Baumblog EST 1968 - A blog for the Baumbachs who originated in Syracuse, NY

Note, technically it's the International Space Station. I just can't help myself most of the time.

Geoff said about 21 hours later

So has the space station been largely a failure? I know they've had all sorts of problems, but then again, it is the first "space station."

I'd rather throw my money away on things like this. It's progression I think. Eventually we will have to leave Earth for our species to survive. I mean, the sun is destined to gobble us up in 4 billion years or so, what will we do then? :)
Steve said 5 days later

I'm with Geoff, I support scientific studies. Granted, we haven't learned much about what NASA and company has learned from the space station, but I do know that a lot has been learned about developing all sorts of materials for space flight. Parsla and I have been wanting to go see a shuttle launch, unfortunately this crappy economy has put that on hold. We were going to go down and watch STS-126 launch in November, but the economy downfall and our risk of loosing jobs kept us from spending the money to go down to see it. Hopefully, some time in the future we'll be able to see it before they end all shuttle flights (only 8 or 9 more flights are approved right now before the shuttles are retired).
GJ said 5 days later

Hey now--don't you even start claiming I don't support scientific studies. I back more than the two of you combined. :)

What is the ISS besides a colossal waste of money and resources? What important science is being done there that wasn't done on Mir by the Soviets years ago?

MORE IMPORTANTLY....what science is being thrown away for lack of funding? Do either of you have any idea what NASA's budgets look like? Do you realize just how many programs have been shut down during the lifetime of the ISS just so they can keep the lights on in that thing?

Here's my position: dump all manned flight for the moment. Concentrate on developing robotic repair "droids" to maintain our expensive satellites like Hubble, and expand on the rover programs already in place on Mars. Start work on a mass driver program--the first step to mining things like asteroids and other rocky bodies. With all the freed up monies, we could shrink the NASA budget and still get more *real* science done. Can't beat that, can we?
Geoff said 6 days later

I thought they were dumping Hubble and releasing a new eye in the sky next year?
GJ said 6 days later

You're referring to the James Webb Space Telescope, scheduled for launch in 2010 (hopefully). The Hubble is at the end of its service life--they're currently trying to keep it afloat for another year or two so they don't have to live without this kind of space telescope until the Webb gets up there.

Of course, guess what...the Webb will orbit much higher than the Hubble, and thus cannot be serviced by the Shuttle. They toyed with robotic repair for Hubble, but ended up using the Shuttle. No such luck this time around...they'll need to either ensure their Shuttle replacement can orbit higher, or use a robotic repair craft.