our economy has bigger things to worry about than space.
Space is awesome!! but it is not something we need to improve on because we have a lot of other crap to deal with. It’s cool and all but space isn’t all that important right now, unless you know, we get attacked by spaceships and all that………… that’ll be awesome but anyways maybe in the future it will be cool. so if obama and clinton do end up doing some studies and research and all that of space then it will be cool because itis important but they won’t put that ahead of the war and the oil crisis and the economy.
I think that taking money away from the space program and putting it into other things is a good idea. Like many have already stated, we’ve got bigger problems to worry about. We’ve got high gas prices, a recession, and other problems we need to tend to before spending money on getting into space. I know that there are people out there who take pride in our space program, but I would much rather spend money on trying to fix our oil problem than spending it on trying to get to mars.
i dont think that the sapce issue is that much of importance then thewar that we have been fighting well that soilders have been fighting and the gas prices. i mean they can mention it here and there if we really wanted to know but i really dont hink it really matters becuase they want to talk about things people want to here so they can get voted on and i dont think space moon ect is one of them. maybe some other time
Try to encourage more people of the upcoming generation to try to go in to the scientific field. if we don’t have the people who would be willing to work on it, we don’t a space agency. it’s like a small community if new blood, the next generation, doesn’t stay with in the town, then the town with die out, that’s why we have ghost towns. And its budget shouldn’t be touched, if we want to at least stay at the level we are at. it all depends what we want to do and our priorities. currently, we have bigger problems then sending rockets into space. there’s the war, the declining economy, and other things, but that doesn’t mean we should cut it. we should encourage the public into that field, to bring popularity to it, and maybe it may even help us out in the long run.
Theresa Hitchens and Barack Obama seem to have the right idea. In times of economic turmoil, we must focus on the essentials first. Education is what I believe to be one of the essential things we must focus on. However, the space program does create jobs in our economy. I think that certain aspects of the space program that relate to upkeep and weapons should be maintained. Other than that, money can be better allocated elsewhere. It seems that our economic downturn started as a result of the collapse of the housing market. Perhaps, the money could be used to institute programs of repair, rather than exploration.
True, we DO have many more things to worry about than going to mars. Mars is always going to be there, we need to concentrate on the here and now. Its a gamble spending so much money on just “exploring” a planet that we do not know much about. Spending so much money that could be used to feed the mouth’s of people. There are so many problems on THIS planet, so why would we want to spend money that could help US to visit ANOTHER planet?
In my opinon space isn’t that important because we got stuff like war and things going on in our country that needs A LOT more attention than space. Like Josh said mars is always going to be there. We got time! and also we would be losing a lot more money if we are planning on going to MARS so if thats the case i say ,save it for later. Also its not important to go to a different planet. I don’t really care whats out there, all i care about is being at my house and stuff. So yeah…space?…NOT important
I think the space problem is the very least of what we should worry about right now. There is much more vital issues our candidates need to worry about. Space will always be there ready to be discovered, our economy the war and other problems we as a nation face will not. The candidates should not worry about silly little space issues. They need to focus on what is around us every day! Sure yes space isnt unimportant we do need to dedicate some time to that part of the picture but like the old saying goes there is a place and a time for certain things. And right now its not the time for space issues to be talked about. As for the candidates I really dont care on who wins.
i think space should be a consideration for the future, but at present time, we cant handle our own plant, why go and start out sourcing our world. i mean we’ll just end up putting tons of space junk out there and accomplish relatively nothing. i think we should focus on fixing our problems and later begin to try and fix things outside, honestly i dont believe that there will ever truley be a day when we will fix all of our problems on earth so people may want to get away from it here. then i guess we will begin to start spending more money to get away from earth and have a more peacefull life somewhere else?
Not to be a total stickler…but space really shouldn’t matter at this time. Everyone has already said it, and space doesn’t really matter at the moment. That race of who can get to space first was incredibly worthless. Not to mention a very controversial subject with the whole Apollo 11 mission being fake. Space has no significance to any matter at this time, especially in the US. What is there to discover when there is still much to learn about our own planet and how the hell to make it better.
I guess kara’s argument about the next generation of engineers is pretty valid, but to be honest i don’t see space as a big part of economy in the next century. If it is, oh well eff me right?
We are connected to space as common citizens but there isn’t much needed to advance at this time, especially with what America is going through. If I were to be a good american and vote, i would pay no attention to what any candidate has to say about space.
btw…ur blog didnt let me submit @ 8
Space would be great. But it seems like less of a neccessity than bigger issues like the enviornment, oil, and the economy. Like everyone else is saying it’s not a big enough issue for us to car. Space would be like the chocolate syrup on the icecream, it doesn’t really have to be there but it would be great if it was.
My answer: Let’s start at home before we go out there. We need to focus on these problems before we branch out to the moon and mars and all that crazy stuff. I guess I have the same opinion as everyone else.
I agree with everyone so far. I think that space shouldn’t be something we should be worrying about right now. Our economy is bad and we’re still in a war. Shouldn’t we be trying to fix the economy and end the war before doing anything else? We also have the global warming problem too. If we don’t figure out a way of fixing that problem, won’t we end up doing the same to another planet that we may later visit or inhabit? I think that there are more important issues for the candidates to be discussing and worrying about than space travel. Also like Lupe said, most of us are having trouble paying for gas. So how will we be able to pay for space tourism. It just doesn’t make sense.
I am pretty disgusted with all the current candidates that are running for presidency. Especially the democratic party. With all the money they have spent on their compaing, the final frontier has sadly been over looked. Unlike most people with a clear choice as to who they will be voting for in November, I am still undecided however hold space exploration as an important topic that should be discussed. After listening to the presentation presented by Josh Robles, I have looked at the planets in a new light and hold their pressance and an omen of good things to come.
