What was Columbia's mission?

by Xander 36 Replies latest jw friends

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  funkyderek

  Name just ONE of those things that would have never been invented if men had never gone into space.

  OK, I concede that some or even all of them might eventually have been invented at some indeterminate time in the future had man never gone into space, but they weren't. Most of them were invented as a direct result of the space race. (Microwave ovens slipped in there. They were a result of military research, not space travel. My bad!) Those inventions have saved countless thousands of lives and improved the quality of life for billions of people
• 

  dubla

  . They can't afford incredibly expensive missions

  im not for discontinuing our space program, at all, but i do find it crazy that $300 million + for a 16 day mission is considered cheap.

  aa
• 

  IronGland

  After all, when the sun finally goes nova and destroys the planet, millions of years invested in cosmetics will make the earth MUCH prettier than it would be if those funds had been spared the cut instead of the space program.

  Pedant point here. The sun will not go nova. Nova are events involving a primary star and a compact binary component, where matter is slowly pulled off the primary and accretes onto the compact star, building to high densities and then causing a big explosion when the matter reaches fusion temperatures and pressures. A supernova, however, is the explosion that occurs when a massive star runs out of nuclear fuel and collapses. The sun will most likely become a red giant and expand past the the orbit of Venus and possibly engulf the earth. Either way, life on earth at that time is fried.
• 

  Xander

  sun will most likely become a red giant and expand past the the orbit of Venus and possibly engulf the earth

  My bad.

  Well, it'll still be a much prettier Earth if we quickly divert all money from manned space flights to cosmetic research, or feeding the hungry. After all, no sense having starving people here when the Earth becomes a brief flash in the solar corona.

  Although, really, this is still WAY off, odds are very good we'll have become extinct long before then, followed by whatever species achieves sentience after our passing, and perhaps after they are wiped out, too - lots of other Bad Things (tm) are likely to happen first.
• 

  Valis

  LL, one thing I we might not have is all the beautiful images we get from the Hubble space telescope that open a window to a bigger picture.

  

  There are parts that cannot be adjusted, fixed, or replaced by robots. If we didn't go perform regular maintenance it would be a waste of billions of dollars and a chance to study the stars. Maybe someday we will have robots that will allow us to stay nice and cozy on the ground, but now that isn't an option. The only way to create such machines is to go into space and do it ourselves, which in the long run helps understand the mechanics of the human body while in space and how they can be emulated by advanced robotics. If we are ever to understand more about the universe we need to be able to see pictures of it and eventually do the same face to face. Otherwise the world mind as well be flat IMO.

  Sincerely,

  District Overbeer
• 

  heathen

  Xander-- The facts are that the hole in the ozone is getting bigger .They actually wait for the hole to move to an area they can launch through a window . The ozone layer is a very thin component of the atmospher that is attributed to keeping the heat in . This is how they know there is a hole in it by detecting the heat escaping through it . I think it is completely sound logic to assume that these rockets that have trails of flame extending for over a mile (something like that) are indeed burning the carbon thus leaving a hole .As far as my nukes in space theory , I have seen plans and diagrams of a space station being armed with nukes in popular science magazine( not sure if that's the right magazine). I don't think anyone on this board can say for certain exactly what goes on involving the shuttle program . For all we know they could be working on nuclear powered stuff up there.
• 

  Yerusalyim

  Space,
  The final frontier.
  These are the voyages of the Starship
  Columbia. Its ongoing mission:
  to explore strange new worlds,
  to seek out new life and new civilizations,
  to boldly go where no one has gone before!
• 

  Xander

  The facts are that the hole in the ozone is getting bigger

  That is exactly the only thing you said in your thread that is correct.

  actually wait for the hole to move to an area they can launch through a window

  1) That's ridiculous. Ozone is atmosphere. You can fly through it just as easy as air (it is, in fact, just as part of 'air' as oxygen, nitrogen, etc are)

  2) If that were true, they'd have to wait a DAMN long time - the ozone 'holes' are over the poles, no where near the tropics at all (IE., no 'ozone hole' ever passes over any of the US)

  The ozone layer is a very thin component of the atmospher that is attributed to keeping the heat in

  1) The ozone layer is NOT thin

  2) It had better NOT keep the heat in - it keeps solar radiation OUT

  by detecting the heat escaping through it

  !?!?

  They can detect it because of space based satellites' capability to create 'chart' our atmosphere.

  burning the carbon thus leaving a hole

  'Burning the carbon'!?!? WHAT carbon?? Ozone is 0 3 - that's three oxygen atoms in a molecule. Nothing to do with carbon - there had BETTER not be any carbon in our atmosphere.

  I have seen plans and diagrams of a space station being armed with nukes in popular science magazine(

  That seems like the kind of thing popular mechanics would print.

  Popular mechanics is NOT a reputable magazine.

  For all we know they could be working on nuclear powered stuff up there

  Why would they? As I noted before, there is no advantage in doing that.

  1) Nukes make poor weapons in space. They take to long to get to target, are too easily observable, and cost more than sea based weapons

  2) Nukes make poor energy in space. There are no clouds to get in the way, and the sun's energy is many times greater than it is on earth - solar energy is BY FAR the most efficient method of power generation in space.

  Edited by - Xander on 4 February 2003 17:15:29
• 

  IronGland

  The ozone layer is NOT thin

  Well, it is, sort of. If the ozone layer over the US were compressed to 0 degrees Celsius and 1 atmosphere pressure, it would be about 3 mm thick. However, since it is up in the stratosphere there is not as much pressure. Anyway, it's a very tiny fraction of Earths atmosphere.
• 

  Realist

  i totally agree with francois on this one!

  Believe it or not, Lucky Lucy, women spend more on makeup every year than NASA spends on the shuttle. Why don't we make women stop wearing makeup and use that money for world peace, or whirled peas, as you please?

  very well put!

  this "we could spend the money on earth blah blah" is not very constructive. there are sooo many worthless things for which money is wasted...space travel is the future and it brings a lot of new knowledge on various scientific fields. it is simply stupid to want to stop the space programs.

  bush should put far more money into the civil arm of NASA.

  heathen,

  that was a funny post...you should look up some info about the atmosphere and the ozon layer.

  Edited by - realist on 4 February 2003 20:4:59