NY Times: Is Manned Spaceflight Obsolete?

[gedaliah_atl]

My apologies if this has been posted already on here, however I don't see it.

Is Manned Spaceflight Obsolete?

February 9, 2010, 7:15 pm

By THE EDITORS

The Obama administration has scrapped NASA’s plan to return humans to the Moon by 2020, which was behind schedule because of technical and budgetary problems. Instead, the administration will focus on developing new technologies to make long-distance space travel cheaper and faster, with astronaut trips to the Moon, asteroids and Mars possible in the future.

http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/09/is-manned-spaceflight-obsolete/

 

[willy88]

No.

 

[T.Neo]

Obsolete... :rofl:

 

[SiberianTiger]

Surely no point in building the Pyramids of our era anymore. We are just scattered trash that the wind of future will easily sweep away from the face of Earth. Who cares about building a Pyramid now? It makes no sense.

 

[Urwumpe]

Isn't the New York Times also obsolete already because of the new digital media?

 

[Ark]

I keep a copy of the New York Times next to my toilet. It's cheaper than Angel Soft, and can hold just as much...well, you know.

 

[jinglesassy]

I keep a copy of the New York Times next to my toilet. It's cheaper than Angel Soft, and can hold just as much...well, you know.

:rofl: :thumbup::10sign:

 

[Andy44]

Isn't the New York Times also obsolete already because of the new digital media?

You beat me to it. NYT has no business talking about stuff being obsolete. Print newspapers are on their last legs in the US.

 

[Keatah]

Until we can build ships with the comforts and conveniences of those depicted in star trek and the like; yes, manned spaceflight is an obsolete pain in the ass. Robotics and probes can do so much more!!

Just look at hubble Now don't go spout'n off about the service missions. Funnel the budget of the in-between shuttle launches and you could launch a bigger and better hubble every two years. Perhaps even an interferometer-like double-hubble!!

 

[Arrowstar]

No.

Seconded.

 

[Ark]

The NYT reports pertinent information. The internet is the world's biggest <profanity removed by mod action> generator. So much useless crap. A copy of the NYT has all the garbage filtered out for you.

All the garbage but THEIR garbage, that is.

 

[Hielor]

Until we can build ships with the comforts and conveniences of those depicted in star trek and the like; yes, manned spaceflight is an obsolete pain in the ass. Robotics and probes can do so much more!!

Dude. You're spouting this nonsense in every thread you can. I'll try again, even though you'll probably ignore me again:

What you see in Star Trek isn't even possible, and even if it were, it's so far beyond our current technology that it's essentially unattainable in any reasonable period of time. It's nice to imagine, sure, but if you sit around waiting for that to become real, you'll never stop waiting.

It would be like if you declared, "Until I can communicate with people by using only telepathy, I'm not going to talk to anyone." That would be a great way to ensure you live a very lonely life.

 

[Keatah]

The way I see it is we can keep wasting money on pointless flings to LEO and whatnot. Or we can get cracking on developing better materials and energy sources. THEN man can get into space economically.

Alas, we have too many problems down here to worry about what's up there.

Also, about the NYT, the discussion going on about this topic is really top-notch.

 

[dansteph]

Iron era wasn't possible before somes inventions so I bet space era is only delayed.
Yet given the current situation it's simple common sense even if I understand well that us astronautic fan might be worrried about that.

Dan

 

[Urwumpe]

The NYT reports pertinent information. The internet is the world's biggest bullsit generator. So much useless crap. A copy of the NYT has all the garbage filtered out for you.

That is the hope. But if you read a newspaper carefully, you will find the same mechanisms in newspapers, that make the Internet bad: No fact checking, copy and paste, agenda in the veil of objectivity.

I just read an article in my (prize awarded) newspaper about STS-130 that talked only about the cupola and how the copula also has life support and water reclaim systems - the Tranquility module got completely ignored. The article came from the dpa news agency and was not even slightly checked for facts - such news agencies are beyond doubt.

The same problem as you have in the internet, sources with the right authority are without doubt true. If martins would say that he reduced Pi to 3.14 for higher frame rates, how many of you would question it? Or would you just nod and say: "Yeah, good work. When does the next version come out?"

 

[Ghostrider]

how the copula also has life support and water reclaim systems

I know it was a typo and I feel bad for doing a pun on it, but it was just priceless! :rofl:

Anyway, a lot of things are obsolete. For instance, eating and drinking have been obsolete a long time, we have IV. Sex is obsolete, we have in vitro fertilization. But like a lot of obsolete things, they're still good.

 

[Urwumpe]

I know it was a typo and I feel bad for doing a pun on it, but it was just priceless! :rofl:

Dang...

Well, that brings us right to the worthy name for it, after C.O.L.B.E.R.T and S.T.E.W.A.R.D: C.O.P.P.O.L.A

 

[JamesG]

Is Manned Spaceflight Obsolete?

Yes. Lets all head on back to the cave. And forget about that fancy fire stuff too. We need to get back to eating our food raw like the old days.

 

[adamb193]

There are people who do the raw food thing. According to them the only reason we have cancer and disease is because we cook food. They say that our ancestors didn't die of cancer in the past because they ate raw food, failing to notice that they didn't live long enough to die of cancer.

 

[T.Neo]

Indeed.

Cooking our food is what made a large portion of our success as a species possible.