For our forum friends who follow NASA and our space program

Dear Fellow Forum Friends,

Tom and I are deeply connected to our country's space program here at Kennedy Space Center and have made a career of supporting our nation's access to "this new ocean" as President Kennedy termed it. Although my post has NOTHING to do with metal detecting, I recognize that many of you are not only interested but committed to supporting a vibrant and purposeful approach to this country's future beyond our terrestrial presence. Frankly we have lost our way. The driven engagement in the 1960s to "place a man on the moon before this decade is out and return him safely to earth" has all but come to a standstill now that we have no defined mission...no desire....no passion. The Space Shuttle and International Space Station, although engineering marvels, have done little to motivate or inspire our youth and even more so they have failed to propel us beyond low earth orbit. The video link I have attached is SPOT ON! If it moves you, please let your congressional representatives know your thoughts. I personally would be interested in hearing them as well...........

FloridaBob

[www.youtube.com]

Too much illogicalness, as usual with politicans, the're all over the place with too many faces, all with forked tongues.

Progressives think the opposite of the way our founding Fathers thought. They think government should think for us all and they know what's best for us. They have been trying to change America for over a century, and are slowly succeeding.

Treason can mean the "attempt or conspire to overthrow the government, even if no foreign country is involved". The word "overthrow" dosen't mean in any specific time, like "all of a sudden" it means; "cause the downfall of".
They are trying to overthrow the "real" America, the one our Founding Fathers so carefully laid out.....thats a big big crime. Who are they? Look up Progressives, read, and match their thinking to whats happening now to America, you may get sick to your stomach. What do we do? Many people say vote, even if your voting for the lesser of two evils..how does that help?
The Founding Fathers didn't want government to have too much power...I can clearly see why.

I have mixed feelings about the NASA program. NASA is a VERY expensive government operation to maintain. And there have been some costly, and I mean costly, failures in the past "due to human error/oversight that was preventable". I personally don't think all of the NASA engineers and personnel are of Tom D.'s exacting caliber, dedication and skill level. This is not said to butter Tom's bread, just my observations from reading his detecting material.
NASA, in my opinion needs to be scaled down, not dismantled. Get rid of the dead weight (but that will never happen because the federal gov't employee regulations encourage/protect incompetence/hiring people for reasons other than their skills).
NASA would also need to heavily focus on and develop programs that will bring real economic returns to american industry and technology. Sending probes to planets just to see what the planets/universe are made of is considered by most today to be a obscene waste of money. It might make a handful of astronomers/scientists happy, but does little for the taxpayers benefit. America also needs to quit paying for all these space ventures and then freely give away the information we gathered to the rest of the world. If other countries want that info, they can damn well pay us for the privilege. Other country's really don't share their space venture results, for the most part, with anyone. If countries want to use our advanced space technology for military/civilian uses, THEY PAY FOR IT.
NASA needs to stay intact to put up equipment we need for example: civilian use satellites (GPS), more advanced weather satellites, national security satellites, hunter/killer weapons platforms (the Chinese are a real threat in this area) etc. I know alot of the military spaceware has been turned over to other agencies, but the core skills of NASA still have alot to offer.
Are the citizens of this country short-sighted? You bet they are. The incompetence I mentioned earlier affects all levels of organizations in our federal government, but if NASA suffers from it, they become a easy target for the politicians/taxpayers, because historically NASA is supposed to be the best and the brightest, of all the government organizations.
Just my two meteorite's worth...........

I should add that I was born in 1955 and grew up very, very proud of the many accomplishments of NASA. Things just need to be done differently these days.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 01/27/2011 04:33AM by TerraDigger.

It is always interesting to me ... to learn what the public thinks of Space...and thinks of modern NASA. All too often .... we get our 'education' and knowledge about programs .... from newspapers, mag's and TV news. If I were to say: NASA is 90% efficient,,, and 10% inefficient...........WHICH portion do you think ...makes the MOST news? If I were to say that: 1) most government agencies, 2) most industries, 3) most private companies were approximately 80% efficient...and 20% efficient.............which side acquires the most 'attention'?

