Short version, long version in blue font) ; Why is interest in the space program so gone in the current crop of teenagers or young adults ? Does the lack of interest in even science in general signal trouble for the USAs future? I sure as heck think so! Those that own the technology own the world according to me...comment? question? For more info and general discussion read the long version (below). For a long time, since at least the late 80's I have been disappointed in the USA dropping the ball on manned space exploration. Even the robotic missions and unmanned LEO scientific missions while spectacular and ambitious are only modest in number when viewed via the perspective of the passage of over a half a century since we, and only we went to the moon. In fact the rest of the worlds space program is seemingly still-birthed and more dreary than ours. I hear the ignorant masses whining the usual dumb, embarrassingly dumb, mantra; why waste money on a space program? I hope that truly stupid mantra wells from ignorance and terminal nativity more than the brain rot and laziness of the Xbox generation (is that were the moniker generation X comes from?). Its not just the younger generation, even my generation and those that witnessed the moon landing that ignorant. For those Gen Xers and other anti-pure research and development science anti-space program reading this that are getting angry reading this you do know that the space program made seven to twenty dollars for every dollar spent! That's not including what we learned about our universe in the process! All this may sound disingenuous, or strange coming from a minister who draws heavily from his fundamentalist southern Baptist roots, however I am convinced that science will one day provide even more evidence, maybe undeniable evidence for Gods existence. Theology was once called The queen of the sciences**. It still is altho science, especially metaphysics*** and mathematics really are the other word of God. notes (note to notes; I will post notes two and tree after a little research and source material gathering). NASA Plan Needs a Little Spin - Boston University bu.edu/sjmag/scimag2005/features/NASA.htm the Moon missions, generates between 7 and 22 dollars for every dollar invested .. reva
Science already found the implied evidence for god, or a power, a force, beyond what we see as the material universe. The founders and early physicists discovered it, from implications of the double slit experiment, when it brought in the importance of consciousness itself. And several of these brilliant men were driven into mysticism, for it was obvious to them that consciousness was the fundamental of reality, not matter. Tom Campbell has developed worked this out over the years and has come up with the idea that reality as we perceive it is a virtual reality, created by information coming from Consciousness. I have little doubt since other scientists are beginning to inquire into this, that there will come a time when the existence of something not of the material universe is Fundamental, and the religious will of course call this god. In regards to the loss of interest of later generations in space, our population has been intentionally dumbed down, and as a recent Yale Prof complained, the average kid entering into university today only has an 800 word vocabulary. Such a limited vocabulary doesn't serve science or anything else for that matter. So I am not surprised what the dumbing down has done to our later generations. IMO, the Oligarchy needs dumbed down people, for those will serve the Oligarchy well, and not question it.
A manned space program is a waste of money. Where do we think we're going to? We don't even need humans in space except for a few hands on experiments in near-Earth orbit. Who says we have to cut research? Thankless, unglamorous number-crunching and probe launches are going to provide the most benefit for the future. Here, here is where we should invest our money.
Perhaps science has been made less fun and people have lost interest in it. Now people are indoctrinated they have to know the exact right answer but when I was a kid science was a lot of field trips and exploring in the woods behind the school and was far more free form. Now the school has a fence right behind it and doesn't even have an outdoor playground and there is no time and money for field trips because that takes away from teaching the test time and could expose the school to liability if Johnny drops his iphone in the creek or gets his $150 shoes muddy.
You're blaming the wrong people. It was the Boomers that defunded NASA. In case you haven't noticed, very few Gen-Xers are in power yet. Obama (hopefully) will be the last of the Baby Boomers in the Presidency.
Such total bull(*)(*)(*)(*) about vocabulary. The average 4 year old has a vocabulary of 5000 words. Our population hasn't been dumbed down--they just have different priorities. The real space race was primarily involved with ICBMs, and NASA just a by-product of it.
Even the source you link states: So that's only a little return, and that was in a time where only the US would have been in a position to leverage certain new technologies. Now a new innovation offered freely is more likely to help China get the jump on a US company. Personally I really like the idea of grand space adventures, however I don't think we can, at this time, pretend there is significant benifit beyond the spectacle. Even if there is some return from research, you could simply fund additional research to achieve the same results without all the rest of it. That said, there is something to having the occasional spectical that could pay out in patriotism and unity. I could see using 1-5% of the Federal budget for such purposes, and while it might be worth it to fund other things, say an incredible opening ceremony for the olymptics or perhaps something like the old World's Fair's, I'd think NASA would be the logical recipient of such funds.
