Is NASA a waste of money?

[Frozen]

Is it?
Double Post
We don't know all of the fish in the ocean for crist sakes.

[Gio Takahashi]

Thread and polls edited.

Mediator's hut a gogo.

Now my answer. No, I don't think they are useless nor are they a waste of money. I fully support space exploration.

[RonDo]

I am not sure if I would say that the NASA program is a waste of money..but instead that perhaps they can tend to waste money. This is more because of project failures though.

I heard recently on plans of a project involving the Sun but I don't remember what that was about.

Maybe there needs to be a group dedicated to undersea exploration to compliment outerspace exploration. (to comment on that additional..frozen comment)

[Frozen]

What about the trips they take that add nothing or are complety pointless?

What about are ozone layers? uh what about that.

[RonDo]

What about the trips they take that add nothing or are complety pointless?

What about are ozone layers? uh what about that.

Are you talking about the toilet trip? I dunno about you, but I would be valuing my toilet especially when the options are rather limited in space.

As for Ozone, what is NASA gonna/supposed do about the Ozone layer?

[Frozen]

Are you talking about the toilet trip? I dunno about you, but I would be valuing my toilet especially when the options are rather limited in space.

As for Ozone, what is NASA gonna/supposed do about the Ozone layer?
There is no ozone layer because of nasa thats the problem.
I strongly belive it's why we have all this crazy wheather.

[Gio Takahashi]

What about the trips they take that add nothing or are complety pointless?

What about are ozone layers? uh what about that.

I don't really think that there are 'pointless trips' to the space that they do, at least not recently, their main focus has been the expansion and crew rotation of International Space Station, and the future trip to Mars.

Edit: guess I'm slow. I don't believe that Nasa has anything to do with the ozone layer. that's best blamed on the pollution.

[RonDo]

There is no ozone layer because of nasa thats the problem.
I strongly belive it's why we have all this crazy wheather.

Call me crazy, but I do believe the Ozone layer is still there and I have no idea how NASA could get rid of it. Also, I don't find the weather all that crazy.

[Gio Takahashi]

I don't either, I think it's just albeit more typical.

[Frozen]

Call me crazy, but I do believe the Ozone layer is still there and I have no idea how NASA could get rid of it. Also, I don't find the weather all that crazy.
Rely ?

RREAly?
China got blown up whats it's name in south asia got a relly big tornad o thingy
And there is no land in iowa.
Double Post
Oh and florida is on fire

[Gio Takahashi]

There's always going to be an insane storm, and there always has been in the past. Hurricane Andrews in '92. Then there's Hurricane Camille, one of the most intense storm in the 20th century. Then we had the storm of the century in the 90s, that caused insane blizzards throughout the country.

Iowa just had a major flooding due to an insane storm, probably a storm of the year.

China's been having shit tons of bad luck due to endless earth quake there. Something to do with that lake everyone's been squabbling about.

And Florida, like California, always had wild fires ~_~.

[RonDo]

Rely ?

RREAly?
China got blown up whats it's name in south asia got a relly big tornad o thingy
And there is no land in iowa.
Double Post
Oh and florida is on fire


Ok, here is how I see all of this so bear with me.

#1 - Earthquake in China. Now earthquakes happen all the time, all over the world with severity varying greatly between them. Now take in account this was a fairly strong earthquake in a densely populated area that is not likely to have buildings built to say, earthquake standards in California or in Japan. A recipe for mass destruction and death. I don't think humans (let alone the ozone) have too much influence over plate tectonics. Also, I don't consider quakes to be a weather-related event.

#2 - As for Iowa and the flooding. Flooding is gonna happen, simply put. Go back to the 1800's in China for some examples of really devasting flooding and millions of deaths.

#3 - It is dry as can be in California and Florida. It's also pretty darn hot there too. So naturally the possibility of fires is high. However, it is not like they haven't burned before.

EDIT:

#4 - Myanmmar. A poor region (exacerbated by their government) that is ill prepared to handle a typhoon/cyclone/hurricane like the one they got. Bangladesh is all too familiar with type of disaster.

[Arainach]

A planet is small. If humanity is to survive in a civilized form for the next thousand years, we must expand beyond this planet. Hell, we'll be lucky to get another two HUNDRED years out of this rock at our current rate. We must expand, and NASA's a crucial part of that development.

[Detrevni]

HEY

you know why no one complains about the ozone layer anymore? well they discovered what makes ozone. UV radiation hitting oxygen.

OH SHIT

Basically its self-repairing. The only holes in teh layer are at the poles where very little sunlight ever gets to.

As for NASA, if anything their budget needs to be expanded even more. Get out there, build a moon base, exploit the asteroid belts, start work on starships. LETS GET MOVING PEOPLE. We need to get out there now. Go go go!

[Seegtease]

Oh and florida is on fire

This line caused the best laugh I've had all day.

As for NASA, yeah, I'm interested in space travel. I'm not sure how useful it is, but I think it's pretty awesome and would never object to progress made. I guess it might be useful eventually.

[Z]

Is NASA a waste of money?

No. Population isn't slowing down any time soon and the Earth isn't getting any bigger. If anything, NASA is a long-term necessity for that reason alone.

EDIT: Bah, Ary beat me to it.

[deathofcheese]

With all the money we spent on Iraq, NASA could've had 500 astronauts on Mars by now ($500 trillion (http://www.boingboing.net/2008/05/27/we-could-have-coloni.html)).

If anything, NASA's relation to the Ozone Layer has been to help alleviate any damage to it through research into what causes it and what can be done about it. Did you think we poke holes in it every time we launch something into orbit?

Even though we might not be able to do a whole lot right now as far as space travel is concerned, a lot of things that NASA has come up with to aid in space travel have filtered their way down into our lives. It's just like high physics research. Who cares about quarks and neutrinos in every day life? But advances that help us look into issues like that, as well as where research goes from there have great potential for shedding light on other things that are immediately beneficial. Like entangled photons. Does instantaneous communication between any two points in the universe sound like a cool thing to have?

[DoomKitty]

There is no ozone layer because of nasa thats the problem.
I strongly belive it's why we have all this crazy wheather.

WTF. Nasa doesnt do anything to the ozone layer or to the weather. Weather will always happen that's how the earth works. We can't control what it does. o_O

And Nasa is quite useful, if anything they should get more funding.

[Jareth]

NASA is not a waste of money. I believe knowledge is priceless. The real wastes of money are government pork projects, earmarks, and good old fashion corruption.