There are portions of any entity.....that is always in need of enhancement/improvement. . . . NASA not exclude. In this country......our education.....our 'focus' is.... trying to find ways to improve the 'negative'. In other countries......the interest is focused on the 'positive'......and the improvement thereof. Focused on the 'good'. Ironically; when extra attention is placed upon the 'positive'........the 'negatives' start to clear-up. BUT......news/media would be extremely boring if we could not commiserate the 'negative'. "Negative" energy generates more emotional interest/attention......FASTER than 'positive'. ((( They should be equal.....but they are not ))). Subsequently; the news/media 'chases' the pique-interest. (( It's faster money )). So...............What do we learn from.......IRT the media?

I do hold NASA with one major failure. That being "PR". A proper 'budget' was never allocated for 'proper PR'. If I were to tell you that: over 80% of the things that you do in a normal/daily/routine life/basis........is generated directly/indirectly from space-spinoff's..............there would be emphatic refute. BUT......it would also "START" to paint a picture as to the criticallity of 'proper PR'......(that we have so failed to perform)......as a peoples......as a Govt. Via the media.....and a educational mental paradigm shift........(NASA) and the importance of Space.. has been 'dumbed down'. Yes, folks have differing opinions as to WHAT direction.....WHAT funding shall be allocated. And it is in these 'differing opinions' ....where we learn the most. Closed-mindedness = doomed.

Space travel......Space access... is always difficult, expensive and dangerous. Open heart surgery is difficult, expensive and dangerous. Releasing a entirely new metal detector platform is also difficult, expensive and dangerous (risk factor). I continuously applaud technological advancement for the betterment of mankind.....to no end.

The entity of NASA is not without flaw (and expense); yet, the accolades far surpass the 'negative'.

In summation, I ask: Where are today's mentors?

Tom

Thank you for your insight. And alot of us consider you a "mentor". So there is one we know of.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/27/2011 02:37PM by TerraDigger.

There is dread among us, Will we be left without a space program, without a way to send OUR astronauts into space, directly thru our own dedicated staff ?? , I have worked amongst military satellite communications technicians, those very satellites above us we use everyday, must be refueled, they do not last forever, without the ability for us to go into geo-synchronous orbit, ((22,300 miles) which was only available until the late 60's)) , will we be left at the mercy of our allies/enemies for maintenance? , I remember with great pride witnessing the beginnings of this greatness, ( Those of you that were kids in the 60's, would have wanted to be an astronaut, as I, and, used up many a crayon drawing rocket-ships).
I do not want to think of this happening, as I also fear the internet inherently taking place of tv programming sent via satellite, as those of you
who may not know this, programming can be sent directly to your tv from the internet and watched on your HDTV. (For nine bucks a month you can watch unlimited movies, (either thru a direct VGA, HDMI, etc) , thru suppliers such as netflix, etc. One can watch anything else you can get on your computer screen. I believe satellite tv companies should be very concerned.

Teddy Roosevelt said it best, "In any moment of decision, the best thing to do is the right thing. The worst thing to do is nothing."

Tri

Men by nature, are explorers, women included. We explore everything, from the infinitely small to the boundless universe, always looking for new discoverys. Everything we search for is an exploration, an adventure, it's who we are, we can't help it. In my oponion, it's mans only instinct, our natural aptitude.
In a free society we should not be stifled, if we were, we would not be truly free.
Without any type of exploration, we have zero advancement.
We are different from the rest of the wonderfull life forms on this planet. Our degree of curiosity is by far stronger than any other creature on earth, as is our desire for knowlege. Think about it, everyone is always searching for something, thinking, figuring, solving...from the day we were born.

There are so, so many needless/wastfull/useless government programs that should be done away with, space exploration is absolutly, NOT one of them.

I laughed out loud during last Mondays State of the Union speech when President Barack Hussein Obama used NASA as an example of American greatness and innovation... because I know that he, Obama, is at the same time gutting NASA and dismantling it as he is trying to do to everything that has to do with American greatness and innovation.

Engage people... that mean's YOU... engage! Listen, read, and talk. Figure out who represents your views and if they are in your district or state... work to help get them elected and if they are in another district or state... send them money.

I got a call this morning from the RNC asking if I was going to renew my membership...(I never knew I joined) I had donated some money to them in 2010... I told them that I was not ready to give them anything right now and that I was waiting and watching. I didn't tell im because I wanted to get off the phone but I was NOT happy with the way the RNC handled Tea Party canditates who won the republican primaries in a several races. In the recent years I have sent money to Norm Coleman, to Christine Odonnell, to whoever the guy was who ran against the late and abominable congressman from PA... John Murtha.

