tailgater wrote:Half of the responses that have belittled the space program probably did so through an iPhone via a satellite.
I'm sure that irony, however, will be lost on most.
You’re right... No Satellites = No Internet and No Phone Service (land & cell).
The Hubble Space Telescope and the Space Station provided much to the US, in both what was made public and to the technologies we are not privileged to.
Can you ever justify the cost of pure research and exploration??? Without exploration Columbus would not have discovered this land, and our forefathers would not have ventured West. Without research Jonas E. Salk would not have discovered the vaccine for Polio, and syphilis would be as common as a cold only deadlier. What's next? Do you want to stop cancer research because it is not "economically viable"?
I offer the following quotes from the movie "Contact" featuring Jodie Foster (1997):
Executive: We must confess that your proposal seems less like science and more like science fiction.
Ellie Arroway: Science fiction. Well you're right, it's crazy. In fact, it's even worse than that, nuts.
[angrily slams down her briefcase and marches up to the desk]Ellie Arroway: You wanna hear something really nutty? I heard of a couple guys who wanna build something called an "airplane," you know you get people to go in, and fly around like birds, it's ridiculous, right? And what about breaking the sound barrier, or rockets to the moon, or atomic energy, or a mission to Mars? Science fiction, right? Look, all I'm asking, is for you to just have the tiniest bit of vision. You know, to just sit back for one minute and look at the big picture. To take a chance on something that just might end up being the most profoundly impactful moment for humanity, for the history... of history.
[last lines]Ellie Arroway: [to a group of children] I'll tell you one thing about the universe, though. The universe is a pretty big place. It's bigger than anything anyone has ever dreamed of before. So if it's just us... seems like an awful waste of space. Right?
And the USSR where the first to space... are you sure you want to leave them there as the last one standing on the hill?
Not me. Nor would JFK.