I would agree that if scientists can develop, and maybe they can, a probabilistic study of an asteroid hitting the earth and can make a proposal for developing a solution to a possible asteroid impact, and the world is willing to finance the solution, then the program should go.

However, American should not finance the program, as the potentian beneficiary is the entire world’s population and there are many countries that are even better off economically thatn the U.S.

A world wide anti asteroid program would be probably be better for many reasons, including the fact theat the program will be more likely to suceed if the best scientists and enginers are selected and these are spread around around the world. Additionally a program backed by a single American administration can actually be a pet project that dissapears after an election. Remember the Reagan star wars anti-missile project? A pet project to send defense money to California and esewhere, if you ask me.

Then again, an anti asteroid program mixed with politics may not work at all. Remeber the tsunami alert system? It was develped by scientists and engineers and finally managed by politicians that were selected not because of their talent and dedication, but because they had the money to get elected (a world wide problem).

Then again, should we spend money on the protection against asteroids, or why noy better against tsunamis, volacanoes or hurracaines, etc. individually or combined?

“Do you any sources for those numbers about the US economy Rafael? I would like to review them.”

Here is an interesting set of numbers from
http://www.overpopulation.com/faq/health/education/patents/

Patents Granted Per Million Population, 1998
Japan 994
Korea, Rep. 779
United States 289

This is a major reason US manufacturers are loosing out in world markets. The consequences are that well paid blue collar jobs with health and retirement plans have all but dissapeared in the U.S. and have been replaced with low salary, no insurance, no pension fast food and the like jobs.

Rafael Venegas
http://www.gvenegas.com

Do you any sources for those numbers about the US economy Rafael? I would like to review them.

Yes, but at what cost? If mainstream American “cannot eve begin to imagines”, as if only the technically sophisticated knew what benefits were produced by NASA, then there something awfully wrong: Those that pay do not know what they get in return. Of course, what Americans do not know is how much they have paid for the many technological advances/developments made by NASA and how much would they have cost through private enterprise financed development. My guesstimate is a fraction of the cost. Perhaps a little later, as all inventions are made eventually, when their time has arrived.

“giving America an edge in the global market”
“keep our economy afloat”

But America is moving backwards in the market and its relative standard of living “race”. The American economy is actually sinking very fast, relative to the economies of other countries – even of countries that were in ruins at the end of World War II, yesterday in historical terms. The reason: Wasted resorces such as waste in the military programs and the promotion of pay-for-not working programs to buy the vote of the poor.

“Tang”

Its a terrible drink. Nothing like the real juice.

Rafael Venegas
http://www.gvenegas.com

Science has been advanced by NASA and in turn your life has been bettered by it. The government has to subsidize this research through NASA in order to continue giving America an edge in the global market and keep our economy afloat, the space exploration is simply the task not the true purpose.

As for your rallying against the administration, all the money in the world isn’t going to stop nepotism. That is a sad fact, but without nasa do you think we would have the satellites to tell you when those hurricanes are coming or be able to predict where they will make landfall? Yes, NASA has helped you more then you can even begin to imagine. It is quite plausible that it saved your life at one point or another with all those hurricanes you lived through. Just because you can’t see the immediate benefits does not mean that there are none.

However, when governments spends huge amounts of money for speculative research when day yo day necessities are not addressed because there is allegedly no money, then there is a problem of priorities.

As far as I know, there never is talk of how priorities should be established and who sets them. But we know that they are being set by politicians, lobbyists and influential people. Which is what most armament and research money is rather pulled by interests and not pushed by the people or their representatives who want the research done.

Scientific research is like art in the museums. Sure art is good, but when a public museum pays a few million dollars to hang up a few abstract paintings that most people do not understand and that were sold by makers of huge profits, one has to ask what are the priorities, the values, the real purposes?

The Arecibo Ionospheric Radiotelescope, where the SETI data originates, is located near my hometown, here in Puerto Rico. I have met many people that have worked there. In the 40 years that the telescope has been searching for extraterrestrial life nothing has been found. One of the reasons that telescope has been in operation for about 40 years, at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars is the large amounts of lobby money that has been paid so that jobs are created here and so that contractors make money.

