1. Rover instrument to sniff out life on Mars

Comment #179287 by Anomalocaris on May 13, 2008 at 3:56 am

AtheistAspy,

to quote from Carl Sagan's wonderful book, The Demon-Haunted World,



Maxwell wasn't thinking of radio, radar, and television when he first scratched out the fundamental equations of electromagnetism; Newton wasn't dreaming of space flight or communications satellites when he first understood the motion of the Moon; Roentgen wasn't contemplating medical diagnosis when he investigated a penetrating radiation so mysterious he called it "X-rays"; Curie wasn't thinking of cancer therapy when she painstakingly extracted minute amounts of radium from tons of pitchblende; Fleming wasn't planning on saving the lives of millions with antibiotics when he noticed a circle free of bacteria around a growth of mold; Watson and Crick weren't imagining the cure of genetic diseases when they puzzled over the X-ray diffractometry of DNA; Rowland and Molina weren't planning to implicate CFCs in ozone depletion when they began studying the role of halogens in stratospheric photochemistry.



It is the ultimate in presumption and arrogance for you to assume that you know which areas of research are worthwhile and which should be ignored. Also, you seem to be afflicted with an extremely pessimistic fatalism with regards to scientific and technological advancement. In the history of science many world changing accomplishments came from the seemingly insignificant work of individuals, yet you seem to think that the long term work of thousands of brilliant scientists, "will make a negligible difference".

You have yet to make a compelling argument for why it would be better for the United States to foist all responsibility for space exploration on other less wealthy and less capable nations. After all if the United States, with its vast wealth were to deem space exploration too costly what makes you think poorer countries would step in to fill that void.

2. Rover instrument to sniff out life on Mars

Comment #178261 by Anomalocaris on May 11, 2008 at 3:40 am

AtheistAspy,

Why! why! why! would it be a good idea for the richest country in the world, the country with the best technology, and the only country with the know how, the experience, and the infrastructure to support an effective space program to sit back and wait for other countries to develop space technology????

obviously the idea of evacuating earth is retarded, even if you built a space elevator you couldn't move that many people into space even assuming you had somewhere to put them.
what IS reasonable is the establishment of self sufficient colonies on mars, and the moons of the outer solar system. Eventually over the course of hundreds or thousands of years we might even be able to develop interstellar travel and expand beyond the solar system. What I was actually referring to however was the ability to deflect large asteroids and other bodies capable of causing extinction level impact events. I'm surprised you didn't get that considering that you seem to think that human extinction via one of these impacts is inevitable and overdue.

We have not thoroughly examined mars for life we have barely scratched the surface with a handful of robotic probes designed chiefly for other things than looking for life. However even if it is completely lifeless it can teach us many things about geology, and climatology to say nothing of its potential for terraforming and colonization.

It is interesting that you would bring up global warming as much of what we know about the greenhouse effect was discovered by studying Venus and through satellite observations of the earth neither of which would be possible without a space program.

It is possible for the human race to do more than one thing at a time. We can improve health care, protect the environment, increase standards of living, work towards ending our tribalistic infighting, AND expand our knowledge of the universe.

3. Rover instrument to sniff out life on Mars

Comment #178224 by Anomalocaris on May 11, 2008 at 12:24 am

AtheistAspy,

-If we were to end the Iraq war, cut back military spending, and end the bush giveaways to the richest Americans we would likely have more than enough money to provide true universal health care and dramatically increase medical research funding.

-I never said that the US had to maintain its dominance in space however if we were to step back and let china take over that would mean an almost 50 year setback in human space exploration. Also while I could be wrong it seems that china is more interested in the militarization of space than it is in science.

-Your expectations of what we might find are irrelevant the fact is we haven't looked yet, and if we look carefully and find that there is not and never has been life on mars that too is a worthwhile discovery. Mars is another planet with its own unique climate and geology studying mars can teach us a great deal about planets in general and even help us understand earth better.

-Your statement that we don't have enough technology so we shouldn't even try is ridiculous. you don't develop the needed technologies by sitting on your ass doing nothing. Maybe the survival of the human race won't depend on space exploration for centuries but its in its extreme infancy now. If we're to be ready when we actually need it we must start now.

-Europa is very interesting and could potentially harbor life. However it is much further away than mars, too far from the sun for solar panels to be an effective source of power, and it presents a whole new set of problems. don't get me wrong I think we should explore there as well, but without a dramatic increase in funding, for the short term mars is a more realistic goal.

-you say that we ought to wait for countries that care enough to develop the technology, but many many people in this country care a great deal. Just because you don't care doesn't mean that others are going to be satisfied with ignoring the future.

4. Rover instrument to sniff out life on Mars

Comment #177780 by Anomalocaris on May 9, 2008 at 5:15 pm

AtheistAspy,

I am in no way under the assumption that you are politically conservative, I was suggesting that military spending is a far better place to cut funding from than space exploration. We both want to increase funding for health care, I just don't want to get that money by eliminating other worthwhile spending.

Far from some nationalistic urge to be "ontop" I believe space exploration can foster international cooperation in a peaceful quest to increase our knowledge of the universe. Note that this article is about international cooperation toward exploring mars.

5. Rover instrument to sniff out life on Mars

Comment #177402 by Anomalocaris on May 9, 2008 at 3:28 am

The goal of space exploration is not technology, it is knowledge, and in the long run the continued survival of the human race. I don't see how you cannot see the value in that. You're talking about gutting a noble and beneficial endeavor to slightly increase funding for health care while vastly more is being spent to kill other human beings and hold the world hostage with nuclear weapons.

6. Rover instrument to sniff out life on Mars

Comment #176794 by Anomalocaris on May 8, 2008 at 3:24 am

The entire Nasa budget for 2007 represents less than 0.57% of federal spending. That doesn't seem like a waste of money to me.