The US Hamster Wheel

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Slasher

Re: The US Hamster Wheel

#4801 Post by Slasher » Tue Jun 11, 2019 1:40 am

Undried Plum wrote:
Mon Jun 10, 2019 7:03 pm
Manned space exploration is nuts. Completely unjustifiable.

You can do so much more with unmanned vehicles, either in hydrospace or outer space. Much cheaper; much more effective; much less risky.
Thousands asked Armstrong, Aldrin et al what was it like actually being there? How did it feel looking back on the Earth? Was it truly prominent in the lunar sky? How did the ground feel and were all those rocks really grey?

Dunno if anyone asked any of the Moon probes the same thing. Don't think they found a 4 billion year old rock neither.

20th July 1969 was a proud day to be a talking monkey. Probably the only day in my lifetime.

Same with the Mars rovers. Don't think we can ask them either. The world didn't pay much attention when they landed on the red planet, but I guarantee it will be rivetted once a bunch of humans set foot on it.

Why? Because we went there. And who knows what benefits they'll find that the Dinky toys didn't? If there is life on Mars men will discover it - not highly sophisticated remote control jeeps.

But yep I suppose if England and Holland had the technology back then, unmanned probes and rovers would've been drone-sailed to that big bloody land mass in the Southern Hemisphere. These vehicles would've discovered it's all a big boring friggin' desert with smatterings of backward darkies so why bother with the expense and risk sending anyone to explore it? Jimmy and Dirk could've put their feet up and simply continued politicking with their respective Admiralties.

It's ingrained in our survival instincts to actually leave our homes and explore. If we cease to travel the Final Frontier I guess water surfing on Titan won't be available as a holiday of choice for my great great great great grandkids then.

I for one would volunteer for a mission to Mars in a heartbeat, preferably assigned to some form of pilotage.

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Re: The US Hamster Wheel

#4802 Post by BenThere » Tue Jun 11, 2019 1:34 pm

Another aspect is the challenge of life support in space. Consider the prospect and possibility that our human home on earth becomes uninhabitable and we send our progeny to keep our species alive on another sphere. Further, the technology developed in the pursuit would likely spin off, as the space programs so far have done, into leaps like the microwave, digital tech and the like, that have substantially bettered the lot of all mankind.

Finally, the hard-to-measure tangibly the psychic and chauvinistic rewards of being able to accomplish space exploration and travel are not insignificant.

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Re: The US Hamster Wheel

#4803 Post by John Hill » Tue Jun 11, 2019 8:03 pm

I do not believe the microwave (oven) is a product of space programs rather it owes it birth to the invention of the magnetron.
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Re: The US Hamster Wheel

#4804 Post by Boac » Tue Jun 11, 2019 8:48 pm

I wonder if there are MIcrowave ovens on the moon, Ben?

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Re: The US Hamster Wheel

#4805 Post by Undried Plum » Tue Jun 11, 2019 9:01 pm

If they do go to Mars, it's gonna be a bitch to persuade some people that the trip really happened!


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Re: The US Hamster Wheel

#4806 Post by Boac » Tue Jun 11, 2019 9:06 pm

Nah - it will be true if the Chump says it is.

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Re: The US Hamster Wheel

#4807 Post by OFSO » Wed Jun 12, 2019 9:24 am

Well someone has to pop up and check out that Gravitational Anomaly.

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Re: The US Hamster Wheel

#4808 Post by Boac » Wed Jun 12, 2019 4:50 pm

Wot about the double-decker bus? Now the Chump has stopped all moon effort we will never know unless the Chinese or Russians go there.

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Re: The US Hamster Wheel

#4809 Post by BenThere » Wed Jun 12, 2019 6:29 pm

It's only polite that the US not go there until others have had the chance at the effort and technology required to do it. But for God's sake we've given them 40 years to catch up.

In response to an earlier post, I confess to not studying the matter of microwave technology having developed out of the space program. It might have been one of those pesky urban myths. My main point, however, remains valid - a lot of technological advances came about thanks to the primary research and execution of the robust US space efforts dating from the 1960's. Perhaps another urban myth is that the lunar program vessels had only a few K of computer capacity available on board. They must have had some prodigious programmers.