BTW, it were true that there is intelligent life in other places of the universe, we could be doomed, say some scientists, because we have sent out signals showing where we are here and may have become targets for an invasion.

Back in 1959 I worked on the manufacture of the guidance system for the Jupiter and other missiles used by the U.S. Army. A few weeks before I went to work at that company (Sperry) the Jupiter had launched the first American satellite. As a result, to celebrate the launching, our department was visited by Werner Von Braun (I saw him from a distance). Shortly afterwards the scientists and engineers in the company started to work on some instrumentation for the Saturn “moon” missiles, using, I believe, existing military missile technologies. As a result of what I believe to know, it is my opinion that the project to land a man on the moon was not scientific at all but a strictly military project. Werner Von Braun, the leader of the “moon” project worked for the U.S. Army. While NASA was a was really a missile and military space development center it has been sold to the American people as a civilian space/scientific research facility. So much for “science”.

Many years later, I visited the Kennedy Center and was surprised how NASA justified itself. NASA had an exhibition of some technologies, such as satellite communications, it claimed came out of their space programs. NASA claimed that society was benefiting from those technologies. Some of the exhibited technologies, were actually developed strictly for military purposes. The fact is that all the technology that NASA has developed and that have civilian uses could have and would have anyway been developed at a fraction of the cost of NASA’s.

As you can see, I’m very skeptical about the different pressure groups, be it military, scientific, artistic, etc. that want to use the people’s money, while the people have themselves little to say about how the priorities are set.

As to space dust, let the people know how much it costs and what are the potential/probabilistic benefits. After all, even the benefits of knowledge can be quantified. The question is, what is the probable payback?

Could some of the money spent in collecting space dust have prevented the failures with Katrina? Sure. Maybe it could have possible to hire competent people at FEMA. Maybe some reaserch into hurracaine emergency management could have avoided Katrina’s aftermath. Or the disemination of what is already known about hurracaine emergency management could have helped. I live in a area frequently visited by a strong hurracaine, One every 5 years or so. It’s everyone for himself and chaos each time.

Maybe with the money that is wasted on some scientific projects government can pay artists for their work and then release all the copyrights into the public domain?

Rafael Venegas
http://www.gvenegas.com

Rafael, I like you and your posts most of the time, but please tell us all exactly how one would come to the conclusion that going to the moon was a waste of money without going there to find that out? You have to look at the bigger picture friend.

Remember that events such as going to the moon, for example, were/are a catalyst for the development of new technologies; stepping stones that lead to better and better things as our understanding evolves as well. Like the space shuttle for instance. I’d like to see you successfully argue that the shuttle was a waste of money. Might as well argue that the rain forest is a useless waste of space and needs to be burned down while your at it.

Personally, much of the stuff like this IS spending money on education. It expands our knowledge of the universe, and knowledge is power. Knowing more about the past helps us understand the future and where we may be going. And it’s not just education we’re talking about, the shuttle for instance has been very helpful in many regards to the science of biology and health as well.

If all the things involving space exploration hadn’t been done, we would all still be sitting here in profound ignorance, and text books would probably say the moon was made of swiss cheese lol. Exploration and wanting to know is in our blood. I guess perhaps it’s not as strong in some people as it is in others, or maybe it’s just too easy to miss the forest because your staring so intently at just one tree. But it doesn’t change the fact that projects like this are a good thing. Well, unless the probe brought back some evil life form that wipes out all life on Earth. Then I’ll agree with you heh.

Or is all of this space research pushed by scientists who benefit through emplyment and research grants or contractors who sell the rockets and the instruments?

Remeber the trip to the moon? What a waste of money! And now Bush wants to go to Mars.

How about spending the money on education? Health care?

Rafael Venegas
http://www.gvenegas

Or is all of this space research pushed by scientists who benefit through emplyment and research grants or contractors who sell the rockets and the instruments?

Remeber the trip to the moon? What a waste of money! And now Bush wants to go to Mars.

How about spending the money on education? Health care?

Rafael Venegas
http://www.gvenegas