Ron Paul's Economic Revival Plan

[Logan13]

Without NASA there would have been no communication satellites among other things. We would have been nowhere at all when it comes to space. The private sector does not invest in multi billion dollar projects that might payoff in 20 years if even that.




Those bullshit pictures are not taken to impress people. They contain vital information to understand this universe. There is no reasonable price tag on revolutionizing our knoweledge of the universe.



Yeah I mean discovering things like the Big bang and the evolution of the universe isnt anything when we might have had a ipod that is one tenth of a inch slimmer instead.





No way. There would be no space exploration today without the invesments made by the US and former soviet. The private companies are so far behind that its silly. They dont fly much higher than the spy planes did in the 60's. They are still not even close to reaching orbit. They might get there in 20 years. But even then their acomplishments and technology rest completely on what Von Braun and others did at nasa in the 50's. Without nasa they would not get anywhere because there would be no knoweledge base to build on.

Not to single you out, but you do live in a socialist country. (i.e., you do not have the faith in the free market that many of us do.)

[Kärnfysikern]

Not to single you out, but you do live in a socialist country. (i.e., you do not have the faith in the free market that many of us do.)

You make it sound like I live in a communist state Im more right leaning than I am left.

But its not about having faith in the free market. Research done by private companies has different goals and different purposes. Thats why it will never be able to replace research done at places like CERN, GSI, Fermilab, NASA ect.

You can not expect companies to invest billions and billions into research projects that will not make a profit, why should they?

I am pro space exploration as well, however, Nasa is wasteful as hell. They are incredibly inefficient, spend tons of money, and get little accomplished unless there is a fire lit under their asses.
I am not certain what to do about that problem though. Karnfy dude has a point about huge projects, and I have discussed this issue with others before.
Independent business doesn't invest in space exploration because it takes huge effort and money to get anywhere with little return and miniscule gain. Business would call it a foolhardy investment. I think it is imperative that we continue to explore space and beyond. I want to see a base on the moon, and a mars landing within the next 10 years, a totally attainable goal, but I seriously doubt that will happen. We're too f-ed up down here fighting over who's god has a bigger dick.

I think NASA has to bad reputation. They screw up nowdays when it comes to manned spaceflight. But the space probes like Cassini and the mars rover are extraordinary.