NASA, What have you done for me lately?

[Gofirstclass]

We all have grown up with NASA and watched as they have had one failure after another. Now they want to build an apartment building on Mars. WTF is that all about?

NASA's budget for 2024 is $25.3 billion. What are they doing with all that money? Elon Musk has built a fleet of rockets that carry satellites aloft, so that function has partially been removed from NASA.

If you want to see what failures NASA has had, just google NASA failures. I think it'll surprise you how many they have had. Just this week one of their missions had to be scrubbed. They had planned on putting an unmanned satellite on the moon, but the fuel that was to be used to provide a "soft landing" leaked out on the way to the moon so they cancelled the mission. No word from them as to how they're going to get that expensive piece of equipment back to earth.

I understand their stated mission is scientific research. But my question is, could that $23.5 billion be better spent on other things? That money could be spent on securing our borders to stop the flow of illegal aliens. Or how about using it to improve our crumbling highways and bridges? There are so many other uses for that money that it boggles the mind to think we're wasting it on a government agency that provides nothing but a bunch of high paying jobs.

What say you?

 

[PlayDate]

NASA lost its way a long time ago. SpaceX has successfully launched more rockets into space in six years than NASA has done in 60. Why is that? They certainly tried just about everything they could to slow him down and put red tape in front of him.

Now America has the most reliable space rocket in ........history......no thanks to NASA.

The core issues for NASA are politics, funding and risks. The politics have changed since John Kennedy set a vision and provided funding. Once we got to the moon and back.....everything changed. "Big deal we went to moon.....now we have Vietnam, race riots and hippies."

Then the Challenger disaster. One thing to lose military folks.......big problem to lose a school teacher. As a PR disaster the shuttle fleet was grounded and we went back to catching a ride on Russian rockets so that NASA could get to space.

When government agencies become risk adverse......funding dries up and gets reallocated to things that get politicians elected.

NASA will never find its way to Mars without a US President making it a priority. So far....it is on $25B a year of life support and they do a lot of woke things now with the money rather than focus on space.

Specifically.....I hate their Climate Change Newsletter that just pushes a narrative which by their own admission is crap. Changing their monitoring methodologies to support the CC narrative in my opinion means that $25B is way too much to be spending on them.

If you want to get to Mars.....directly contract with Space X to get the missions going. They will get their before NASA Administrators figure out their pronouns.

BTW I have relatives and great friends who worked at NASA .....one or two still do. Very smart people stuck in a very difficult place.

 

[Blueone]

Hey hey slow down a bit ….. without nasa we wouldn’t have scratch resistant eyeglass lenses….. crash helmets, memory foam, smoke detectors, water filters….. billions well spent if you ask me

 

[OllieC]

Hey hey slow down a bit ….. without nasa we wouldn’t have scratch resistant eyeglass lenses….. crash helmets, memory foam, smoke detectors, water filters….. billions well spent if you ask me

Tang…you forgot Tang.

 

[PlayDate]

Tang…you forgot Tang.

I like Tang……but I got a lot of cavities from it as a kid because I liked to eat it out of the jar.

 

[techmitch]

I like Tang……but I got a lot of cavities from it as a kid because I liked to eat it out of the jar.

I prefer Hershey's syrup straight out of the squeeze bottle now and again. Like a shot, Crazy.

 

[jmauld]

Without NASA, there would be no spacex.

 

[Maggieiscrazy]

$113 billion U.S. taxpayer dollars flushed down the toilet in Ukraine. Over $7 billion in military equipment left in Afghanistan for the Taliban. $25 billion for nasa. Who cares?

 

[jmauld]

I dont get why there is an open attack on NASA? It’s the last place where the US retains a clear technological lead and one of the only things that our highschool nerds can look up to.

There are many other places to attack wasteful spending in this country. For example Tax dollars building sports arenas. Giving money to middle eastern countries, etc. Leave NASA alone.

 

[LTD.330]

Pretty sure for less than 1 Billion I could run two parallel chain link fences (with signage!) separated by 100 yards with landmines in between and solve the crisis at the border.

It's been working for North Korea for 70 fucking years.

 

[USMC(ret)]

What say you?

