another OT - space program post

JRSutton · Aug 29, 2012

Sorry - I have to vent. Since we discussed the space program here earlier - I have to vent here.

I just read the headline that the mars probe broadcast some music back to earth - a song by sam.i.am from the black eyed peas...

This move was designed to attract the interest of children, to get them interested in the space program...

... WHERE DO I LIVE???

Sending a robotic rover to mars isn"t interesting enough for our kids? It has to play music to make it interesting???

We land a multi billion dollar exploration robot on a distant planet - and it"s playing an mp3 file back to us is a HEADLINE???

I"m sitting here anxiously awaiting some good hi def images from the rover travels - and they"re up there having it transmit sam.i.am songs???

Seriously - what HAVE we become???

When I was a kid, the apollo program was such a world of infinite wonder and possibilites. Now the only way to get kids interested is by having it play MUSIC???

If I ever sent a robot to mars, and was sitting there with the controls to go explore - I can't even FATHOM having the slightest inclination to even THINK about pop music. With all the knowledge to be gained - every SECOND up there is a precious moment.

...

rrrrrg

just venting.

This story depresses me.

the venting"s not helping.

Yes, men on the moon did a lot of playing around, hamming it up for the camera. I know. It wasn't all research. I just don't see that THAT was done to get people intersted in it though. You were already enthralled by the simple fact that they were THERE.

Wile E · Aug 29, 2012

It is just billions more to pizz away that the USA doesnt have. But.....The good ole boys at NASA need to do important and fun stuff with money that isnt theirs. Like send a robot to Mars to look at the red sand, and maybe find water. If water was found there does it really matter? No one is going to live there, so who cares.

JRSutton · Aug 29, 2012

The logical side of my brain agrees with you 100%.

But the other side that is fascinated with space doesn't.

I justify it that there IS value in a space program. It does advance us technologically - and there's not much distance between space advances and military advances.

GPS - is a prime example (of thousands of others).

So - though it's a bit of a stretch justifying it on its own - I personally don't mind the government spending some of my money on it.

Just as I wouldn't mind them funding some more deep sea exploration.

DEEREMEYER1 · Aug 29, 2012

This Mars lander is the biggest waste of money I can imagine. I love how they're playing it up like it's a first or something, when we've done it several times before. If they're going to continue to waste billions landing RC cars on other planets, they could at least pick another planet. There are honestly LOTS of people out there that think this is a "first". Tell them otherwise and they get upset and all but call you a liar. I think that's NASA's plan - wait long enough between Mars missions that another crop of idiotic public-school educated kids grows up into young adults so they have a new generation to impress that doesn't remember the last mission. It's a joke. Or at least it would be if it wasn't so expensive. NASA is a bunch of space freaks, robot lovers and rocket enthusiasts who get paid to pursue their hobbies. I wish the government would fund my old tractors and pay me to work on them.

oldtanker · Aug 29, 2012

(quoted from post at 08:48:41 08/29/12) The logical side of my brain agrees with you 100%.

But the other side that is fascinated with space doesn't.

I justify it that there IS value in a space program. It does advance us technologically - and there's not much distance between space advances and military advances.

GPS - is a prime example (of thousands of others).

So - though it's a bit of a stretch justifying it on its own - I personally don't mind the government spending some of my money on it.

Just as I wouldn't mind them funding some more deep sea exploration.

Funny thing is that military technical advances gave us rockets in the first place. It also gave us remote control, computers, micro computers (to run fire control systems in war planes and armor vehicles) Super sonic flight, satilites.......

the space progran gave velcro, neat pictures of men on the moon and lexon.

Gotta remember we were dropping smart bombs in Viet Nam. We codeveloped thermal sights with Germany in the late 60's and early 70's. And we captured the tech for rockets from the Germans.

Nasa claims to have developed the micro computer but it was military need that can be credited with that. The Sidewinder Heat Seeking Missile was developed in the late 50's. Homing torpedos were first used in late WWII.

Sorry my pratical side isn't behind spending money that way.....now my wife thinks it's pretty cool.

Rick

JRSutton · Aug 29, 2012

I know I'm biased.

I think I was just the right age during the apollo program to get totally swept up in it as a young kid.

Always been 100% fascinated with all of it since then. Therefore easy for me to justify the expense to keep it going.

To me, just having a device on another planet and looking around is the end product and worth every penny of it, even if we really learn nothing useful.

Totally understand that others don't share the fascination.

But either way, KILLS me that they're beaming music back from mars with a multi billion dollar robot.

Their logic that it'll get kids interested in it is sooo over shadowed by others who will now question why we'd spend so much money to do little stunts like that.

I'm sad to see people don't care about it - but they're not helping themselves with the nonsense.

danmcdonald · Aug 29, 2012

I am with you I can barely afford to pay my taxes and I look and see where it goes just makes me sick.

teaching science · Aug 29, 2012

Unfortunately, todays kids are not interested in the same things as we were. I became a science teacher because I loved it so much in school. I couldn't wait to learn something new about how the world around me worked. Today, I struggle to keep their attention regardless of what I do. I HATE it when I hear solid conservative people blame all our education woes on the teachers. I can honestly say, that I work in a building with teachers who are much better than what I had as a student. I won't even try to place the blame anywhere because there isn't one answer. I've been at this for 17 years now and it gets harder every year to keep a teen interested in learning. The only key I've seen is the personal desire to learn. I sat in a meeting with a student recently who's goal was to work in a poultry plant after school. Not much need for education in his eyes. Sure wish I could find a sure fire way to fix it and I would be able to retire tomorrow.

Thanks for letting me do my rant.

Howard H. · Aug 29, 2012

I think space exploration is very worthwhile and am proud that the USA is doing it instead of China or Russia first.

