Discussion Topic |
|
This thread has been locked |
| Messages 1 - 9 of total 9 in this topic |
Forest
Trad climber
Tucson, AZ
|
|
|
Feb 25, 2005 - 01:30pm PT
|
that's awesome.
|
|
bwancy1
Trad climber
|
|
|
Feb 25, 2005 - 01:59pm PT
|
Wow.
Puts things into perspective.
What is important?
I think I need to re-evaluate...
|
|
wildone
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 25, 2005 - 04:39pm PT
|
For sure. Oh yeah, and NASA is shuttin her down.... :(
Edit; I just watched it again. My pulse goes up, and my breathing slows down. I could watch that all day. And yeah, it is a damn good way to put what's important into perspective. I'm going to go home and hug my roommates, and try to truly enjoy every second of this magical amazing blessing we have called life in which we are at the same time important in our microcosms, and totally insignificant in the larger scheme.
B
|
|
jacs
climber
Colorado
|
|
|
Feb 25, 2005 - 05:43pm PT
|
NASA isn't exactly shutting HST down, but they've made the decision not to service it, which is effectively a death sentence.
The official reason is "safety". Astronauts servicing the Hubble at its particular orbit would not be able to "take refuge" in the Space Station should the shuttle become damaged. However, it is not clear that going to the space station is any safer.
The "real" reason they won't service Hubble, however, is that NASA needs to start saving money to finish the Space Station and implement Bush's Moon-to-Mars "vision". GW's vision for NASA will effectively divert enormous amounts of money away from the basic research carried out with instruments such as HST. Apparently, the only important basic astronomical research now is planetary astronomy (including Moon-to-Mars) and searching for life (e.g. extra-solar planets). Never before has there been such a political direct top-down mandate as to what science is important, and what isn't. The astronomical community is just starting to feel the effects of these decisions, and the worst is yet to come.
No, I'm not bitter.
|
|
malabarista
Trad climber
San Francisco, Ca
|
|
|
Feb 25, 2005 - 05:56pm PT
|
Wow. Thanks for posting that.
|
|
wildone
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 25, 2005 - 07:01pm PT
|
Well said Jacs, well said.
Makes me sad.
|
|
Donny... the OHHH!- Riginal
Sport climber
Boald'r Effin See Oh
|
|
|
Feb 25, 2005 - 07:15pm PT
|
Yeah...that Dubya...he's the worst guy ever. He's even mean to telescopes.
|
|
oldsalt
Sport climber
Jacksonville, FL
|
|
|
Feb 26, 2005 - 02:31pm PT
|
I grew up in the 60's, totally gassed with seeing Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walking around on the Moon. My friends and I went to see the launch from my surfboard in the water off Kennedy Space Center. We were actually fired upon by nervous security guards (the Red Scare was in full flower).
I read Heinlein and Clark and Aasimov and dreamed of going to the Moon and Mars - as a Species, if not as an individual. I can still hear John F. Kennedy calling for us to put an American on the Moon by the end of the decade.
As I have grown older, I have had the sick feeling that our vision was narrowing on comfort and getting off "What is out There?" I have the opposite view of the effort to go to Mars.
Still, I want it all. I regret the de-funding of the Superconducting Super Collider in 1993. Was W in office then? Surely no Democratic administration would stand in the way of Science like our current president?
To see these issues as "Democrats GOOD!" and "Republicans EVIL!" is ludicrous. They're probably all crooks. Political posts are free speech, even on a rock climbing forum, so go for it! Just keep politics off the crag!
|
|
| Messages 1 - 9 of total 9 in this topic |
|
SuperTopo on the Web
|
Let us know!