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Russian Scientist Claims Evidence of Life on Venus

Re: Russian Scientists Claims Evidence of Life on Venus

The Soviet space program was quite a while ago. What have they done lately? :p

And what has USA done lately in the space exploration field?
Besides being currently unable to reach even the ISS, relying on the russians for this.:p
 
Re: Russian Scientists Claims Evidence of Life on Venus

The Soviet space program was quite a while ago. What have they done lately? :p

And what has USA done lately in the space exploration field?
Besides being currently unable to reach even the ISS, relying on the russians for this.:p

Spirit and Opportunity
Orion
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
Mars Science Laboratory
Juno
Swift
Kepler
WISE
WMAP
IBEX
AMS

And those are just the highlights for the last decade. In the development cycle are the James Webb Space Telescope (to replace the Hubble), SAFIR, and IXO, not to mention a possible return to the moon among many other things.

Focusing on the fact that NASA is relying on Russia to get astronauts to and from the ISS is incredibly short-sighted. The shuttle program was 15-20% of NASA's budget, all but a billion dollars of that has been redistributed to other projects.
 
FordSVT
If you don't want to be incredibly short-sighted, you should also check out/enumerate Roscosmos' - and ESA/everyone else's - achievements during the last - and previous - decades.
And then compare NASA's budget with the other space agencies' budgets.

Also - manned spaceflight is arguably the most important branch of space exploration - at the very least regarding prestige and future potential. Thinking USA's performance in said area did not take a HUGE dip lately is deluding yourself.
 
^In the short run it's taken a dip, but retiring the shuttle is getting a hugely expensive monkey off of NASA's back.
 
Manned spaceflight is mostly a huge waste of money if you're trying to accomplish any kind of useful research.

And I think most scientists would agree with you on that point. They'd rather have a Hubble than a manned spacecraft pretty-much any day of the week.
 
Manned spaceflight is mostly a huge waste of money if you're trying to accomplish any kind of useful research.

In the short run, I agree.

However, in the long run, if our objective is to colonize space, which for our survival as a species it should be, then every man-hour in space is one researching towards and in support of that objective. Even if nothing goes wrong and the mission is routine, that fact can tally in the future risk assessment of manned spaceflight.

Even if one's argument might be that the cost of logging these space hours is disproportionately high, their expense is actually, and perhaps paradoxically, a counterargument that this is not so. In the foreseeable future, logging these space hours will be even more problematic, and the ones we have logged already may in fact have to serve as our entire data pool for the time being. If we don't add more space hours for a long while, the ones we have logged will become priceless.
 
FordSVT
If you don't want to be incredibly short-sighted, you should also check out/enumerate Roscosmos' - and ESA/everyone else's - achievements during the last - and previous - decades.
And then compare NASA's budget with the other space agencies' budgets.

Also - manned spaceflight is arguably the most important branch of space exploration - at the very least regarding prestige and future potential. Thinking USA's performance in said area did not take a HUGE dip lately is deluding yourself.

I didn't say anything about the ESA because you didn't say anything about the ESA. You asked about NASA's efforts recently and I replied.

But please, do keep moving the goal post around. :rolleyes:
 
FordSVT
If you don't want to be incredibly short-sighted, you should also check out/enumerate Roscosmos' - and ESA/everyone else's - achievements during the last - and previous - decades.
And then compare NASA's budget with the other space agencies' budgets.

Also - manned spaceflight is arguably the most important branch of space exploration - at the very least regarding prestige and future potential. Thinking USA's performance in said area did not take a HUGE dip lately is deluding yourself.

I didn't say anything about the ESA because you didn't say anything about the ESA. You asked about NASA's efforts recently and I replied.

But please, do keep moving the goal post around. :rolleyes:

You didn't say anything about Roscosmos - yet again. Apparently, you're not interested in an actual critical comparison, FordSVT.

You did present some things about ESA - you may want to see who partly developed/tested/etc some of the missions you mentioned.

Not that you mentioning ESA is required for my request to see the achievements/budgets of the other space agencies to be valid (in the context of establishing just how competent NASA was).
The fact that you consider it 'moving the goal post' only showcases your bias on the issue.
 
FordSVT


Also - manned spaceflight is arguably the most important branch of space exploration - at the very least regarding prestige and future potential. Thinking USA's performance in said area did not take a HUGE dip lately is deluding yourself.

The US did in fact a big dip there. But then again in very large part to US programs scientists were given the tools to revolutionize cosmology. Its kind of hard to argue with that one. And if James Webb ever gets off the ground then some of the sacrifices were worth it. I think it will.
 
Yeah, I think the James Webb scope has enough inertia now to get completed. There would be too much embarrassment if it were canceled at this point.
 
FordSVT
If you don't want to be incredibly short-sighted, you should also check out/enumerate Roscosmos' - and ESA/everyone else's - achievements during the last - and previous - decades.
And then compare NASA's budget with the other space agencies' budgets.

Also - manned spaceflight is arguably the most important branch of space exploration - at the very least regarding prestige and future potential. Thinking USA's performance in said area did not take a HUGE dip lately is deluding yourself.

I didn't say anything about the ESA because you didn't say anything about the ESA. You asked about NASA's efforts recently and I replied.

But please, do keep moving the goal post around. :rolleyes:

You didn't say anything about Roscosmos - yet again. Apparently, you're not interested in an actual critical comparison, FordSVT.

You did present some things about ESA - you may want to see who partly developed/tested/etc some of the missions you mentioned.

Not that you mentioning ESA is required for my request to see the achievements/budgets of the other space agencies to be valid (in the context of establishing just how competent NASA was).
The fact that you consider it 'moving the goal post' only showcases your bias on the issue.

I spend about ten minutes a day posting here, and have absolutely zero interest doing a cost benefit analysis of the Russion space program to satisfy your request. I specifically mentioned projects that were predominantly NASA projects, and not NASA/ESA combined projects.

Again: you asked: "And what has USA done lately in the space exploration field?". I answered. You didn't ask me what the Russians have done, or the ESA has done, or to provide a cost benefit analysis of what the Russians have been able to pull off with their budget. I do not have the time nor the inclination to do so.

That took 90 seconds for me to type, and I'm off. Enjoy your day, and kindly refrain from snarky comments about my supposed biases against Europeans and under-funded Russians.
 
FordSVT

The pot calls the kettle black.
If you aren't willing to post more than one-sided lists, kindly refrain from your snarky/unsupported comments about my supposed short-sightedness/moving the goal posts.
 
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