30 Days To Mars.

[jcountry]

This is what free enterprise is up to:

http://www.spacex.com/

These guys are the real deal. And the guy who started them wants to ramp up from launching cargo missions and satellites to Mars trips.

-I would bet space x will get there way before NASA will.

(But NASA is still where its at for pure research. A lot of space probe and astronomy research has no return on investment-so private enterprise isn't well suited for those things. So there will be a place for NASA research as well. About 80% of the items we use throughout the day can be traced to technology that was in some way developed by our space program. Much of that stuff took decades to become practical and profitable, so there was no incentives for private corporations to develop any of that stuff at the time.) For example-the lunar lander was the first "fly by wire" craft ever built. A technology like that was so far ahead of its time that it took a couple of decades to show up on regular airplanes and fighters. No private corporation would ever have invented a product which would have taken that long for a return on investment.

 

[jlcnuke]

The light bulb was invented due to PRIVATE enterprize, not gummint funded. Would go a lot better if the gummint stayed out of it. Let free enterprize go.

I used the lightbulb to demonstrate that not getting a scientific discovery right the first time isn't a good reason to stop. If you'd like though I could go over a litany of items in use everyday because of government research or government funded research for which no private enterprise was performing research into the same things. There is a reason that "progress of science and useful arts" is included in our Constitution: because it is important for the country and society but often is not a priority for private individuals and enterprises.

 

[Laxguy59]

 

[sig68]

Swirls on the wall like a comets tail! Lmao

 

[Tony2X]

I used the lightbulb to demonstrate that not getting a scientific discovery right the first time isn't a good reason to stop. If you'd like though I could go over a litany of items in use everyday because of government research or government funded research for which no private enterprise was performing research into the same things. There is a reason that "progress of science and useful arts" is included in our Constitution: because it is important for the country and society but often is not a priority for private individuals and enterprises.

It does not help when NASA spends 100 grand on a f'ing wrench.

 

[07JKX]

We cant pay our teachers and LEOs bug we can waste money on stuff like this? How much money would hou guess has been wasted on things like this?

I would rather see the money taken from "professional" sports players far sooner than NASA. After all, the "professionals" are getting millions upon millions of dollars a year to play a game

 

[bxtreme24]

The light bulb was invented due to PRIVATE enterprize, not gummint funded. Would go a lot better if the gummint stayed out of it. Let free enterprize go.

Yea. If they stayed out of it we would be saying "Edison who?" and Nikola Tesla would be in his rightful place in history and reguarded as father of electricity. And who knows where we would be today if we started the electrical age with light bulbs that last 18 years.

 

[Jeddak]

I would rather see the money taken from "professional" sports players far sooner than NASA. After all, the "professionals" are getting millions upon millions of dollars a year to play a game

And how do you propose to confiscate private wealth? Their salaries speak a lot about our priorities. Nobody forces you to fork over $$$ for the Braves tickets or Dish NFL package. Players get paid millions because we pay millions to watch them and business pay millions to have players endorse/promote their products/services.