Speaking of presidential candidates--or former ones, atleast. Former President Bill Clinton is giving a short talk tonight at the Redwood Acres Fairground, just up the street from my house in Eureka, CA. I briefly entertained the notion of going to listen--but by the time I got off from work at 4pm there was already about a thousand people there waiting to get in, and they're only letting in 400. Oh well...



No...Space isn't a really hot political item. It's too easy to keep going over the same old, same old--God knows we have enough "Same Old" problems in this country! Solutions of any one of those problems will be tough, but we need to solve all of them concurrently! And the only way we can do that is by growing the economy to naturally increase our tax revenues. And only by investing heavily in growth generating, high technology sectors--one of which is stimulated by the Space Program--will we ever achieve solutions for all of the big problems facing the United States.

It's a little frustrating to see all these candidates spinning their wheels--and nobody's really proposing an integrated solution...as a nation we have to figure out a way to come up with a national healthcare system (ka-ching--about 1 Trillion dollars there;) we need to become energy independent (ka--ching another trillion dollars!) we need to develop a domestic alternative to overseas petroleum for transportation fuels (high hundreds of billions to about 1 Trillion dollars) and we need to pay of our national debt (somewhere between 4 and 8 Trillion.) Oh yeah, and pay for a space program (currently about 60 billion dollars every 4 years.)

In space, there are plentiful resources for energy and materials to supply humanity for thousands of years, maybe even tens of thousands...

The easiest and least costly, and yet *surprisingly* the most valuable resouce that we can bring to Earth from space is Energy...and the next most valuable resource is platinum group metals which are "Energy Enablers" because they allow for the creation of catalysts which allows for widespread use of fuel cell powered vehicles. Now supposedly fuel cell vehicles are a big priority because of concerns over global warming--fine! Space derived PGM's can supply the demand and potentially most of the energy...

Space exploration and exploitation will be critical to humanity's long term survival, and space nuclear energy systems for both propulsion and power will be critical enabling technologies in humanity's quest to achieve these goals. Until this is generally recognized by the public, candidates will continue to turn a blind eye to it...

Politicians are notoriously nearsighted--they cannot see past the next election. And that is a pity--we need all the politicians that have the longest views and thus humanity's best interests in mind. We have to look at the biggest picture: not just here-now, but there-then--and until we start thinking in terms of generations down the road, we are doomed to spin our collective wheels in the quagmire of our current situation!

Wheww! O.K., I retire the pulpit!




-- Edited by GoogleNaut at 02:24, 2008-01-17

The main issue, is that space is just isn't that important right now. Right now, what is important are energy production and storage, possibly the type that is less dependent on prehistoric slime. The problems of Global Warming, as unlikely it may seem its existence, is also not to be
ignored.

I have high hopes for the civil industry, but the problem is that its still in very much in its infancy. Rockets are very sensitive and complex technologies, especially the type that people can go into and come back alive.

Thing is, that concentrating on technologies for energy is very important short them, and very likely long term. If we were to solve that problem, a glimmer of light for rockets may present itself. Thing is, we only know how to make chemical-based rocket motors, and even with those we are exploring their limits. Everybody on this board knows that the answer is nuclear, thing is, that we still have problems with that. Problems we have to focus on, like breeding fuel and developing better compounds to store trans-uranic fissile material. These technologies are still on the drawing board.


In space, there are plentiful resources for energy and materials to supply humanity for thousands of years, maybe even tens of thousands...

There is the small problem that with our current technologies, it costs more to get the resources then what we gain from trying to access them.

We are using what are essentially glorified and overcomplicated afterburners to get into LEO, and getting there is a stretch as it is.

Politicians are notoriously nearsighted--they cannot see past the next election. And that is a pity--we need all the politicians that have the longest views and thus humanity's best interests in mind. We have to look at the biggest picture: not just here-now, but there-then--and until we start thinking in terms of generations down the road, we are doomed to spin our collective wheels in the quagmire of our current situation!

"Politics is about making answers to questions that are completely different then those asked."
-Arthur Bandalo

If politics was ever about keeping the future of the country/nation/polis in mind, then we would be living in a better world.

Politics is more about the self-interest of powerful entities, both wealthy corporations and countries. Not only that but as well as preserving the status quo that these powerful entities benefit from and preventing or slowing its change so they can adopt.

Putting somebody in charge that actually thinks the way you state will not stay in office for long, or will have his/her hands tied quite quickly. People have to be taught the hard way of the realities this age is facing, whether they like it or not.