With the "why spend the money mentality?" Spain never would have funded Christopher Columbus.

There is WAY more to this world than the nightly newscast, or new tires on the car, or checking account balance, or the electric bill - all the mundane details of life that numb people to death...

Also, to send a measly 2-3 megabyte music file back to earth out of the thousands of gigabytes of information that will be coming, is a pretty darn cheap way to harness the power of the media for a TON of free publicity to millions of people... I don"t care for the guy"s music, but think it was a pretty clever way to get millions of dollars worth of free publicity.

I check NASA"s website almost daily to see what new pictures, etc, are out there...

Just my two cents worth...

Howard

JerryS · Aug 29, 2012

Won't get into the debate over the value of the space program, but I do agree with JR that it's a dam shame that everything has to be placed within a pop-culture context in order to get the attention of the younger generation. The mere fact that the powers-that-be recognize this necessity demonstrates the depth of the problem. Glad I'm 71.

oldtanker · Aug 29, 2012

(quoted from post at 10:22:05 08/29/12) Unfortunately, todays kids are not interested in the same things as we were. I became a science teacher because I loved it so much in school. I couldn't wait to learn something new about how the world around me worked. Today, I struggle to keep their attention regardless of what I do. I HATE it when I hear solid conservative people blame all our education woes on the teachers. I can honestly say, that I work in a building with teachers who are much better than what I had as a student. I won't even try to place the blame anywhere because there isn't one answer. I've been at this for 17 years now and it gets harder every year to keep a teen interested in learning. The only key I've seen is the personal desire to learn. I sat in a meeting with a student recently who's goal was to work in a poultry plant after school. Not much need for education in his eyes. Sure wish I could find a sure fire way to fix it and I would be able to retire tomorrow.

Thanks for letting me do my rant.

OH you can lay some of the blame on politicians and the no loser thing and no child left behind.....why should a student work hard when they don't have to......some of the blame on parents who treat the school system as free day care and have little or no interest in what their kids is doing in school. And part of the blame on teachers who teach kids that they deserve this that and the other thing....it's their right....

Rick

mkirsch · Aug 29, 2012

The current Mars rover was greenlit and funded way back in 2004, just in case the topic of exactly WHO wasted the money comes up...

Dick2 · Aug 29, 2012

If you find anybody with common sense anymore, please let me know; I haven't seen anyone with common sense in a long, long time.

flyingace · Aug 29, 2012

(quoted from post at 08:48:41 08/29/12) The logical side of my brain agrees with you 100%.

But the other side that is fascinated with space doesn't.

I justify it that there IS value in a space program. It does advance us technologically - and there's not much distance between space advances and military advances.

GPS - is a prime example (of thousands of others).

So - though it's a bit of a stretch justifying it on its own - I personally don't mind the government spending some of my money on it.

Just as I wouldn't mind them funding some more deep sea exploration.

These things would have been invented without the space programs.

Sending out multi-billion robots to explore what we already know is just rocks and sand is just plain dumb. They need to save up their money to explore something worthwhile - like finding another inhabited world. Now that would be something worth paying taxes for...

Big Deal · Aug 29, 2012

While the music was uninteresting--the space program is even more uninteresting. What a waste of money.

DEEREMEYER1 · Aug 29, 2012

I keep asking "spacefreaks" I run into online how space can possibly be a vacuum given all the matter it contains. I never get a response....

bob15 · Aug 29, 2012

The biggest invention out of war, that we all use daily, the microwave oven.

And lets not forget about Tang and the Tang sandwich.

And not every kid was into the space program in the 50's & 60's. In time, people begin to believe all the hype that everyone was into the space program, in reality, many many weren't.

bob

M. Doud · Aug 29, 2012

You'd better hope that all this space exploration leads us off this rock in person or your descendants 100 years from now are going to be living a pretty bleak, hopeless existence.

JimEvans · Aug 29, 2012

Being born 2 months after man landed on the moon, I was a little late to get caught up in the Apollo program.

HOWEVER, I could tell you everything about the space shuttle. I remember subscribing to a monthly magazine that was all about the space programs. It was pretty exciting to watch the first space shuttle landing (after being dropped off a 747) and the first launch. Remember when the fuel tank was white?

Anonymous-0 · Aug 29, 2012

It's amazing they can send a clear signal from that far away. I don't see how sending some music back adds to the price tag though if they were going to be sending back images and such anyways.

oldtanker · Aug 29, 2012

(quoted from post at 20:38:41 08/29/12) It's amazing they can send a clear signal from that far away. I don't see how sending some music back adds to the price tag though if they were going to be sending back images and such anyways.

Not really. Radio signals work on LOS (line of sight)(skip plays a part in our atmosphere). So if you deploy receivers around the world (satellites with a repeater will do) the LOS from Mars is pretty good with little interference....add in enough wattage plus digital singles and presto!

I too don't see but a few bucks in added cost.

Still the space program sense Apollo 11 has been boring.

Rick

Hay_Man · Aug 30, 2012

I get spam all the time about digital singles! Guess it comes from Mars....... :shock:

buickanddeere · Aug 30, 2012

To obtain the answer, the question has to be correct. The space= vacuum theme is like asking why water is wet.
Define vacuum , then ask.

greygoat · Aug 30, 2012

I'm waiting for some type of critter to show up
in one of those photo's ! (insect?)

JRSutton · Aug 30, 2012

Oh trust me, it cost extra!

EVERY single bit and byte on such a project has to be analyzed, tested, retested, re-analzyed, and retested, and repeated 2000 times.

Nobody wants to be the guy that kills a billion dollar robot with corrupted a black eyed peas mp3 file.

another OT - space program post

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