I never in my wildest dreams thought that I woud ever support or vote for John McCain (he is a hero and a patriot but a smarmy politician)... at the same time I never imagined that I would want to see Hillary Clinton as a candidate for President but I think she might be a little better than a community organizer... I could go on but i'll just get mad.

So, you like NASA? You think that they have benefited our nation? Get engaged in what is going on. Write letters, emails, and make calls. I called one of my senators this morning re: healthcare and I emailed a representative from my state about other issues... get involved if you care.

We need NASA. We need to replace the shuttle with something... we MUST slash social spending or we are not only going to lose NASA... we are going to lose everything... at the rate we are now spending and borrowing in a matter of a few months from NOW... our debt will be more than our GDP... that is a cliff we do not want to go over and ur president wants to hit the gas and go on over. That is basically what happened last year in Greece... we don't want that here. Those people in Washington are borrowing 40 cent for every dollar that they spend. Maybe one more election cycle (2012) and we can change things enough.... but I fear we do not have that much time. We have NO leadership right now, I think, because no one wants to be in the position of taking the blame when we go over this cliff. The president KNOWS that SSI and Medicare are breaking the bank but he wantsthe republicans to bring up cuts so that he can play politics. He is against American greatness and innovation... talk is cheap, just LOOK at what his administration is doing to NASA and try to make it line up with what he says... talk is cheap!

Julien

Is there a part 2 ?

J

I can't think of a single Government program that "deserves" tax money at the moment. We need NASA? It personifies American greatness and innovation? I don't see it that way. In a romantic way, it's heroes doing heroic yet unnecessary things. In a realistic way, its a lot of money for a lot of questionable stuff. It's always seemed to me that NASA (amongst others programs) is the Government making it profitable for a group to do something that's decidedly not profitable.

This is their own PR - compare it to what has been spent and imagine if you ran a business in that vein: [www.nasa.gov]

Sorry Tom and Bob - it's tough, at least for me, to reconcile this: [www.usdebtclock.org] with any current govt program.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/28/2011 12:40AM by Shambler.

Interesting links.

Tri Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> There is dread among us, Will we be left without a
> space program, without a way to send OUR
> astronauts into space, directly thru our own
> dedicated staff ?? , I have worked amongst
> military satellite communications technicians,
> those very satellites above us we use everyday,
> must be refueled, they do not last forever,
> without the ability for us to go into
> geo-synchronous orbit, ((22,300 miles) which was
> only available until the late 60's)) , will we be
> left at the mercy of our allies/enemies for
> maintenance? , I remember with great pride
> witnessing the beginnings of this greatness, (
> Those of you that were kids in the 60's, would
> have wanted to be an astronaut, as I, and, used
> up many a crayon drawing rocket-ships).
> I do not want to think of this happening, as
> I also fear the internet inherently taking place
> of tv programming sent via satellite, as those of
> you
> who may not know this, programming can be sent
> directly to your tv from the internet and watched
> on your HDTV. (For nine bucks a month you can
> watch unlimited movies, (either thru a direct VGA,
> HDMI, etc) , thru suppliers such as netflix, etc.
> One can watch anything else you can get on your
> computer screen. I believe satellite tv companies
> should be very concerned.
>
> Teddy Roosevelt said it best, "In any moment of
> decision, the best thing to do is the right thing.
> The worst thing to do is nothing."
>
>
>
> Tri

Tri.......I can tell you that there is a new initiative in the planning stage (and I mean serious planning) right now to be able to provide a manned servicing capability of satellites in geosync for life extension. If you think about it you can conclude the obvious reason why..... due to the value of some particular "assets". You can say you heard it here first since this topic is NOT being discussed elsewhere, nor am I divulging anything that is currently considered classified in nature. Florida Bob

Are you referring to Ion thrusters replacing chemical thrusters, thereby increasing a geo synchronous satellite's lifetime for telemetry and tracking ?
Tri

unfortunately,(or fortunately),depending on your perspective,most taxpayers
see the "space program" as an "unsustainable" (white elephant),for if they thought differently,
proper financing would be in place for it's continuation.although it can be argued there have been "many" benefits
as a result of it's very existence,again "most "people who (pay the freight) so to speak,do NOT see it that way!
this IS a very disconcerting development,and perhaps the "only solution is to effect a "compromise" in funding
to keep the program going.