US House questioning future of US manned spaceflight

[Noah]

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994317


Just saw this news. So what they are saying is that the United States, one of the main countries pushing for manned space exploration and eventually manned Mars exploration, may now start slowing or ending our manned spaceflights IF the House had their way? Umm, what about the International Space Station that we have up, it isn't even finished, and do we think that the Russians will man it by themselves and be able to use it for any useful scientific work?

Now I know that most likely it won't come to this, but still a bit perturbed when I saw that.

Noah

[Tormod]

Yes, it is a tragic mess in the US space industry right now. I hope the governing bodies realise that now that China has become the third country to send a man into space on their own, and Russia has announced plans for both a lunar base and a manned trip to Mars, it is not the time to put things on hold.

The sad thing is that while China wants to cooperate with the US/NASA, the Bush administration is denying NASA any contact with the Chinese because China has not signed an international weapon distribution treaty. So while Europe and Russia are working with China, the US is not.

It is a surprising turn of events, I think. Let's hope this is not building up to another Superpower arms race, for example by militarizing space.

I think Bush will say something about the space program in his State of the Union address - imagine if he said "We will put a man on Mars before the end of next decade"...

Tormod

[Dent]

Lets hope scientists can see past the paranoia of those with post cold war syndrome and continue to search the cosmos ethically togeather without having tantrums.

Dent

-------------------------------
Dent
Theoretical Astropysicist, Hypography Sci- Tec Contributer
"Everything is everywhere and its always catching up."--Dent

[nemo]

Out of curiosity, why should the public invest money in space exploration. Communication satellites and the ability to travel faster than Earth's atmosphere will allow make brief space excursions logical, but as far as I can tell, a trip to Mars today would take a few years if you had the technology and cash to attempt such a mission. Where is the benefit?

[Uncle Martin]

I think we are explorers. It is in our nature, there is no fighting it. Which is a good thing, or we would still be spending the majority of our time in trees.

[IrishEyes]

Which is a good thing, or we would still be spending the majority of our time in trees.

whaaa? Clarificaiton, please? I thought all you atheists agreed that us Christians were stupid for not kowing the truth about evolution. I mean, I thought one of the arguments of all you atheists is that we didn't come from monkeys. So why would we still be spending all our time in trees???

[Uncle Martin]

man,..and you accuse me of being confrontational!

[IrishEyes]

Note to self:
Gotta remember to quit doing QUICK REPLY, so that the little smiley faces will show up in the posts, and Unc and FreeT will know when I'm joking...