The Political Thread

[Professor Bear]

Fuck that shit, we don't want our future in the hands of nerds.  Give more money to footballers.

[Proudhuff]

[JOE SOAP]

Space exploration is essential to the long-term survival of humanity

I think not fucking up this planet is more essential to the long-term survival of humanity.

I remember reading a frustrated comment in response to an article that argued deep space travel was a pipe-dream, it went something like, "What do you mean deep space exploration is not possible, you mean we're stuck on this rock?"

As if that should really be a matter of concern for someone who would never set foot outside the Van Allen Belt.

[The Legendary Shark]

We can't fuck the planet up, it's impossible. Even all-out nuclear war would only render the planet uninhabitable for a few thousand years and then there'd be a few more billion years of nature being nature.
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The main thing we are fucking up is ourselves. We should change "Save the Planet" to "Save the Humans".

[JOE SOAP]

We can't fuck the planet up, it's impossible. Even all-out nuclear war would only render the planet uninhabitable for a few thousand years and then there'd be a few more billion years of nature being nature.

Sounds like a fucked up planet.

[Professor Bear]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W33HRc1A6c

NASA's day is sadly over, and the only hope for the space race is a corporation creating a cheaper way to exploit space travel and turn a profit, as the space race between countries is over thanks to politicians farming out contracts for transporting people and technology into space to corporate interests who have no motivation to innovate because 50 year-old Russian one-shot rockets already work and they get paid a tidy sum to keep using those rockets - the maths of creating re-useable or more efficient means of getting into space don't add up because creating such technology would mean revising their government stipends downwards.

All moot, of course, because the lizards that run the planet won't let us get off it - they'd have to be fucking mad to let us ruin their solar system.

[JOE SOAP]

If there was money in a proper space industry that we could all apply for jobs in, there'd be an effort to invest a lot more instead of giving the Pentagon $50 billion every year, but it's just not there, and the energy expended overshoots any benefit while using up current dwindling resources.

[Dandontdare]

Read one interesting point in this coverage - Europe, Britain, China, Russia and India have lots of joint projects and cooperation going on, but Nasa is forbidden by US law from working with foreign agencies. There was an outcry last year when Nasa scientists threatened to boycott a major conference because Chinese colleagues had been banned from attending. Nasa later retracted this and blamed a "misinterpretation of the legal position"

[Proudhuff]

Any reason we can't try and save humanity and explore space? I know I know, but it's called vision something sadly lacking on the political class.

[Definitely Not Mister Pops]

We can't fuck the planet up, it's impossible.

Nonsense, we can acheive anything we put our minds to.

I'm amazed that India managed a successful mission to Mars on just $75 million. Movies like Gravity and Gaurdians of the Galaxy cost around twice as much and they were only pretending to go to space.

[The Legendary Shark]

Funding space exploration would be a lot easier with publically created debt free money than with the currently used interest-bearing pretend money.
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Just saying - fix money creation and suddenly a great many things become possible.

[JOE SOAP]

NASA should do a Kickstarter.

[Frank]

We can't fuck the planet up, it's impossible.

Nonsense, we can acheive anything we put our minds to.

GUFFAWS to infinity.

[Jim_Campbell]

GUFFAWS to infinity...

...And beyond!

Cheers

Jim

[Jimmy Baker's Assistant]

I think not fucking up this planet is more essential to the long-term survival of humanity.

Yes, but as Proudhuff so rightly says, that does not preclude space exploration.