Travis You are mistaken! We do realise the benefits, but surely the current situation on earth demands that you set your own affairs in order before going further afield. I won't continue this discussion here because it's social, rather than technical. But you are very much mistaken in your interpretation of the original comments.
Gordon On 1 Aug 2011, at 02:57, Travis Siegel wrote: The comment here a while ago about the us no longer going into space, and being happy about it, because we need to focus on things here on earth before going into space got me all riled up. I honestly can't believe how many people don't realize the massive benefits derived from space based initiatives. It's actually taken me this long to settle down enough to compose a response that wasn't laced with explitives and remarks that really aren't condusive to ongoing discussions. However, now that I have reached that point, I went hunting for some space based technology that has paid off for the general public, and I'm not just talking about us citizens, or those countries that do maintain space programs. I first thought that I'd just make a blog post, and make a huge list of all the things we use daily that grew out of space related diciplines. Then I discovered Nasa already has such a publication. They're called spinoffs, and Nasa has a whole publication dedicated just to such technologies. The page for the publication is located at: http://www.sti.nasa.gov/tto/ Anyone who spends just half an hour or so browsing the publications here will find an amazing array of technologies, that get used everyday, and some of which you might not at first believe came out of space related work, but it's all true, and there's plenty of examples there, just on the front page of the publications, not even talking about what's actually mentioned inside the publications themselves. Anyone who believes even slightly that space is not a good use of funding seriously needs to peruse just a few of these documents, and you'll see that space technology has led to many many more research breakthroughs than anything else in modern history. I don't think that anyone with a highschool education could possibly make the claim that space is bad after examining just a few of these publications, not to mention the main page itself. Things like 100 percent stronger hip replacements, better parachutes that have (to date) saved 261 lives, And, this isn't even mentioning benefits like satellites which handle everything from phone calls to tv and internet access all over the world, weather prediction, and more. I don't know how many lives have been saved by weather satellites, but I'm sure it's in the thousands if not millions. Should we mention the computer technologies that have been assisted by space tech? Or what about the lighter and stronger materials used to build both aircraft and automobiles, saving both money and lives with their integration into current designs. I can't even begin to guess how many technologies have benefited indirectly from space tech, that most folks don't know came via that route. I can't believe that anyone would even think such things in today's day and age, but if you have any doubts, spend some time with the spinoffs site, and see for yourself just how much space tech has benefited you and those around you, then if you can still say honestly that you still think there should be no space program, because it's a waste of resources, then at that point, I'd have to accept your belief as your own, but at least it'd be an informed belief. Check out the site, and let's see what discussions we can take from it. the url again is: http://www.sti.nasa.gov/tto/ Enjoy. _______________________________________________ The Techno-Chat E-Mail forum is guaranteed malware, spyware, Trojan, virus and worm-free To modify your subscription options, please visit for forum's dedicated web pages located at http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/techno-chat You can find an archive of all messages posted to the Techno-Chat group since the 12th of April 2010, at: http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/pipermail/techno-chat/index.html _______________________________________________ The Techno-Chat E-Mail forum is guaranteed malware, spyware, Trojan, virus and worm-free To modify your subscription options, please visit for forum's dedicated web pages located at http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/techno-chat You can find an archive of all messages posted to the Techno-Chat group since the 12th of April 2010, at: http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/pipermail/techno-chat/index.html
