Drudge Retort: Red Meat for Yellow Dogs
Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Space shuttle Discovery returned safely to Earth today, ending a 15-day build and repair mission that was among the most challenging in shuttle history.

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Awesome! I heard the boom here while camping, it was something....never would have had I not been leaf looking all day....

Hey Lay, where's "here"?

central Alabama.. I had Paul Harvey on the radio and "BOOM" , then a lower "BOOM" about 5 after noon... just like they said..it was cool

Woopty Dooooo.

Now that we have more launches than landings, a good landing would be good news. I still haven't figured out what the shuttle has done for us in the last 15 years.

I still haven't figured out what the shuttle has done for us in the last 15 years.

It has helped build the ISS for one.

Now that we have more launches than landings, a good landing would be good news. I still haven't figured out what the shuttle has done for us in the last 15 years.

Posted by Sniper at 2007-11-08 01:02 PM | Reply |

Based on your post history, this does not surprise me in the least....

These guys are Heroes with the Right Stuff!

These are the guys that should be getting the medals!

So sorry sniper doesn't get it. Maybe he should learn to read?

Perhaps he is one those children that got "left behind"...

It has helped build the ISS for one.

Posted by goatman

What are we going to do with that outdated piece of junk? It is held together by chewing gum and bailing wire and is operated by a 20 year old Russian computer they stold from IBM back in the mid 80s. You know, back when they had two floppy drives and no hard drive and ran on DOS 5.1.

What are we going to do with that outdated piece of junk?

Probably what we did with Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo artifacts. Put them in the Smithsonian and move on.

You know, back when they had two floppy drives and no hard drive and ran on DOS 5.1.

Excellent analogy. When the Altair first came out in the '70s people were asking "what good is this?" I guess people weren't smart enough or have sufficient technology to jump from Eniac in the '40s to Windows XP that same day. It toook a few years

Likewise, I doubted if William Shockley envisioned the iPhone when he invented the transistor.

You build on what you got, Sniper, and keep on building, building, and building. The day mankind stops exploring new frontiers is the day we die.

I love the space program, but we really need to start privatizing it. Progress at NASA has been slow, as government always is. A market driven space program is far more likely to yield results.

What a bloody waste of money.

There are children without health care that mean old Bush won't pay for and here is good cash thrown to the stars.

A market driven space program is far more likely to yield results.

I agree with that.


There are children without health care that mean old Bush won't pay for and here is good cash thrown to the stars.

I hate to be the one to break the news, but there will ALWAYS be some sort of social ill in this country. Always. To use that as an excuse not to expand our frontiers is lame.


Or do you suggest we sit and stagnate on this planet until every child has shoes and a full belly? Sounds nice, but it ain't gonna happen mr. rose colored shades.

There are children without health care that mean old Bush won't pay for and here is good cash thrown to the stars.

Posted by Petrous at 2007-11-08 04:19 PM

when that Asteroid comes crashing down on yer head all the health care in the world won't do you any good... we need health care for our children and a robust space program. They are not mutually exclusive.

If you had said we could do without pouring 2 trillion dollars into the sands of the Middle East then you might have had a point...

The universe is a violent place and we need to pay attention and we need to be prepared.

Or perhaps you are leaving it up to yer God?

Good luck with that! Refer to the recent deaths of over 250,000 souls in the recent Indonesian Tsunami for how well yer God will protect you from a disaster.

Agreed Goatman. The sick sad truth is that we need a lower class and we need an upper class. We need people to do the crap that nobody wants to do, and we need people who have the money to afford the infrastructure of our country and who provide the jobs. Without that you have communism, which is a great concept, but it doesn't work because nothing gets done. Everyone is paid whether they contribute to society or not. That breeds laziness.

Donner,

The sun is going to die in 2 trillion years. We better keep spending money on it to make sure we're safe.

You spend money on what is needed and then on what you want. Finding planets far away is not needed - it's a want and a wasteful price.

Another tax dollar that RP will save us from being spent foolishly.

"The sun is going to die in 2 trillion years."
-Mr "Junk Science"


Really?
Didn't do too well in astronomy did you?
The universe is 13.7 Billion years old.

"Death of an "Ordinary" Star

After a low mass star like the Sun exhausts the supply of hydrogen in its core, there is no longer any source of heat to support the core against gravity. Hydrogen burning continues in a shell around the core and the star evolves into a red giant. When the Sun becomes a red giant, its atmosphere will envelope the Earth and our planet will be consumed in a fiery death.

Meanwhile, the core of the star collapses under gravity's pull until it reaches a high enough density to start burning helium to carbon. The helium burning phase will last about 100 million years, until the helium is exhausted in the core and the star becomes a red supergiant. At this stage, the Sun will have an outer envelope extending out towards Jupiter. During this brief phase of its existence, which lasts only a few tens of thousands of years, the Sun will lose mass in a powerful wind. Eventually, the Sun will lose all of the mass in its envelope and leave behind a hot core of carbon embedded in a nebula of expelled gas. Radiation from this hot core will ionize the nebula, producing a striking "planetary nebula", much like the nebulae seen around the remnants of other stars. The carbon core will eventually cool and become a white dwarf, the dense dim remnant of a once bright star."

map.gsfc.nasa.gov

Zat,
2 trillion years - the point was exaggeration.

If the sun was going to die in a million years, the point is the money is better spent for what is needed here on Earth, not space.

First you pay off your needs, then you enjoy your luxuries.

Petrous gets no satellite pictures, no long distance phone calls, no airfreight, no trips to Hawaii, no weather data, etc.

NASA budget $10.6B
Medicare $36B
Pentagon $471B
Social security $479B
Lost in Iraq $???

US budget $2.1T.
www.icdr.us

Looks like NASA's about the only thing with any return.

First you pay off your needs, then you enjoy your luxuries.

Then we should do away with all other scientific research as well until every social ill in the country is fixed. Get rid of the arts, too. They don't put a single grain of cereal into a babe's mouth. Museums -- forget it? Ever try to keep warm with a dinosaur bone? Parks -- Society is better off using that land to grow corn and feed the hungry if you ask me.

The gov't doesn't need to fund museums, art, etc.

There is scientific research that is directly beneficial. Then there is the $$ spent to look at stars gazillions miles away to determine what they're made of.

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