Space Programme: Overrated or Best thing since sliced bread?

[TinCow]

Err... no.
I said you don't need to send people in outer space to learn how to launch satellites in outer space. You can do that by trying to launch satellites into outer space.

Why would the moonlanding be the only possible advanced research project? Why would the moonlanding be the only thing drawing in scientists?

Scientist aren't gamers who need fancy things. They can knock themselves out with the most abstract ideas and research. And I think that projects such as the LHC attract enough brilliant minds for one. It even sounds like something scientists are even more interested in, the riddle solvers they are. Financing is of course important, but it is not like they were getting money or gold on the moon.

But that aside why does it justify, ignoring war crimes? Why is getting useful technology out of a research project only significant if it involves landing on a natural satellite, planetoid,...? Also if the earth is so much more susceptible to disasters, it means we only have fewer time to find solutions. We all know that space travel is far from being a reality, much further than any research projects helping to extend life on our own planet. If we put that budget into energy research, we could have made life quite a bit more easy and extend/solve real threatening problems for example. We would probably even have quite the budget left for more and other research.

Ok, so you're only disputing the utility of manned spaceflight?

In any case, your entire line of reasoning is a bit dubious. We are all humans. One of our common uniting aspects is our desire to explore the unknown. All societies have explored the boundaries of their world as far as their technology would permit, and as soon as new technology was developed that opened the possibility of further exploration, that exploration was done. Space is just another boundary. The very idea that there is even a cost/benefit analysis to be performed is a bit silly. Space exists and we are human; therefore we will explore it regardless of whether it is a good idea or not. We might as well embrace it, because that is who we are.

Would you really want to live in a world where humans were not curious about the unknown?

[Moros]

Ok, so you're only disputing the utility of manned spaceflight?

In any case, your entire line of reasoning is a bit dubious. We are all humans. One of our common uniting aspects is our desire to explore the unknown. All societies have explored the boundaries of their world as far as their technology would permit, and as soon as new technology was developed that opened the possibility of further exploration, that exploration was done. Space is just another boundary. The very idea that there is even a cost/benefit analysis to be performed is a bit silly. Space exists and we are human; therefore we will explore it regardless of whether it is a good idea or not. We might as well embrace it, because that is who we are.

Would you really want to live in a world where humans were not curious about the unknown?

Curiosity is a good reason to ignore warcrimes and is measurement of greatness. It appears I was rather deluded.

[Montmorency]

Curiosity is a good reason to ignore warcrimes

Power is a good reason to ignore war crimes.

[Papewaio]

Curiosity is a good reason to ignore warcrimes and is measurement of greatness. It appears I was rather deluded.

Von Braun probably had a longer sentence then many of the Gestapo. He was a prisoner of peace for quite sometime.

The scientists became part of the recoup cost of the war. If anything it really was the only capital worth taking from the defeated Axis as they were bleed dry at that point. Much better then fining them billions and laying the foundations for another World War.

=][=

As a fan of science and someone with a multidisciplinary science degree; I've worked in exploration and IT. The scope and breadth of science means that not all of us are interested or suitable for all areas of science or technology. We are also not all attracted to the same area.

All bar one of the physics students I did my undergrad with like space. Ironically the one left over worked on satellites...

[TinCow]

Curiosity is a good reason to ignore warcrimes and is measurement of greatness.

That's something of a non sequitur. If you're going to invalidate all benefits of an entire industry based on the actions of a subset of those people, you might as well invalidate all good that has ever been done by anyone in all of human history. Every single field ever created has been used by someone somewhere to do something horrible. You might as well just turn off your computer and throw it away, as the computer itself has caused countless deaths and misery. The modern computer itself was created as a machine of war. I therefore expect to never see you reply to this thread since you will clearly be so outraged that you will never get online again.