The Columbia Crew

[Pärlhyacint]

Re: Tragic

Hmm.

No, ODB...this is why we need the NEW space vehicle NASA says they can develop.

So the space travel is iffy...so what? Cars blow up and wreck and kill innocent bystanders all of the time, yet we still have millions of those things cruising around. Trains derail and collide and explode at random, yet we allow those to remain in service. Airplanes crash and fall from the skies and can be used as terrorist weapons, yet they still operate. Houses implode and catch fire and sink into flooded foundation, but people still live in them. We have these things because they make life easier for us. Space travel may eventually bring us something incredibly useful. We can't give up on something just because things go wrong with it, the people who have died for the advancement of the Space Program are as much heroes as anyone else in history...it would be a shame to let their efforts be as lost as their lives. The astronauts knew there was great risk involved, but they took it because they believed in what they were doing, knowing that in some way or other their experiences and knowledge collected could do good for humankind.

Granted it would be nice if we could focus on some of the other problems plaguing humanity, but I don't think that the Space Program needs to be shut down for that. There is more to the Space Program than launching people, they put all kinds of unmanned things into orbit. And they're always developing new fuels and materials, new robotics, etc. The moniker Space Program is misleading, in that way, because it is by no means all about space travel and exploration. Their work benefits us all, everyday, period.

 

[Notastitchtowear]

Re: Notice, ODB has yet to respond.

 

[Pärlhyacint]

Probably because he/she/it met with so many intelligent opposing arguments!

 

[ODB]

Re: Probably because he/she/it met with so many intelligent opposing arguments!

No it's because I have a life, actually. I don't have time to hang around here and wait for things to respond to. And all I can say is that all of you are as uninformed as you would like to believe I am. About "abseiling" - does that cost the public money if they aren;t the ones participating? No, so that has no relevance. About houses, cars, planes, and trains, do these cost the public money? Not unless they are used personally. So that has no relevance. About advancing as a race, what the hell is sending people to their deaths in space going to do to advance us? Fine if you want to say the rest of the space program is a worthy operation, but how is sending people in a capsule into outerspace only to have them die doing anything for us?

 

[what she said]

Re: Probably because he/she/it met with so many intelligent opposing arguments!

> No it's because I have a life, actually. I don't have time to hang around
> here and wait for things to respond to. And all I can say is that all of
> you are as uninformed as you would like to believe I am. About
> "abseiling" - does that cost the public money if they aren;t the
> ones participating? No, so that has no relevance. About houses, cars,
> planes, and trains, do these cost the public money? Not unless they are
> used personally. So that has no relevance. About advancing as a race, what
> the hell is sending people to their deaths in space going to do to advance
> us? Fine if you want to say the rest of the space program is a worthy
> operation, but how is sending people in a capsule into outerspace only to
> have them die doing anything for us?

Well I know it would do us a great service if it were you they were sending out in a capsule.