“The Pyramids served no purpose other than to demonstrate the power of Egypt’s dictators, and they wasted the labor and talents of generations of men. Likewise, the US does not need a manned space program; it serves no purpose other than to pump nationalist pride. Without the Shuttle, the talents of thousands of the US’s best minds can now be put to better purposes.”
The shuttle may not have been the best avenue for manned spaceflight, but I can’t agree with any of the above.
Everyone discounts the military value of the shuttle program.
We had the ability to go to orbit and pluck the military satellites of other countries literally out of thin air.
We could, at will, blind an enemy and make their sat guided weaponry useless.
Unfortunately, this ability is now past tense.
WTF is our unique purpose???? So much stupidity in this article for the brain to comprehend.
Congratulations, you have a rare talent. I usually reserve my desire to sling indignant epithets at liberals.
Yeah let’s abandon all space exploration, that way when the earth inevitably becomes uninhabitable (next ice age, large rock, polar reversal, sun turns off, all of these things WILL happen at some point) we’re all still stuck here and the entire epoch of human history will have been completely pointless.
Space exploration is the only thing that really matters. Anybody that doesn’t think that is thinking short term.
Really? Maybe you should do a little more research.
The Space Shuttle and International Space Station were never used for their original designed and intended purpose. The Carter Administration scaled back the program and changed its purpose and use. So, for whatever shortcoming you find in the accomplishments of the Shuttle program, take it up with the libs.
Hits on all points, Shout Bits. The screeching you hear is from he crowd of out-of-work buggy whip manufacturers, and those who still use them.
One could argue that less expensive techniques could deliver the same payloads, but not the same capabilities. The unique aspects of Shuttle -- its large mass (hence, stable platform in orbit) permitted satellite servicing missions that spacecraft before and after it could not accomplish (e.g., Hubble Telescope servicing). The Space Station could not have been built without it and from that program, we learned a lot about on-orbit assembly, complex satellite design, and maintenance of complex space systems. All of this legacy has now been thrown away by the current administration.
One last comment -- if you would learn to spell (e.g., "Pharaoh" not "pharo") and use words correctly (e.g., "a Shuttle launch was a majestic sight" not "a Shuttle launch was a majestic site") your blog postings might seem to have more credibility.
All of the interesting exploration and scientific inquiry of the past thirty years has been done by robots.
When the final book is written about the US, the Moon landings and NASA will surely be mentioned, but the bulk of the history will be wonderment at how a few powerless colonies transformed the world in the blink of history’s eye.
You're an ignorant peasant.
>>Clearly a Shuttle launch was a majestic site<<
The launch of a shuttle was a majestic location?
Proofreading is your friend.
At the same time the Egyptians were building those useless Pyramids in North Africa, there were tribes in Central Africa doing important stuff. You know, like practicing free love, sitting around the campfire singing Kumbaya, and being good socialists. You do remember reading about those tribes in Central Africa. Right?? What was their name??
You've seen the travel brochures where people from all around the world travel to Central Africa to see the campfire sites (and sing Kumbaya). And the archeologists, they've never wasted their time and resources documenting the useless Pyramids. The archeologists have spent their time researching, writing books about, and building museums to display the artifacts of those important Central African cultures. Right??
A thousand years from now, if human civilization still exist, which do you think the people will remember about the U.S., Lyndon Johnson's Great Society Program or the Apollo Moon landings???
It's obvious that you are the product of a public school system somewhere.
To facilitate the discussion let me throw out some facts.
We are stuck in this solar system for the foreseeable future.
The only habitual place within the solar system is Earth.
There is nothing we currently know of in the solar system that isn’t also available on Earth.
It is also a fact that there is serious debate between scientist about whether robot explorers might actually be superior to humans in exploring our neighborhood.
As much as I loved the Shuttles, this article makes some very good posts. The Shuttle system simply did not work out as hoped. It was supposed to make spaceflight relatively cheap, it did the opposite. The real shame is that we did not take the time to develop a BDB (Big dumb booster), or a series of scalable boosters. Should have shaved one shuttle flight per year, and used that money for R&D. I mean, this should have been going on for 20 years at least, when it was known that the Shuttles would not be the great boon to spaceflight that they had hoped they would be.
Okay, I’ve explained this once before on the FR and this is going to be the last time.
THIS IS HOW THE PYRAMIDS WERE REALLY CREATED:
The Egyptions combined two universal laws to make moving heavy stones accross vast distances very simple:
LAW #1
LAW #2
MOVING HEAVY STONES
So, it became a simple matter of creating huge daisy chains of buttered back cats on which they could place stones. Two slaves could transport a 20 ton stone a hundred miles with very little effort over a period of 10 to 15 days on one of these daisy chained-buttered back cat skids. Using sand ramps they were able to move the stones in place.
So, let’s hear no more on this subject, this is how it was done, it was simple, required no great technological feet.