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NASA Considers Putting an Asteroid Into Orbit Around the Moon
Stoic Joker:
When I was a kid (I was born in '67, so I was 2 when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon), we used to have grand dreams. Science fiction novels were about wondrous galaxy-spanning civilizations, and the limits to what we'd eventually accomplish were dictated only by what we could dream. But somewhere along the way, we ran into a wall. We stopped dreaming grandly. The galactic civilizations were replaced by dystopian cyberpunk stories, in which we're trapped in a cesspool, with a dark future only as long as we can avoid our own self-destruction. I really appreciate what might be a return swing of the pendulum, replaced by big ideas again.-CWuestefeld (January 08, 2013, 11:01 AM)
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+1 - Well said (I was born in 65) ...We got to the moon and then just sat on our ass and started grumbling.
In the 70's every was sure we'd have flying cars by now.
wraith808:
That said, I completely don't trust NASA to do this. The overall structure of NASA (some specific success stories like the Mars Spirit rover not withstanding) is entrenched in the top-down risk-averse structure that's dedicated primarily to ensuring its own continued existence. I'd be much happier to see it being attempted by an organization like Space X, or Planetary Resources.
-CWuestefeld (January 08, 2013, 11:01 AM)
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+1000. NASA is at its core a government agency. With all of the negatives that implies. I can't help but think that if they'd started incentives for private companies to get involved, we'd be much more advanced than we are today. Just the number of accidents that we've had doing what should be routine (not to say that they aren't incredible accomplishments, but still), says a lot about NASA IMO.
Renegade:
In the 70's every was sure we'd have flying cars by now.
-Stoic Joker (January 08, 2013, 11:27 AM)
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I remember reading old Popular Mechanics magazines with flying cars, jet packs, and underwater cities. The future then looked a lot better than the future we're looking at now.
wraith808:
In the 70's every was sure we'd have flying cars by now.
-Stoic Joker (January 08, 2013, 11:27 AM)
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I remember reading old Popular Mechanics magazines with flying cars, jet packs, and underwater cities. The future then looked a lot better than the future we're looking at now.
-Renegade (January 08, 2013, 08:09 PM)
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Then again, look at Popular Mechanics now, and you'll be saying that the Popular Mechanics then looked better than the Popular Mechanics now.
Renegade:
In the 70's every was sure we'd have flying cars by now.
-Stoic Joker (January 08, 2013, 11:27 AM)
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I remember reading old Popular Mechanics magazines with flying cars, jet packs, and underwater cities. The future then looked a lot better than the future we're looking at now.
-Renegade (January 08, 2013, 08:09 PM)
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Then again, look at Popular Mechanics now, and you'll be saying that the Popular Mechanics then looked better than the Popular Mechanics now.
-wraith808 (January 08, 2013, 08:25 PM)
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After a quick peek at their web site... well, yeah... Underwater cities and flying cars are just WWWAAAAYYYY cooler than DIY home theater systems and guides on cabling. ;D
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