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Author Topic: NASA and Kickstarter  (Read 1294 times)

JongWK

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NASA and Kickstarter
« on: March 28, 2013, 01:26:55 PM »
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jeff37923

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NASA and Kickstarter
« Reply #1 on: March 28, 2013, 01:32:36 PM »
We once walked on the moon and now the current Administration has reduced NASA to this. I weep for the future.
"Meh."

Bedrockbrendan

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« Reply #2 on: March 28, 2013, 01:39:33 PM »
It definitely doesn't feel right. Funding the space program, and any 30 second spots it happens to need, is something I don't mind my tax dollars being used for.

beeber

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« Reply #3 on: March 28, 2013, 02:03:33 PM »
Quote from: jeff37923;640963
We once walked on the moon and now the current Administration has reduced NASA to this. I weep for the future.


but as it says on the kickstarter page:

"This crowdfund campaign is the work of the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) of America. This campaign is not endorsed by NASA, nor is it conducted at their direction or request."

and it's not just the current administration, it's congress too, cutting lots of science funding.

Bedrockbrendan

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« Reply #4 on: March 28, 2013, 02:11:42 PM »
Quote from: beeber;640972

and it's not just the current administration, it's congress too, cutting lots of science funding.


Yeah, i see it as a funding issue, not an executive branch issue. I don't think it is a Republican or Democrat issue either, neither party seems especially intested in increasing their budget.

jeff37923

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NASA and Kickstarter
« Reply #5 on: March 28, 2013, 02:17:07 PM »
Quote from: beeber;640972
but as it says on the kickstarter page:

"This crowdfund campaign is the work of the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) of America. This campaign is not endorsed by NASA, nor is it conducted at their direction or request."

and it's not just the current administration, it's congress too, cutting lots of science funding.


The Administration gets to set the agenda, which Congress follows to vote on, and neither NASA nor science is high on the current agenda.
"Meh."

Bedrockbrendan

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NASA and Kickstarter
« Reply #6 on: March 28, 2013, 02:21:09 PM »
Quote from: jeff37923;640978
The Administration gets to set the agenda, which Congress follows to vote on, and neither NASA nor science is high on the current agenda.


Perhaps but the NASA budget has been on a steady decline since 1994. I don't really see this as an issue of this presidency but an overall problem of mindset since that period.

jeff37923

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« Reply #7 on: March 28, 2013, 02:28:45 PM »
Quote from: BedrockBrendan;640979
Perhaps but the NASA budget has been on a steady decline since 1994. I don't really see this as an issue of this presidency but an overall problem of mindset since that period.


I understand your position and the budget decline is real, it is just that this presidency wanted NASA to concentrate on muslim outreach earlier in its tenure. So I think it is a new low to me.
"Meh."

Bedrockbrendan

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« Reply #8 on: March 28, 2013, 02:52:04 PM »
Quote from: jeff37923;640982
I understand your position and the budget decline is real, it is just that this presidency wanted NASA to concentrate on muslim outreach earlier in its tenure. So I think it is a new low to me.

While I am an Obama supporter, I won't defend his record on NASA (though I am a lot more worried about concrete things like the shuttle program than the whole Muslim outreach thing). I just see him as being part of an overall trend since the 90s (and frankly we really havent given NASA the funding, prestige or attention it deserves since the late 60s). And it is primarily a funding issue.. To me that is one area we need to make sure we stay ahead in.

Piestrio

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NASA and Kickstarter
« Reply #9 on: March 28, 2013, 03:56:51 PM »
Quote from: jeff37923;640978
The Administration gets to set the agenda, which Congress follows to vote on, and neither NASA nor science is high on the current agenda.

Nope. Not how the government works.

The president basically gets to suggest a budget which congress is free to, and usually does, ignore.

Congress decides and sets the budget 100%.

The president then has a yes or no say, and he almost always says yes.
« Last Edit: March 28, 2013, 04:26:18 PM by Piestrio »
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estar

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« Reply #10 on: March 28, 2013, 04:10:23 PM »
Quote from: jeff37923;640963
We once walked on the moon and now the current Administration has reduced NASA to this. I weep for the future.


Actually the current Administration been doing the right thing by supporting commercial space. It only the actions of senators and representatives desiring to protect jobs in their states that forces NASA to waste money on the Space Launch System.

What happening with NASA and space exploration is like asking the National Science Foundation to not only build the South Pole station from scratch build the ships, the planes, and ground vehicles as well.

By fostering commercial space in the long term, NASA will have a selection of vehicles and rockets that they can purchase to pursue various exploration and science missions.

Apollo was a magnificent achievement but it is was a crash project designed to land and return men safely from the moon before the Soviet Union. Anything beyond those goals was not pursued. And how the Apollo Project was developed has been poisoning the development of human spaceflight ever since.

