The Dawn of an Era

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ChunkyC

I dunno about anyone else, but I get chills every time I think about the Ansari X Prize being won. We are on the cusp of something monumental in human history.

SpaceShipOne
 

maestrowork

I think it has already made history... better things are yet to come.
 

ChunkyC

Yeah, the flights themselves have already made history, but they are only the first step. I was thinking along the lines of what Branson wants to do in the next few years. Our unborn descendants are going to look back at the first decade or two of this century like we look back at the birth of commercial passenger air travel.

When I first saw 2001: A Space Odyssey in the sixties, the one part of the movie that thrilled me the most was the PanAm space plane in the docking dance with the space station. Thanks to Allen and Rutan and all their backers, humanity has just taken a huge step toward seeing something like that vision of the future happen in our lifetimes.
 

HollyB

Can you imagine our children taking a space vessel to visit the ISS as easily as we'd take a plane flight to Miami? I think it's truly awesome to consider... the possible ramifications are mind-boggling.
 

ChunkyC

Holly, I have a granddaughter who's turning nine this month and that's exactly what I'm thinking, that she may well have such an opportunity. I'm getting goosebumps.
 

Pthom

Let's hope that by the time we have regular commercial flights into space, there is something a LOT better to arrive at than the ISS.
:wha
 

HConn

Just a little side note:

I don't have any unborn ancestors. They all got borned, then they got themselves some descendants.

:)
 

Pthom

Hmm...unborn ancestors...now there's a prompt that just cries out for a story.
 

Terra Aeterna

I find that I'm equal parts pleased and peeved about this news. Pleased because finally we're getting somewhere and peeved because we should have been here already twenty years ago.
 

ChunkyC

You're so right, Terra. I remember sitting in front of the TV watching Armstrong step down and thinking that we just might have orbiting hotels and a base on the moon by 2001.

What I'd really like to know is: (Chunky is suddenly possessed by the spirit of Sam Kinison)

Where's those George Jetson flying cars you promised us back in the sixties, huh?? And the twenty hour work week? What about 'em? You said by the year 2001 we'd be vacationing on the moon! Well I got news for you buddy, here it is nearly 2005 and I'm working over sixty hours a week and I haven't had a real vacation in EIGHT YEARS!! Explain that you lying b*stards! AAAAAAAGH!!!!!

Rant concluded. Now if I could only figure out who should actually be on the receiving end.... :grin
 

DaveKuzminski

Actually, the flying cars do exist, but they're not into production because there are too many problems remaining to be worked out.
 

Nyki27

Yes, everyone assumed we'd be zooming all over space by now, and driving flying-cars and so on. But how many SF writers in the 50s & 60s foresaw the computer revolution? Technological progress never happens in quite the way you expect.
 

Yeshanu

I find that I'm equal parts pleased and peeved about this news. Pleased because finally we're getting somewhere and peeved because we should have been here already twenty years ago.

Actually, I'm more peeved that we're spending money on this when millions go hungry each day, even here in North America.

Can I please have a robot to clean my apartment?

Just for you, HConn:

Robot Vacuums

The future is here! (Even if it doesn't work very well yet.) :grin
 

ChunkyC

Actually, I'm more peeved that we're spending money on this when millions go hungry each day, even here in North America
I do agree that feeding the hungry is a more important task, but there's more than enough money and food to do both and then some if we'd only learn to allocate our resources fairly. I don't remember the numbers exactly (I'll be back with 'em if I can find 'em) but the last figures I remember reading were that US space program cost is equivalent to roughly five percent of the military budget. And that was before Bush cranked up military spending.

The cost of one B2 stealth bomber could fund a robotic mission to Mars with change left over. Or feed thousands upon thousands. I think military spending should be cut long before cutting back on the search for knowledge.
 

ChunkyC

NASA's annual budget in 2004: $15.5 billion

US Military budget in 2003: $420.7 billion

Cost of one B2 stealth bomber: $2.2 billion

That makes NASA's budget equivalent to about 3 percent of the military budget. Not that NASA is doing an efficient job with their money, but isn't research more important than blowing things up? Couldn't the US shave fifteen or twenty billion (or a hell of a lot more) off the military budget and reallocate it?

And how many hungry people could be fed with 2.2 billion dollars?
 

YenadilPureheart

I'm afraid I have to disagree with several of your points ChunkC.

Couldn't the US shave fifteen or twenty billion (or a hell of a lot more) off the military budget and reallocate it?

Not really, the US military cut back so much during the Clinton years that it will be years before we are back at the level we really need to be. With the amount of deployment and active combat our military faces these days, budget cuts are simply infeasable.


And how many hungry people could be fed with 2.2 billion dollars?

Quite a few. Hunger is caused by alot of things, but in todays world, hunger isn't being caused by a lack of food. The primary cause for hunger is either mismanagement of resources or corruption of those in power.
 

Pthom

how many hungry people could be fed with 2.2 billion dollars?
Not many; few people (or any other higher animal, for that matter) can survive on dollars...or Euros or yen or any other currency.

People need PIZZA!
 

HollyB

Actually, I'm more peeved that we're spending money on this when millions go hungry each day, even here in North America.

Ruth, wasn't the entire thing privately financed? By billionaires throwing their own money around? Granted, maybe they should be throwing their money at folks who really need it, but I don't think any of our tax dollars were used for the space craft or for the cash prize.
 

DaveKuzminski

The system that prevails around the globe is one that places an incentive upon people so that they will work to earn their own living. Sad, but necessary in the eyes of many who govern because there are many who would upon receiving a free lunch believe that they are entitled to free meals from then on.

I don't personally know what system is correct or which way of handling this would be the most ethical. I do know, however, that it provides background for placing realism in what we write.
 

Yeshanu

The system that prevails around the globe is one that places an incentive upon people so that they will work to earn their own living.

If that were true, I wouldn't feel so bad. Unfortunately, it's just the opposite, otherwise hockey players wouldn't earn nearly as much as a poor mother in Africa... Where you were born, what your gender is and what colour your skin happens to be is a much better predictor of your income than how hard you work.

I didn't mean for this to go so much off topic, but I do think we need to solve our problems here on earth before we go messing up the rest of the universe.

That being said, would I take a trip to outer space if the opportunity came up?

You bet!
 

Flawed Creation

space

actually, i think access to space might help to solve our problems on earth.
 

HConn

Re: space

... I do think we need to solve our problems here on earth before we go messing up the rest of the universe.

If we're allowed to make bigger, flatter tvs while people starve, we can certainly travel into space.
 
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