[RightWhale]

Disband NASA. Either give it something useful to do or shut it down. NASA has no reason to continue.

[Deep_6]

Anti-gravity!

Democrats have hats that do that.

 

[Paradox]

I actually think this research is OK. I know, its sounds stupid, but what if... They should get the measuring device fixed and do a final run, if that shows nothing, then the project should be terminated.

[muawiyah]

The body of science supporting this derives from work done a century ago. Among other things that work involved the Theory of Relativity and Quantum Mechanics.

The whole thing is in the math, and is well worth pursuing. In fact, the first nation to discover how to do it will dominate the Earth for a very, very long time. We have to get there first. One might imagine Osama Bin Laden having such a discovery at his disposal.

[gcruse]

 the only way to enable human spacecraft to blast off to other star systems.

Human spacecraft.  As opposed to the Vorlons, I suppose.
 

[Willie Green]

This has already been produced by Diet Smith Industries in the private sector.

[longshadow]

junk science anti-gravity bump.

[Aric2000]

I think that you are being a little too hard on NASA, if this is possible, can you imagine the applications? The possible spacecraft that could be built.

No, I think it is worth pursuing, the possible knock-offs from the technolgy necessary to even experiment could have excellent commercial value.

And $600,000,000 is not much, when you consider the total budget...

[general_re]

pinging for an expert opinion ;)

[Triple]

I'm not sure NASA is the right place for this study either. However, I believe it has merit. Has science advanced even to the point of understanding, to a fair degree, what causes gravity?

[Cincinatus' Wife]

U.S Air Force and NASA Work Closer on Strategic Space Control

[chilepepper]

This antigravity stuff is all based on the original work of
T Townsend Brown in the 40's and 50's, it would seem.

Understand please, most "scientists" are anal-retentive
and trying to please daddy (e.g.- their thesis advisor
or their physics teacher or whatever) so the beginning
of progress is to go AGAINST the scientific establishment.

Hats off to NASA for trying to break out of the mold...
I just hope it works.

Don't get me wrong - the skepticism of the scientific
community is what prevents the really weird stuff -
HOWEVER - the eccentric Trofim Lysenko DID get the
Russians looking at things in a different way, which
yielded an number of interesting scientific advances...

[r9etb]

It’s worth trying again with an improved setup, said the NASA paper.

The Michelson-Morley experiment is a famous non-result. Michelson didn't believe his first non-result in 1881, and so repeated it (with a granite block table, floating in mercury) in 1887. Again, there was no difference in the measured speed of light -- which ultimately led to Einstein's work on relativity.

This current non-result is potentially interesting, too:

First is a rather striking apparent coincidence: Podkletnov’s findings appeared to match phenomena earlier predicted independently by a University of Alabama at Huntsville scientist, Ning Li. Second, many renowned physicists believe nature has an underlying unity, by which all its forces are fundamentally connected. This means electromagnetism and gravity are somehow linked. The "gravity shield" could conceivably operate at the bridge between the two forces, interacting with both.

A non-result with better equipment may show that there are difficulties with the theory; OTOH, you would be hard-pressed to complain about a positive result with better equipment.

But of course, your real problem is with NASA, and not this particular experiement.

[Earl B.]

This looks silly on its face. But the work should continue. New propulsion technologies are the key to interstellar travel. In order to perform meaningful exlporation beyond our solar system, we need radical new means of propulsion. Right now, we can barely travel in space at tiny fractions of 1% of the speed of light. Roundtrips to an from the nearest stars will take many hundreds of years. At that rate, everyone on earth who would care would be dead before a mission returned. Even at the speed of light, the nearest stars are years away, let alone other galaxies.

In essence, mankind is completely stranded on Earth (or at least in our solar sytem), until we can travel at many times the speed of light, without high energy (i.e. fuel, weight) costs. This will require a completely new physics.

The cost of ths effort is currently very small. I see keep at it - if we really want to explore beyond planet Earth.

[KellyAdmirer]

After a second round of tests, NASA researchers have failed to detect signs that a machine can weaken gravity’s pull.

(Eager-beaver rocket scientist): Sore-prize, sore-prize, sore-prize!! Sarge, I was looking through this comic book, and in it was this man, and he could leap tall buildings, and what if we made a machine that could do that, just think what it would mean, why, I could have rescued that cat that got stuck in Mrs. Appleby's tree the other day....

(Old hand): Awww, Pyle, shut up!!

[dead]

A time machine would be much more useful and no more impossible.

All this money could be much better spent on invisibility lotions.

[Prodigal Daughter]

I'm starting to believe they really didn't go to the moon.

[Junior]

Shades of Lysenko ...

[mrsmith]

Hypothesis: "...flicker in and out of existence in what we normally think of as empty space. "

Example: (from NASA brainstorming session) "Ooh, ooh, Mr. Goldin, I have an idea!"

[jgorris]

Disband NASA. Either give it something useful to do or shut it down. NASA has no reason to continue.

Expand NASA. Give them a lot more money because they are one of the few government agencies who do something useful.

[skateman]

Scene: Somewhere in Spain 1492 Man from the future: Mr. Colombus, I can load your whole entourage on a 747 and fly them to the New World is a few hours. Mr. Columbus: You're freaking crazy that goes against all known science!