I got nothing against NASA - but it is a government agency.

They don’t like my ideas…

 

[northshore]

Handing space to the Chinese would be a very, very, very, bad idea.

 

[Blueone]

NASA to reveal super quiet X-59 supersonic jet

NASA plans to unveil the X-59 aircraft designed and built by Lockheed Martin to produce a quiet sonic boom and eventually make supersonic flights available commercially.

www.foxweather.com

 

[MrHappy]

I am a huge science fiction fan. Humans need to explore the universe. We need to go where no man has gone before.

 

[ttmott]

Wasn't this discussion tabled a couple of years ago - by the same OP? Maybe someone else but the same questions and discussions.

 

[northshore]

If you ever wanted to know the other stuff they are in to that doesn't make the news...

Nasa tech briefs magazine:

Magazine - Tech Briefs

Tech Briefs features cutting-edge technologies developed by innovators within NASA, the military, federal laboratories, universities, and commercial companies. These technologies can be applied to develop new or improved products, and solve engineering or manufacturing problems. These tech...

www.techbriefs.com

Been lucky enough to have two products I was involved with make the front page of that magazine.
Nasa Glenn in particular does a lot of work with the private sector along with their propulsion research.
Besides, I'm working on a electrodynamic shaker environment monitor for them and the joint is 3 minutes from my house.

 

[dtfeld]

Hey hey slow down a bit ….. without nasa we wouldn’t have scratch resistant eyeglass lenses….. crash helmets, memory foam, smoke detectors, water filters….. billions well spent if you ask me

Don’t forget tooth paste tubes and Tang!

I’m for the Govt doing basic/fundamental research, but a lot of that has been there done that. Turn it over to the SpaceX and the like and let them commercialize it. Repurpose the money for other things.

I realize there are a lot of talented people that work there as well. Let them transition to the private sector. My bet is their skills are worth more in the open market.

 

[northshore]

I like Tang……but I got a lot of cavities from it as a kid because I liked to eat it out of the jar.

When I first read this, I started laughing.
Then all of a sudden, I stopped and just smiled.

 

[Gofirstclass]

NASA to reveal super quiet X-59 supersonic jet

NASA plans to unveil the X-59 aircraft designed and built by Lockheed Martin to produce a quiet sonic boom and eventually make supersonic flights available commercially.

www.foxweather.com

OK, let me see if I have this right....this jet flies at 50,000 feet...and it's super quiet. But why does it have to be super quiet if it's about 9.5 miles high.

What listening device it gonna hear it, and as fast as this thing flies it's going to be loooong gone by the time anyone on the ground can determine what the sound is coming from? I can just hear some foreign military expert saying "Hey, I just heard someone slam a car door. Anyone else hear it?"

Sounds to me (bad pun there, sorry) like this project was designed to provide lots of people with lots of money.

"Wasn't this discussion tabled a couple of years ago - by the same OP? Maybe someone else but the same questions and discussions."

I don't recall posting this before, but what the heck, with my chemo brain I could have posted it yesterday and maybe not have remembered it.

 

[Ericinmich]

We all have grown up with NASA and watched as they have had one failure after another. Now they want to build an apartment building on Mars. WTF is that all about?

NASA's budget for 2024 is $25.3 billion. What are they doing with all that money? Elon Musk has built a fleet of rockets that carry satellites aloft, so that function has partially been removed from NASA.

If you want to see what failures NASA has had, just google NASA failures. I think it'll surprise you how many they have had. Just this week one of their missions had to be scrubbed. They had planned on putting an unmanned satellite on the moon, but the fuel that was to be used to provide a "soft landing" leaked out on the way to the moon so they cancelled the mission. No word from them as to how they're going to get that expensive piece of equipment back to earth.

I understand their stated mission is scientific research. But my question is, could that $23.5 billion be better spent on other things? That money could be spent on securing our borders to stop the flow of illegal aliens. Or how about using it to improve our crumbling highways and bridges? There are so many other uses for that money that it boggles the mind to think we're wasting it on a government agency that provides nothing but a bunch of high paying jobs.

What say you?

Isn't most of that $25b going to companies like SpaceX?