However I find that we need to care for our own planet and learn how to live in harmony before setting our eye on another planet for colinization.
The topic of planetary exploration is interesting and should be on top of the presidential priority list, but the problems we face here at home is more crucial and deserves the most attention.
its not like ima listen if they announce anyway. well depends…..space is space. anyone can go no one owns it….who owns mars? or any property in it. no one so anyone is welcome or no? earths population is growing and growing, i see if it keeps coming like this. doubling and doubling….where are people gonnago now after the earth is full and has its max capacity. lets go to space….but not yet, maybe later
Honestly? Im tired of Hilary, but she’s got the best so far on Space Advancement.
I like the point made that China is graduating 8 times as many EXPERTS as we are. To match that we have to have 8 times as much production from each person. But with no funding, how can this be conceived, if even possible?
The budget has to be increased, cause we can’t spread OUT anymore. We can now only spread UP. How can we not fund out future?
I don’t believe that Space is a place we need to be worried about if we have bigger issues here on earth. We have the War going on, poverty, and civil unrest in third world countries. I thin we must help our fellow man before we go and play astronaut on other planets. Why should we invest money on NASA when we haven’t found a way to help our the poor in our country and in other countries. We have a bigger focus on the now and not in the future of space. We need to take care of our own planet and our mother nature. When our economy is up and our society is perfect then i think we should invest into space and rockets. How could we look into the future if we can’t even solve the now.
My first question is… HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO GO TO SPACE??? Are they out of their minds? We are fighting for our safety and freedom in Iraq and they want to go to space! Unless there is some kind of solution to oil prices on mars then I say we keep are asses right here for now. We need to learn to walk before we can run a marathon and were still struggling to crawl. They need to pump there breaks, and hey I’m not trying to be controversial or anything, but let’s mastering getting to the moon before we go to mars people. We are unemployed, drowning in debt, uneducated, and going nowhere fast and these fools want to spend money on mars. Why is this even a question?
What will going to space solve for anyone? Right now in times like these there is no reason for us to spend a lot of time and money worring about what is out there so far away where we can’t do anything about it. The candidates really shouldnt be worried about the space issue it would not really have an impact on their votes unless they say negative things about it.
spaace poliicy?…..
it aint no BIG….
@ least not @ the moment
im basically just re-re-re-re-reiterating the fact that we need to remind ourselves that there are way more pressing issues at hand that are wayyy past overdue for dealing with. This matter is something that can be put at the bottom of the pile.
That’s probably why the governments spends less money on funding organizational programs involved in space, and the reason our potential-future presidents haven’t paid much mind to the topic of the vast beyond.
space, verry interesting well except to them, we shouldnt do anything, we should know sooner or later it shall come up. but really its nit a bad thing, why worry about space, we dont need to spend stupid money on that kind of stuff write now, with all the problems and everything space isnt an issue, if there is somehting in space let it come to us, and then we will spend money on it, but for now leave it alone its not important. eventhough space is tight and all it doesnty matter wrtie now, so if anyone important is reading these dont tlak about space, dont even think of it!!!!! OR ELSE!!!
Well everyone has a point. The United States has bigger issues that thinking about extending thier sources in space. I believe that thier are other problems in our country rather than space. Prices in our economy are in debt so i believe we should consider taking our resposibilty to lower gasoline prices and ake the politics mind off the space world. The only thing that the united states is about is compettion, but like i said we have bigger problems than the ones the political people are thinking about.
well sorry for being lat but tthis thing would not let me submit
so this issue on space is a issue for another time. With all going on right now iraq the oil crisis iron man we all need to really put our priorities strait.
space should be on the bottom of the list
of course the presidential canidates are going to be asked a variety of questions, but this argument has to be one of the weaker points in the electoral journy.
i say dont worry about this right now improve the technology until everything is certain then when evrything is chill send a couple of monkies up there to see whats what!
Space has been the future since like the 1950′s and is still today. Especially with satellites and national security and other reason that make having great space program as NASA. I don’t really care about how the government does it, but so long as the United States of America stays ahead of the game or in the game (space technology and overall). Because in the end of the day it is all about in the number one powder, which is I pray that will always be the United States. DAMN china. lol
I like the idea of it but right now it’s not a feasable time to be doing this. We should focus on fixing the problems we are having here and then go to space. Im all for exploration of space and stuff like that but it’s really not the time for that. That money can be used elsewhere for now
Maybe I heard something different than everyone else. Though we all know we cannot spend money to go to mars, the space industry has become vital for communications worldwide. Satellites have become necessary for people who use cell phones, or any sort of navigation that uses GPS. Now many people want to fix all the problems we see in the world around use, but I doubt anyone would give up their cell phone to do it. Myself included here.
I think the candidates have been able to side step the idea of any space related question, but there will be at least a few decisions eventually that will force them to have an answer. General Lance W. Lord, US Air Force (USAF), commander of the Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) (Peterson AFB, CO) emphasized what he sees as the importance of space in modern warfare, saying, “You can’t go to war and win without space.”
Again, many people don’t see the military as an important place to spend our money, but I do feel our whole “big stick” policy is what allows us the freedoms we enjoy.
there’s always such a major interest in space, there always has been. i’ve never understood why it was so important to go to space. it’s just something that the US wants to be first in, again. i don’t think taht the candidates should really worry about space, i think they should continue ‘trying’ to takle bigger issues, especially if they want people to stand by them. the more they talk about things poeple care about, the more representaion they’ll get. i don’t know how many people would get behind them with space promises, exept josh, i guess.