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Tuesday, 2 February 2010 07:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eighthphaseSo, Obama's cut funding from NASA. Actually, what he really did was increase their budget, and then tell them in no uncertain terms that it was in no way whatsoever to be used toward the goal of getting our men back on the moon. Either way you look at it, it means that the Constellation Program? Yeah, that's basically been shafted.
This makes me unspeakably angry, for more than one reason.
First, I've got to read his State of the Union speech for APE. He spends a lot of time in it talking about programs (clean energy, high-speed rail systems, and the like) and how there's no reason why China or Europe should do those things before we do, because we're America and we do things like that first.
Well, there's no reason why they should return to the moon before we do, either, but thanks to his cutting the Constellation Program, they probably will.
Second, that whole American spirit thing. Isn't the American spirit to get out there, to explore and colonise new places? Americans jumped all over the chance to get out on the frontier otherwise known as the West. (And they obviously did, since I'm writing this in California.) There's another frontier out there. It's all around us. It's called outer space. Why aren't we out there? That is our future, and we are letting it stagnate.
Third, the "private sector." Obama says, "Don't worry, NASA, the private sector will keep working on manned missions into space! :D" (Er, paraphrased.) That's all well and good... if you want corporations and ridiculously wealthy individuals to be the only people ever out in space. (I was going to make an Iron Man 2 reference - "I've successfully privatised world peace." - but Tony Stark counts as a ridiculously wealthy individual, so maybe not.) Additionally, they're still working things out. They're not the end-all be-all of space. Sure, the private sector has funding that NASA clearly doesn't. Newsflash - NASA's got something that the private sector doesn't have. They've got experience. They actually know what they're doing! And considering how long it's taken NASA to get that experience, do we really want to wait for the private sector to do the same before we can move forward?
Fourth and finally, two points related to the Constellation Program specifically. The current shuttle fleet was due to be retired in 2010. This year. Now, if they are retired, then America wouldn't even be able to get its men to the ISS that Obama wants to focus on - not without relying on other countries, anyway. Do we want to do that? Are you sure?
But then, if they aren't retired, that's even more serious. The technology our shuttle fleet is based on is at least 25 years old. It's not efficient and we could do better. We were doing better, what with the Ares rockets and the Orion capsule. But then, those were part of the Constellation Program, meant to make manned space missions to the moon a reality once more, and so now NASA can't do that. So if the current shuttle fleet isn't retired, that means we're still using it. We're still using technology older than I am, technology that isn't efficient, that isn't reliable, and that isn't cheap to maintain.
We originally had five shuttles. We have three now. I don't think I need to remind anyone what happened to the other two. How many more times does that have to happen before the technology can change?
To wrap this up, since it's getting long and I need to actually finish getting ready this morning, I'll return to the State of the Union speech I was talking about earlier. Obama talks about how he's been told that, in regards to political change, "we should just put things on hold for a while." He goes on to say, "For those who make these claims, I have one simple question: How long should we wait? How long should America put its future on hold?"
How long, indeed, Mr. Obama. Our future is waiting for us. It won't wait forever.
This makes me unspeakably angry, for more than one reason.
First, I've got to read his State of the Union speech for APE. He spends a lot of time in it talking about programs (clean energy, high-speed rail systems, and the like) and how there's no reason why China or Europe should do those things before we do, because we're America and we do things like that first.
Well, there's no reason why they should return to the moon before we do, either, but thanks to his cutting the Constellation Program, they probably will.
Second, that whole American spirit thing. Isn't the American spirit to get out there, to explore and colonise new places? Americans jumped all over the chance to get out on the frontier otherwise known as the West. (And they obviously did, since I'm writing this in California.) There's another frontier out there. It's all around us. It's called outer space. Why aren't we out there? That is our future, and we are letting it stagnate.
Third, the "private sector." Obama says, "Don't worry, NASA, the private sector will keep working on manned missions into space! :D" (Er, paraphrased.) That's all well and good... if you want corporations and ridiculously wealthy individuals to be the only people ever out in space. (I was going to make an Iron Man 2 reference - "I've successfully privatised world peace." - but Tony Stark counts as a ridiculously wealthy individual, so maybe not.) Additionally, they're still working things out. They're not the end-all be-all of space. Sure, the private sector has funding that NASA clearly doesn't. Newsflash - NASA's got something that the private sector doesn't have. They've got experience. They actually know what they're doing! And considering how long it's taken NASA to get that experience, do we really want to wait for the private sector to do the same before we can move forward?
Fourth and finally, two points related to the Constellation Program specifically. The current shuttle fleet was due to be retired in 2010. This year. Now, if they are retired, then America wouldn't even be able to get its men to the ISS that Obama wants to focus on - not without relying on other countries, anyway. Do we want to do that? Are you sure?
But then, if they aren't retired, that's even more serious. The technology our shuttle fleet is based on is at least 25 years old. It's not efficient and we could do better. We were doing better, what with the Ares rockets and the Orion capsule. But then, those were part of the Constellation Program, meant to make manned space missions to the moon a reality once more, and so now NASA can't do that. So if the current shuttle fleet isn't retired, that means we're still using it. We're still using technology older than I am, technology that isn't efficient, that isn't reliable, and that isn't cheap to maintain.
We originally had five shuttles. We have three now. I don't think I need to remind anyone what happened to the other two. How many more times does that have to happen before the technology can change?
To wrap this up, since it's getting long and I need to actually finish getting ready this morning, I'll return to the State of the Union speech I was talking about earlier. Obama talks about how he's been told that, in regards to political change, "we should just put things on hold for a while." He goes on to say, "For those who make these claims, I have one simple question: How long should we wait? How long should America put its future on hold?"
How long, indeed, Mr. Obama. Our future is waiting for us. It won't wait forever.