State of the Union and "sputnik moment"

[Thabtos]

I can't believe the President used the Sputnik metaphor in the State of Union Address tonight. Any other U.S. President would have use a different metaphor, that of Kennedy's mandate to put a man on the moon. Our current President unfortunately couldn't use that old chestnut because he's spent the better part of his first term dismantling space flight and killing the U.S.'s plans to put a base on the moon.

By 2020 China will send a human to the moon. The U.S. will not, nor will they have the means to.


It may sound corny and far out to a lot of people, but the survival of humanity depends on our ability to colonize other planets, in other solar systems. We will always have war and poverty and other social issues as long as we exist, but if we don't begin work on exploring our universe, we won't have to worry about the other issues.

I think it's despicable that some people who claim to be experts on space like that hack Phl Plait don't complain when the Constellation program is murdered because it's "too bloated" and fail to consider that shooting a man to the moon would cost a fraction of the $1,142,953,899,999+ we've spent in Iraq and Afghanistan just shooting people.


Sorry to vent, but it really pisses me off that here I sit in the 21st century, reminiscing about the pinnacle of U.S. manned space exploration...the 1960's and 70's.

 

[Sloppy Joe]

Isn't it funny how we have a president who's so apparently disenchanted with his own country? When he was in Russia, he said the same thing, that we (the US) needed a "sputnik" moment. A what? Seriously? Haven't we as a nation already achieved a number of amazing things? Oh.... I know Mr President. You mean we need something big that the GOVERNMENT does, instead of the people doing stuff for themselves and showing the world that individuals have power, ingenuity and genius all on their own. I see... not!

For some reason, Obama can't help but make the US look shitty whenever he's out and about. When he was in France, he was badmouthing the US. When he was in the Middle East he bowed to their leaders. When have world leaders EVER bowed to one or the other? Never... Until Obama. This guy's diplomatic rhetoric blows.

 

[JD Thompson]

I had to smile when he used the 'sputnik' term, because all across America, so many people were thinking to themselves, what's that mean?
Then, after further thought, I realized that probably less than 10% of my fellow citizens deigned to watch the President. I didn't vote for the fellow, but when the President addresses Congress, you damn well better be listening. That's just the way I was raised, I guess.
Doubleplusgood to my companions here who have chided the current administration for cutting spending on space flight. I mean really, couldn't we do without one pork project in Alaska, or one bomber, and throw some red blooded Americans on the moon before the Chinese do it?

 

[Sean Elifritz]

I'm a person that is opposed to government spending but NASA is the one thing I wanted to see get a budget increase. Imo we should be spending much more on space exploration than we have been because that is an investment in the future. But it's funny how things work out, the left won't cut anything I want them to but the one thing I didn't want them to cut they did. But it makes me wonder what's happening behind the scenes. For all I know NASA has been castrated because the military has taken over those responsibilities in secret.

 

[truthseeker]

I can't believe the President used the Sputnik metaphor in the State of Union Address tonight. Any other U.S. President would have use a different metaphor, that of Kennedy's mandate to put a man on the moon. Our current President unfortunately couldn't use that old chestnut because he's spent the better part of his first term dismantling space flight and killing the U.S.'s plans to put a base on the moon.

By 2020 China will send a human to the moon. The U.S. will not, nor will they have the means to.


It may sound corny and far out to a lot of people, but the survival of humanity depends on our ability to colonize other planets, in other solar systems. We will always have war and poverty and other social issues as long as we exist, but if we don't begin work on exploring our universe, we won't have to worry about the other issues.

I think it's despicable that some people who claim to be experts on space like that hack Phl Plait don't complain when the Constellation program is murdered because it's "too bloated" and fail to consider that shooting a man to the moon would cost a fraction of the $1,142,953,899,999+ we've spent in Iraq and Afghanistan just shooting people.


Sorry to vent, but it really pisses me off that here I sit in the 21st century, reminiscing about the pinnacle of U.S. manned space exploration...the 1960's and 70's.

Couldn't agree more. NASA is the pinnacle of our technological achievement and I hate to see it being dismantled like this.

