|
|
Post by lighthorseman on Jul 23, 2011 9:04:45 GMT -5
 Tim Kreider, a fine artist with whom I often find myself agreeing, pretty well somes up my general disillusionment in, well, everything. I suggest reading his short essay here... Last week the cover article in The Economist was “The End of the Space Age.” Regular readers of The Pain know that the author is a serious weenie when it comes to space exploration, and the last flight of the U.S. shuttle program, currently in progress, saddens me. Not that I was ever all that excited about the shuttle, except for the time when I personally saw a launch, but after this one lands, for the first time since the fifties, America will be without a manned space program. We’ll now be hitching rides with the Russians to the space station, a more humiliating situation than which is hard to envision. By dispiriting coincidence, we're approaching July 20th, the 42nd anniversary of the moon landing. It now looks like 1969 may have been the high water mark of America as a scientific and technological power.
|
|
|
|
Post by Yla on Jul 23, 2011 9:30:13 GMT -5
Overall, I agree, especially with the points about defence offence spending. But there are some points where I stumbled.
Uh, how about no rides at all? Either you have an odd definition of 'hard' or 'humiliating', or you need to get out of the Cold War.
The last paragraph was just ridiculous in its pathos.
But as I said, I overall agree. It's been nice here, but sooner or later we need to get off. Resources are finite, and we're blowing them on senseless warring.
|
|
|
|
Post by lighthorseman on Jul 23, 2011 9:50:39 GMT -5
Overall, I agree, especially with the points about defence offence spending. But there are some points where I stumbled. Uh, how about no rides at all? Either you have an odd definition of 'hard' or 'humiliating', or you need to get out of the Cold War. The last paragraph was just ridiculous in its pathos. But as I said, I overall agree. It's been nice here, but sooner or later we need to get off. Resources are finite, and we're blowing them on senseless warring. Those of us old enough to remember Russia being the bad guys will agree (if only to ourselves) that having to hitch a ride with them to the space station is kind of a downer. I dunno... think of getting in a pub fight with someone, then having to ask the guy who ended up beating you through sheer plodding perserverence despite all your really cool, showy moves, for a lift to the hospital. I think Larry Niven said it best; "The dinosaurs became extinct because they didn't have a space program". |
|
|
|
Post by canadian mojo on Jul 23, 2011 15:30:46 GMT -5
Those of us old enough to remember Russia being the bad guys will agree (if only to ourselves) that having to hitch a ride with them to the space station is kind of a downer. I dunno... think of getting in a pub fight with someone, then having to ask the guy who ended up beating you through sheer plodding perserverence despite all your really cool, showy moves, for a lift to the hospital. I think Larry Niven said it best; "The dinosaurs became extinct because they didn't have a space program". Never mind the fact that the USSR were the bad guys, the fact of the matter is that the U.S. was the best. Period. They had a rather large lead over the rest of the world and they let it slip away when it should have been a fairly simple matter to maintain it. That's the true humiliation here. |
|
|
|
Post by RavynousHunter on Jul 23, 2011 19:27:40 GMT -5
Huh, didn't I hear about the government giving seed money to corporations interested in doing space flight and chartering rides with companies who already are moving out into space, like Virgin Galactic?
Also, what's this whole "disappointment" BS regarding us hitching rides with the Russians? Buddy, the 80s are calling, they want their Russophobia back.
|
|
|
|
Post by canadian mojo on Jul 23, 2011 20:06:36 GMT -5
Huh, didn't I hear about the government giving seed money to corporations interested in doing space flight and chartering rides with companies who already are moving out into space, like Virgin Galactic? Also, what's this whole "disappointment" BS regarding us hitching rides with the Russians? Buddy, the 80s are calling, they want their Russophobia back. It's not actually Russophobia, at least not for me, but I'm a Canadian so I get to sit on the sidelines and watch. What it really is is the realization that we have been sold a bill of goods and now we are fucked. As someone who was around for the 80's allow me to share the story. As globalization built up momentum, it became obvious that we could not compete with emerging economies when it comes to producing cheap goods. Not at our current standard of living at any rate. Since 'fuck you, deal' was not a particularly viable political platform at the time, the idea that we would become a service sector based economy was developed. Now a lot of people, including the politicians seem to think this means that we are all going to work at McDonalds, what it actually meant is that we were going to be the brains behind the brawn. We would design and develop, something we were damn good at, and let the cheap global labour market do what it was good at. Somewhere along the line the rest of the world caught up and passed us. We are buying their goods and their knowledge and that leaves us incredibly little leverage with which to maintain our standard of living. Note: although Canadian, I say us because my country is about as guilty of it as the US is. Our once heralded nuclear program is sunk so low that we were looking to buy foreign designed reactors and we are just going to lease the wind turbine technology rather than develop it on our own even though green tech stands to be the next big growth sector. There are other examples, but those are just two off the top of my head. |
|
|
|
Post by tolpuddlemartyr on Jul 23, 2011 20:11:45 GMT -5
An effective space program is long term, complicated, expensive and of uncertain popularity.
Each one of those factors make politicians wince, the only way to keep a space program going at all is effective political pressure which the cold war once provided. We need something else to put a fire under our political leaders bums or it will go away altogether.
|
|
|
|
Post by RavynousHunter on Jul 23, 2011 20:21:03 GMT -5
What? Not having to pass population restrictions not enough of an ass-kicker?
|
|
|
|
Post by lighthorseman on Jul 23, 2011 23:04:13 GMT -5
An effective space program is long term, complicated, expensive and of uncertain popularity. Sorta like... I dunno... a land war in Asia? |
|
|
|
Post by Shane for Wax on Jul 24, 2011 0:40:49 GMT -5
well I for one hate the fact that we will have to hitch rides with Russia. Why? Because they offered a certain amount to be paid to them then more than doubled it after we got really close to our last shuttle launch.
|
|
|
|
Post by malicious_bloke on Jul 24, 2011 5:44:04 GMT -5
It's not even just the russians. The current trend could see the U.S. slip from it's perch and end up behind Russia, India, China, Japan AND the E.U. in space based technology
|
|
|
|
Post by ironbite on Jul 24, 2011 15:01:28 GMT -5
And the GOP doesn't care.
|
|
|
|
Post by Yla on Jul 25, 2011 6:15:43 GMT -5
Uh, how about no rides at all? Either you have an odd definition of 'hard' or 'humiliating', or you need to get out of the Cold War. Those of us old enough to remember Russia being the bad guys will agree (if only to ourselves) that having to hitch a ride with them to the space station is kind of a downer. I dunno... think of getting in a pub fight with someone, then having to ask the guy who ended up beating you through sheer plodding perserverence despite all your really cool, showy moves, for a lift to the hospital. That would be it. I was born in '88. |
|
|
|
Post by Dragon Zachski on Jul 25, 2011 19:18:17 GMT -5
Those of us old enough to remember Russia being the bad guys will agree (if only to ourselves) that having to hitch a ride with them to the space station is kind of a downer. I dunno... think of getting in a pub fight with someone, then having to ask the guy who ended up beating you through sheer plodding perserverence despite all your really cool, showy moves, for a lift to the hospital. That would be it. I was born in '88. So was I, actually... and yet I don't really give a damn. Maybe it's because I play/read too much Sci Fi stuff where humans are humans and not Americans/Africans/Australians/Russians/Mexicans/Germans/Etc. |
|
