President Obama scraps NASA Project Constellation

I think thats the path it will eventually have to take. The Google X Prize is already coming up with a prize for sending a robot to the Moon.

Don't you think the human species is in more in danger from the rollback of nuclear proliferation treaties, global warming, and a depressed economy that leaves more and more people homeless and without any health insurance? We'll all be dead in fifty years if we don't take care of those things.

You're a ray of hope Jubal. In the meantime, the Mayan guy decided to change it. It was supposed to read 2010. Think about it 20 versus 10. The dude with the chisel man, always keep your eye on the dude carrying the chisel. He gave us the ultimate fall. The calendar is two years behind.

We send robots to distant planets because we don’t have the capability to send humans there yet. If we did we would most certainly send humans because by comparison humans are way smarter and more capable then even our most advanced robots. If you had the choice to receive healthcare from a team of robots or humans you would undoubtedly choose the group of humans for a multitude of reasons.

High up on that list would be cost. A robot capable of replicating the delicate handwork necessary for surgery would be incredibly expensive, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. That robot also needs a highly advanced brain, eyesight and intuitive capabilities. On the other hand a normal human being has all the required equipment. In the end it’s going to be cheaper in the long run to use humans instead of designing robots to do everything.

Agreed, the space race is a constant. The US as the dominant force in the world cannot afford not to maintain the lead.

This is America. We don't care about anyone's future here. If there's no immediate profit, it's canned. War and death are what we do best.

Kari you're acting like we'll still be in this same Recession in 2020. That's a DECADE from now. Can you imagine going to the year 2000 and telling someone all the shit that's happened since then?!?! They'd NEVER believe you.

9/11, Hurricane Katrina, 2004 Tsunami, Iraq War, Afghanistan War, first Bush recession, second Bush recession, Madrid train bombings, London train bombings, Octomom, Bush Reelection... IT'S MADNESS!!!! It's like a nightmare you can't wake up from. No one in 2000 would believe this shit could happen within the span of 10 years. To think we'll still be in this economic recession 10 years from now it's fucking ridiculous.

Our space program is a fucking joke. We could go to the Moon 40 YEARS AGO and now we can only travel into the upper atmosphere essentially. Do you realize how fucking primitive the technology 40 years ago was? THOSE ASSHOLES could go to the Moon, we can't. Pathetic. Simply Pathetic.

I'm with Carl Sagan, the only problem with the Voyager program was that we only sent two out of our solar system, instead of 1,000.

It's not just about 'going to the Moon' or a pissing contest with the Chinese, or even necessarily about preventing our extinction with Lunar or Martian colonies; the technology that emerges from new space flights always benefits the technology of every American in their home. We went from having the first TV's in the 30s to having a LONGGGGGG Distance wireless satellite feed of the first steps of man on the Moon in 1969.

What do you think that alone did for television and eventually cordless personal home satellite television?

Or the Large Hadron Collider even, completely ignore the physics part of it. It has a 14 million megapixel camera that takes 1,000 of those 14 million megapixel pictures a second. What do you think that part of the experiment alone will do for future camera technology??

Innovation emerges from big budget government funded projects like this because unlike a privately funded inventor money is not a problem. I think this is the single most selfish thing Obama has done to the American people so far in his Presidency, and I voted for him.