Quote from: SecondClass on June 02, 2016, 03:14:59 PM

We need to take all the money that's going into space exploration and put it here.

There is barely any federal money put into space exploration. The NASA budget is 0.5% of the federal budget (Which is already small), but it's not really important, because NASA isn't restricted to research in astronomy, so an even smaller percentage of that money is actually responsible for looking at things in space. Actually, only twenty-two percent of NASA's budget is responsible for space exploration research, so total federal spending comes out to 0.0011%. What a random, minimal area of funding to try to take money from.

You'd be much better off taking a small chunk out of the United States' unnecessarily enormous defense budget.

Except every cent that goes into space exploration research is a cent completely wasted. Defense actually serves a purpose.

Quote from: Winy on June 03, 2016, 02:18:14 PM

Quote from: SecondClass on June 03, 2016, 01:51:44 PM

Except every cent that goes into space exploration research is a cent completely wasted. Defense actually serves a purpose.

I already had this discussion with you some weeks back in another thread. Do I need to explain why you're wrong a second time?

Except you didn't say shit last time. All you did was give a laundry list of huge projects, each one requiring billions of dollars and thousands of days of work to be even somewhat practical

All you did was give a laundry list of huge projects, each one requiring billions of dollars and thousands of days of work to be even somewhat practical

Quote from: Verbatim on May 14, 2016, 12:48:24 PM

Quote from: BaconShelf on May 14, 2016, 12:36:18 PM

"Space travel and research is a waste of time and money."

the delusion is in thinking that this statement is delusional

>practically infinite free water that's already clean
>Basically infinite fuel sources, be it fusion fuel in gas giants or in lunar dirt, or millions of earth's worth of hydrocarbons on titan
>abundance of rare (andnot rare) earth materials in asteroid belts
>the need for lightweight materials necessitating research in materials development, quantum computing, renewable sources of food and energy and air
>microgravity and climate-controlled environments allow for better crop yields than on earth
>lack of atmosphere allows solar energy to be much more efficient than earthbased measures
>the ability to literally dispose of harmful materials by throwing them into a star or a gasgiant and permanently dispose of them

Also one to appeal to you

>meat being a highly inefficient means of nutrition means anyone living in space wouldn't be eating animals all too often

There's a bunch more I've forgot but I'm on the train right now so eh. The long term benefits outweight the short term disadvantages. Also, I haven't mentioned colonisation once, just something to note. Space travel directly or indirectly spurs the development of sustainable energy and other resources, as well as materials science allowing current manufacturing processes to get cheaper, quicker, less resource-intensive overall.

Plus, it enhances our knowledge of the universe we live in and the rules that make everything work. For me, that's prospect enough.

Guess I was wrong. I was probably under that impression because you liked the post, signifying that you agreed with it.