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Author
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Topic: Space Truckin Hardware
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Max Q
Member Posts: 399
From: Whyalla South Australia
Registered: Mar 2007
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posted 06-08-2007 07:37 AM
   
On the eve of the next shuttle launch I find myself wondering if the whole shuttle program has been a very interesting blind alley. Don't get me wrong I love the shuttle and it fascinates me the things it has done but has never really lived up to the hype. I just think that NASA gave up the moon for low earth orbit. Decades of lost opportunity. What do you think ? |
OV-105
Member Posts: 816
From: Ridgecrest, CA
Registered: Sep 2000
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posted 06-08-2007 06:07 PM
I do not think NASA gave up the moon. The powers in congress did. The shuttle has been able to keep us in orbit for the last 25 years, Apollo and Skylab could not have done that since they could not get funded. I know it is easy to set here and say it was all about the money which it looks the same way now for the CEV. It is a shame that we have still not learned from the mistakes of the past and look like we are going to do the same ones over again with the CEV. Maybe it was a good thing that the shuttle has never lived up to the hype because Apollo did and look what happened then. After hearing some stuff I am beging to wonder if the shuttle will retire in 2010. I think it will go down the same way as the SR-71. Something that is retired but dose not have a replacement. |
randy
Member Posts: 2176
From: West Jordan, Utah USA
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 06-08-2007 09:52 PM
I don't blame just Congress. I also blame the American people. If memory serves, NASA got complaints that coverage of Apollo 17 was pre-empting reruns of 'I Love Lucy'! The public needs to pull their heads out and support NASA or the Shuttle will indeed go down like the SR-71.Randy |
Max Q
Member Posts: 399
From: Whyalla South Australia
Registered: Mar 2007
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posted 06-08-2007 10:02 PM
You are of course correct NASA made the best of a bad finantial situation but you did get the gist of what I was attempting to say. I actually feel that its a pitty that the international comunity didnt help or wasnt able to help for what ever reason to develope a much more useful system than the shuttle. |
Max Q
Member Posts: 399
From: Whyalla South Australia
Registered: Mar 2007
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posted 06-08-2007 10:19 PM
Doubtlessly I Love Lucy reruns where important but I think I know what I would have rather watched. I feel that to that point the American Tax payer had shouldered the whole burden of space exploration long enough and feel that we of the international community should have pitched in. I was only 8 at the end of the Apollo program so I don't remember if there was any talk of it at the time again I morn the lost opportunity. |
garymilgrom
Member Posts: 1966
From: Atlanta, GA
Registered: Feb 2007
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posted 06-14-2007 08:21 AM
What do you think the result of 20+ years on the moon would be? I can't think of much, perhaps some mining operations? A permanent outpost sounds nice in a romantic way, but I question the real need of same.On the other hand look at what's been accomplished in LEO. The Shuttle has failed financially but been a success in every other way. Think about the following:
-hundreds of people delivered to orbit who enrich all our lives through books etc.,
-many satellites delivered to orbit albeit expensively,
-satellites retrieved from orbit and fixed on orbit, especially the Hubble
-ISS construction What other system beside the Shuttle could deliver accomplishments like these? Not expendable rockets, and not Apollo-like capsules. The Shuttle is a unique vehicle with unique capablities in my opinion. We are fortunate to see it in operation and not in a museum. |
Max Q
Member Posts: 399
From: Whyalla South Australia
Registered: Mar 2007
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posted 06-14-2007 05:23 PM
20+ years extra on the moon would have answered a few more questions about the moon than the Apollo program managed to. A permanent base maybe even on the far side they could have even staffed the telescope on the far side that could have been built by now. The Shuttle was built as a cheap alternative to disposable rockets it was meant to launch satellites which it has never done to the touted levels. I didn't say that there was no need for the shuttle or that it wasn't an amazing piece of hardware but we lost the moon and now have to reinvent the technology to go back. decades of lost opportunity. |
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