The exploration of the Antarctic had a similar history. There was a initial period of prestige expeditions with a lot of casualties, then a long lull  and finally when interest, and technology intersected again during the International Geophysical Year a permanent return to the continent.

For human spaceflight the wealth generated by the first Internet Boom combined with the success of Spaceship One has jumpstarted a new generation of development which I feel will lead to a permanent and sustainable return of humans to space.

estar

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« Reply #11 on: March 28, 2013, 04:20:11 PM »
As for the kickstarter, their heart is in the right place. But it should be a promotion for human space flight not a promotion of NASA.

I would show much of what they have on the sample video however I would also include Spaceship One, Armadillo Aerospace and Masten Space vertical landing rockets, SpaceX Falcon 9 and Dragon capsule, XCOR's rocket planes, Bigelow's inflatable habitats (there are two in orbit), Bezos' Blue Origin and so on.

The nice thing is that all of these have real flying hardware that are doing things and SpaceX is only a few steps away, mainly a launch escape system, from being able to launch humans, along with SpaceShipOne/Two and XCor flying tests with people.

thedungeondelver

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« Reply #12 on: March 28, 2013, 09:04:48 PM »
Apropos of nothing:

In 2002 I worked for NASA, at Kennedy Space Center.  My offices were shared between the O&C building and the SSPF.  To give you some perspective, I walked through these doors:



...on a nearly daily basis.

Any file footage you've seen of American (or international guest) Astronauts boarding the van on their way to the launch pad involves walking out that door.

I did some (minor, I can assure you) work with the Columbia's last crew.  At the time my thoughts were "Holy crap that's Ilan Ramon* and a bunch of other astronauts!"

Every day was an adventure.  Every day, when I got up out of bed in Orlando at 4:45 and drove to facilities, I thought "Man this is great - I get to go to work!"  Anyone from Central Florida who's slogged down 50 to 528 then over to US1 knows how un-fun that trip is.  It was always an incredible journey for me.  What awesome stuff would I get to do on a given day?  I mean, I was just an "Office Automation specialist" (glorified PC tech), and many of my days there were spent roaming a farm of PCs as they automatically re-loaded their OSes for redeployment to other departments and employees...but I always felt like one of the team, and from management on down always told us we were a critical part of "the Mission".

Would the job have worn on me, had I worked there longer than I did?  Maybe.  All jobs eventually lose their shine, and work becomes just that, work.  But for one brief, glorious period I was part of The Program, and neither myself nor any other contractors out there were ever made to forget it.  Maybe, one day before I get too much older and broken down I'll get the chance to go out there again, this time on a longer contract.  

sic itur ad astra

...

*=one of the Israeli pilots who flew the mission to destroy the Osirak nuclear facility the Iraqis were building in the 80s.
« Last Edit: March 29, 2013, 04:16:27 PM by thedungeondelver »
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Mcbobbo sums it up nicely.

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Astrophysicists are reassessing Einsteinian relativity because the 28 billion l

RPGPundit

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NASA and Kickstarter
« Reply #13 on: March 29, 2013, 01:35:40 AM »
Quote from: estar;641001
Actually the current Administration been doing the right thing by supporting commercial space. It only the actions of senators and representatives desiring to protect jobs in their states that forces NASA to waste money on the Space Launch System.

What happening with NASA and space exploration is like asking the National Science Foundation to not only build the South Pole station from scratch build the ships, the planes, and ground vehicles as well.

By fostering commercial space in the long term, NASA will have a selection of vehicles and rockets that they can purchase to pursue various exploration and science missions.

Apollo was a magnificent achievement but it is was a crash project designed to land and return men safely from the moon before the Soviet Union. Anything beyond those goals was not pursued. And how the Apollo Project was developed has been poisoning the development of human spaceflight ever since.

The exploration of the Antarctic had a similar history. There was a initial period of prestige expeditions with a lot of casualties, then a long lull  and finally when interest, and technology intersected again during the International Geophysical Year a permanent return to the continent.

For human spaceflight the wealth generated by the first Internet Boom combined with the success of Spaceship One has jumpstarted a new generation of development which I feel will lead to a permanent and sustainable return of humans to space.


I really hope so.
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NASA and Kickstarter
« Reply #14 on: April 07, 2013, 05:46:11 PM »
It's a bad video for 2013. It feels very pre-9/11, pre-2008.

Exploration isn't a sell today. They need to discuss how much economic opportunity and new technology came from the previous space program and then hype up how going to space again can bring new wealth, new jobs and new tech toys.  

AKA, if you want anybody to do something, make it worth it to them personally. This was always key, but x10 so during the Great Recession, and maybe x100 if the dire predictions about the effect of the Sequester actually do happen.