---------- Post added at 06:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:36 PM ----------

Isn't it funny how we have a president who's so apparently disenchanted with his own country? When he was in Russia, he said the same thing, that we (the US) needed a "sputnik" moment. A what? Seriously? Haven't we as a nation already achieved a number of amazing things? Oh.... I know Mr President. You mean we need something big that the GOVERNMENT does, instead of the people doing stuff for themselves and showing the world that individuals have power, ingenuity and genius all on their own. I see... not! For some reason, Obama can't help but make the US look shitty whenever he's out and about. When he was in France, he was badmouthing the US. When he was in the Middle East he bowed to their leaders. When have world leaders EVER bowed to one or the other? Never... Until Obama. This guy's diplomatic rhetoric blows.

That's the name of the game here - to make US look weak on all fronts. What would it take to get a real leader in power, not some community organizer or political hack from either side?

 

[Gene Steinberg]

Except that he didn't mean it literally. He meant it as a metaphor for the incentive for advancement, then went into detail about what he was referring to.

At the same time, it's unfortunate how they'd ruined the space program, but that goes back 30 years, and the opposition who runs the House clearly has no stomach to try to change the situation.

 

[pixelsmith]

By 2020 China will send a human to the moon. The U.S. will not, nor will they have the means to.

Why would it take so long to do this?

 

[Thabtos]

At the same time, it's unfortunate how they'd ruined the space program, but that goes back 30 years, and the opposition who runs the House clearly has no stomach to try to change the situation.

In all fairness that opposition party drafted the NASA Authorization Act of 2005, and the previous President signed it into law.

---------- Post added at 02:24 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:22 AM ----------

Why would it take so long to do this?

Their stated timetable says a human on the moon by 2020.

Their space program was well behind the U.S. and Russia's, but at least they're setting goals and making progress towards it.

 

[Gene Steinberg]

In all fairness, neither party has had the stomach to really make the space program expand. We should have been much farther along by now.

 

[Sean Elifritz]

In all fairness, neither party has had the stomach to really make the space program expand. We should have been much farther along by now.

I completely agree with that. Both have been complicit. But the degree to which the current administration gutted things shocked me, especially on the heels of the previous Whitehouse having put into place a fairly ambitious plan to go to Mars (Now also scrapped). But it makes me wonder if some of NASA's former responsibilities haven't gone black budget.

Edit: But when I say that I don't mean I think the military is going to be taking trips to the moon, Mars, etc. I simply suspect that it is now in possession of a space vehicle of its own that is better than the space shuttle. And it will probably be used for military things like reconnaissance, spying, etc. But the military using it to do something useful like science or exploration? I doubt it. Those days appear to be over for a while.

 

[The Pair of Cats]

The US government prefers to spend money on war than space exploration.

 

[truthseeker]

Makes you wonder if there is a parallel space program going on and NASA is just a "windows dressing" program. I once heard an engineer with a very high level security clearance at Northrup or one of it's subsidiaries who said that the kind of stuff that they already have and currently working on will absolutely blow your mind. We're talking about stuff written in science fiction. So who knows?

 

[Sloppy Joe]

Makes you wonder if there is a parallel space program going on and NASA is just a "windows dressing" program. I once heard an engineer with a very high level security clearance at Northrup or one of it's subsidiaries who said that the kind of stuff that they already have and currently working on will absolutely blow your mind. We're talking about stuff written in science fiction. So who knows?

I'd believe it. I think most, if not all, of the UFOs we currently see are man-made vehicles.

 

[stephen dedalus]

Makes you wonder if there is a parallel space program going on and NASA is just a "windows dressing" program. I once heard an engineer with a very high level security clearance at Northrup or one of it's subsidiaries who said that the kind of stuff that they already have and currently working on will absolutely blow your mind. We're talking about stuff written in science fiction. So who knows?

Richard Dolan seems to think that this is the case, or at least that it is highly probable. Pages 457-461 of the second volume of his UFOs and the National Security State contain the account of Brad Sorenson, who claims that in November of 1988 he attended an open house and air show at Norton AFB with an important DoD figure, at which he witnessed the "Alien Reproduction Vehicle" (ARV), aka the Flux Liner. The ARV supposedly "could perform at light speed or better"; it "ran on energy obtained through the vacuum"; it had "already performed reconnaissance of all planets of the solar system in a search for life" and had found no life; and it "looked 'ancient'...as though it had been used extensively" (459).

How reliable this information may be is anyone's guess. Dolan notes some inconsistencies in Sorenson's narrative, including a revision in which Sorenson sees the ARV after he and his DoD companion are flown from Norton AFB to Palmdale (458 ).

Also noteworthy are the the obvious implications of the name "Alien Reproduction Vehicle."