by the Left Coast Rebel
July 20, 1969 Apollo 11 made world history. Edwin Eugene 'Buzz' Aldrin and Neil Alden Armstrong became the first humans to land on the moon, setting history in motion and creating an American accomplishment that is still unrivaled to this day.
I won't bore you with the details of the mission or the historical accounts. One could write volumes on the topic. What I will point you to though is just the feat that this point in history represented. Of science and the triumph of man's mind. Of reason and the unique American experiment. Apollo 11 should be remembered for just that. I can only imagine the pride that the astronauts felt with their accomplishment. The entire nation was surely as proud as the President at the time, fulfilling the dream of JFK and phoning directly from the White House:
From the historical perspective here comes a jarring current day revelation:
On the eve of the fullest moon of the year, NASA scientists were told they won't be able to visit any longer. In his new budget, President Obama plans to eliminate the space program's manned moon missions.Jarring, right. No friend of Federal programs, my glee is more than subdued. Surely, I think to myself, there must be a reasonable explanation to shutter the NASA Constellation program. Surely I am missing the context of something bigger here, perhaps the up and coming Mars mission?
When the president releases his budget on Monday, a White House official confirmed on Thursday, there will be a big hole where funding for NASA's Constellation program used to be. Constellation is the umbrella program that includes the Ares rocket -- the replacement for the aging space shuttles.
Nope:
In the meantime, the White House will direct NASA to concentrate on Earth-science projects -- principally, researching and monitoring climate change --God help us, we are ruled by fools. A reader tipped me on this story and frankly I was skeptical. He noted in an email that, JFK was rolling over in his grave and I would have to agree. For what it is worth as well, as noted by Dan Riehl at Riehl World View NASA's budget in real dollars will continue to go up, not down and this is merely a way for the Obama Administration to find another excuse for 'climate change research' and such. Sheesh. Madness.
3 comments:
Madness and stupidity and more. In the longer term, the "old" space program, i.e. Mercury, Gemini and Apollo, was a watershed of new technology. Since confined to earth orbit, the benefits in technological advancement have been nil.
I guess presidents ... especially the lib'rals who plunder the national cashbox keep forgetting that they're only here for a short time. They come, do their damage, and they go. We the people have always been here and we'll be here when Obama is shown the door. Once he's gone, common sense will again be on the front burner as politicians realize that we need technology and we need jobs. What better way to generate both than through NASA. This is what made the '60s and '70s great times for the technology boom. From the egghead who put fins on a rocket motor to the guy who swept the floor where those motors were built, people had jobs. Obama's clueless, but the next guy won't be.
I wish the US government could enter partnerships with private companies who employ people in space. I suspect that if we developed spaceflight technology enough, its cost will come down to the point where some commercial research, tourism, fabrication, and mining would make economic sense. It will take a long time for this happen on its own. I am not sure about the numbers, though, b/c it's extremely expensive to put people in space.
The government could do some kind of incentives, as it does for other high-tech investment, for investment in space projects.
There must be a way to promote technology development without pouring major gov't money into it.
I think that crap about them shelving the program b/c of climate change research is pure political baloney.
It does bring up a good point though. I seriously question whether humanity will be able to reduce its CO2 emissions enough to slow their effect on the climate significantly. The answer to climate change, according to my guess, will come from technologies to manage the climate though "unnatural" biological and space-based efforts. It is possible that space-based mirrors will one day be at least part of a program to control the climate to serve human interests, which includes reversing anthropogenic climate change.
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