Quote Originally Posted by MrSplitshot View Post
Don't get me wrong, the Space Program has done some great things for technology over the decades...but we're spending biiillllllions and biillllllions of dollars to go dig around in the sandbox on Mars...

The only thing good it has done so far is create some high dollar NASA jobs, probably some private tech company contracts that have worked on the equipment. I sure hope we bring something back that we can turn for a profit or learn how to make something grand with the technology that changes the world. Maybe we'll dig up a Martian diamond that we can flip for a couple million at the pawn shop when we get back...or maybe a Mickey Mantle rookie card!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch on this planet....will there be any money left in Social Security when I hit retirement? What happens when we hit the fiscal cliff at the end of the year? We've got 8.3% unemployment, droves of underemployed, and a metric crap-ton of people that have given up looking for work altogether. We need jobs. We need American manufacturing. Welfare...healthcare...bailouts, are we broke, are we not...Europe debt crisis...oil prices...record drought driving up food prices...homeless and hungry all over the world, including here at home...

Hey, I know, let's spend a few billion to go to Mars! And I few billion to go to Jupiter!

one billion dollars.jpg

That would be kinda like me taking all the money out of my savings account to put in a swimming pool while my roof had a gigantic hole in it and it was raining in my living room.

But I'll agree, pictures from Mars are cool to look at.

I keep hoping a little red guy will run out and wave.

If we discover that Mars is inhabited by millions of little red people that look and act like Snookie from Jersey Shore, can we just fly the rover home and pretend it didn't happen?
here are a few things that came from all the wasted NASA money. 1. SATELLITE TELEVISION: Our world would not be the same without the satellites now in orbit around the Earth – all thanks to the space programme. They not only give us satellite broadcast television and radio but also power telecommunications including mobile phones and terrestrial TV networks.2. SAT NAV: The global positioning system on which our in-car navigation systems are based was developed by the US Department of Defense. They would not exist without the space satellites.
3. GOOGLE EARTH: Mapping was never as accurate as the images we can now get thanks to satellites which from space can even see a dog in your back garden.
4. VIRTUAL REALITY: Nasa-developed research and advanced technology devices allow users to project themselves into a computer-generated environment. When coupled with a stereo-viewing device and appropriate software, it creates a feeling of actually being there.
5. ARTIFICIAL LIMBS: Prosthetic limbs are not new but advancements in space robotics are being adapted to create more lifelike, functioning limbs.
6. DIALYSIS: Modern machines to do the work of the kidneys – for patients waiting for or unable to have transplants – were developed as a result of a Nasa-developed chemical process.
7. MRI AND CAT SCANS: Nasa did not invent magnetic resonance imaging but it has contributed to major advances thanks to research into computer enhancement of pictures sent from the moon. Digital image processing has led to enhanced images of human organs.
8. BREAST CANCER SCREENING: A silicon chip originally developed for Nasa’s Hubble Space Telescope makes the testing process less painful, less scarring and less expensive than traditional biopsy methods.