As of today, only the US has BenThere.

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Re: The US Hamster Wheel

#4810 Post by John Hill » Wed Jun 12, 2019 7:26 pm

Ben I honestly don't know how the human race managed to survive all those tens of thousands of years before the USA came to being.
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Re: The US Hamster Wheel

#4811 Post by BenThere » Wed Jun 12, 2019 7:40 pm

It survived tenaciously, but the US brought it to a new level of humanity, respect for the individual, Freedom and liberty, and the rejection of empires, colonialism and totalitarian ideologies. I'm gratified that you may have finally taken notice.

I'm sure New Zealand has and is making a contribution to the well-being of the world, enlighten me as to what that is, as I don't know.

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Re: The US Hamster Wheel

#4812 Post by John Hill » Wed Jun 12, 2019 8:25 pm

BenThere wrote:
Wed Jun 12, 2019 7:40 pm
It survived tenaciously, but the US brought it to a new level of humanity, respect for the individual, Freedom and liberty, and the rejection of empires, colonialism and totalitarian ideologies.
Alternative facts!
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Re: The US Hamster Wheel

#4813 Post by BenThere » Wed Jun 12, 2019 8:56 pm

Nevertheless, I believe I can make the case that they are facts.

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Re: The US Hamster Wheel

#4814 Post by ian16th » Wed Jun 12, 2019 9:01 pm

BenThere wrote:
Wed Jun 12, 2019 7:40 pm
I'm sure New Zealand has and is making a contribution to the well-being of the world, enlighten me as to what that is, as I don't know.
Isn't there a reasonable claim that the worlds 1st powered flight was done by a NZ farmer?
Cynicism improves with age

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Re: The US Hamster Wheel

#4815 Post by Woody » Wed Jun 12, 2019 9:11 pm

BenThere wrote:
Wed Jun 12, 2019 7:40 pm
It survived tenaciously, but the US brought it to a new level of humanity, respect for the individual, Freedom and liberty, and the rejection of empires, colonialism and totalitarian ideologies. I'm gratified that you may have finally taken notice.
Well until you went and elected Trump, since then :((
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Re: The US Hamster Wheel

#4816 Post by BenThere » Wed Jun 12, 2019 9:24 pm

Well until you went and elected Trump, since then

We diverge on opinions there, Woody. President Trump has endeavored to withdraw from 'foreign entanglements', engaging and establishing some rapport with a variety of world leaders of all stripes, Kim, Macron, Xi, Putin, Abe, May, and many more. All these summit level interactions have been cordial. Is that bad? I don't see any imperial intent but rather a desire on President Trump's part to find common interests and alliances, and I think what he has so far done is what the US president should do.

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Re: The US Hamster Wheel

#4817 Post by Woody » Wed Jun 12, 2019 9:31 pm

Perhaps I should have only quoted the first part of the sentence, then you might have got the point.
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Re: The US Hamster Wheel

#4818 Post by Undried Plum » Wed Jun 12, 2019 9:42 pm

BenThere wrote:
Wed Jun 12, 2019 7:40 pm
the rejection of [other people's] empires, colonialism and totalitarian ideologies.
Fascist empires always do that, Ben.

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Re: The US Hamster Wheel

#4819 Post by John Hill » Wed Jun 12, 2019 11:17 pm

ian16th wrote:
Wed Jun 12, 2019 9:01 pm
BenThere wrote:
Wed Jun 12, 2019 7:40 pm
I'm sure New Zealand has and is making a contribution to the well-being of the world, enlighten me as to what that is, as I don't know.
Isn't there a reasonable claim that the worlds 1st powered flight was done by a NZ farmer?
There is such a claim. The man was Richard William Pearse.
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Re: The US Hamster Wheel

#4820 Post by John Hill » Wed Jun 12, 2019 11:21 pm

BenThere wrote:
Wed Jun 12, 2019 8:56 pm
Nevertheless, I believe I can make the case that they are facts.
Along with slavery, genocide, racism, war crimes, torturing prisoners, imprisonment without trial, etc .....
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