I kinda tend to agree. PANIC is not where N. America needs to go. My neighbourhood in Florida after a hurricane was without electrical power for a week, no petrol, no access to money, eating canned food and drinking water from the bathtub to flushing your toilet. That feeling of urgent survival for different age groups is a huge stress-it's a freaky 'Katrina' thing.

The problem is somebody has to step forward soon to begin a correction on the massive economic imbalance otherwise you will have a 'run on banks'.
In order to stabilize you must deal with health and housing now, it's triage dealing with the least urgent problems first meaning reduce the international military footprint. Issue debt free legal tender or bring back the 'Greenback' 'Lincoln dollar' backed in silver. Freeze prices and low loan interest rates for 5 years. Drop the personal income tax for 5 years only tax goods bought. If you are in the industry of energy or fuel production you get tax break if you participate in the nation's energy self-sufficeincy program. Reduce and freeze medical care costs-children get mandatory free medical care and education.
Make voting mandatory allow for list voting for open participation in the political process.

For high tech space exploration: NASA needs to be dropped. Space technology needs to get back to its roots make it a non-profit society at the service of assisting companies and industry push into space and making it a real space industry instead of the fake one we have now!

Please!   

-- Edited by NUKE ROCKY44 at 23:06, 2008-01-18

The current leadership is living in a fools paradise and by that I mean the dominate U.S. governing class which include Bush, Clinton, Obama, McCain, etc.

 Yea...I agree.

This is how it's going down:

The Dems pick the ticket at the end of the convention last minute selection:

1st Choice:Obama(p)-Edwards(vp)

2nd Choice:Clinton(p)-Edwards(vp)

At a political expense pick...

1st choice: Obama(p)-Clinton(vp)
2nd choice: Clinton(p)-Obama(vp)

Clinton will bail if there's even the slightest hint she may not win the nomination.
Dems are too scared she may seem polarizing to the voting public in a general election.
 
If it's an Obama-Edwards ticket this would send the Republican to a tough choice they would have to match the blockbuster duo for change. This is outside the comfort zone of republicans. They will select at the convention floor last minute.

1st choice: Huckabee(p)-Paul(vp)

If dems choose a status quo ticket:

2nd choice: McCain(p)-Romney(vp)

The winner is Dems, Obama(p)-Edwards(vp)-on a recount!

Whoever is in the White house will be presiding over a confederated Iraq that has seeked it own level of stability. Meaning the three zones will have its own jurisdiction: sunni-saudi, shia-Iran, kurds-Turkey with district of Baghdad being a loose government coordinator.

On NASA bureaucracy, it will die on the vine as soon as the the ISS contact is over.

The Shuttle will retire and so will NASA-hopefully it should be out of space activity only keep aeronautics and testing facilities. All space activity should be tranfered to the space-NPO. The shuttle with modifications should be run by the NPO.  
Ares-Orion can continue but not under total LockMart control. 

Paul will most likely end up running as the Libertarian candidate.  I think he was just running in the Republican race to increase his support for the general election.  His hope is to draw disaffected Republican into the Libertarian camp.

Nope...I think Paul is the tail wagging the dog. He's hoping to pull the republican party off of a steady diet of the musty 60+ voter mentality easily influenced by mainstream media.
I think republicans recognize if they don't change in this election they will be run over by young diverse Dems especially if they elect the Black JFK (Obama). I think you will see more attention paid to Paul in the mainstream media because they're forced to report on a steady climb in primaries-I think his campaign is to run till the convention.

Paul is the republican 'safety valve' at the convention.

If he garners sufficient support thru the convention the republican leadership will have to negotiate either put him on the ticket or offer him a high profile post in a republican administration to prevent him from going to the libertarian camp since in a 2 party system all it does is draw votes from republicans.

On the dems side I still think Clinton even with her star power will not be enough to win a general election for the dems. In fact all I've ever read about is how the republican party bosses hope to run against a clinton ticket. 

The Bloomberg pose is a 'status quo geezer' vote sucker from both parties. 

Well...yes. Sorry, it's nice to speculate who people will pick to run the United States gov't. Naturally, it does influence space policy in a big way.
Personally I value substance over style in a party and its candidate for president. Although the U.S. is in recession; this election year has already educated Americans on what is needed to correct failed policies.
If Americans don't heed the warnings then it would not be from lack of message Dr. Paul has at least provided the message, it's up to the electorate to chose a direction to take the country and ultimately a level of space achievements in the future.

I disagree--space, and specifically space industrialization, is the one thing that will accelerate the economy enough so that we can address the other dozen or so major problems facing all of us, not just US citizens: energy and resource supplies; food shortages; fresh, clean drinking water; disease; etc, etc; the list goes on and on. Many of these problems can be directly and/or indirectly linked to supplies of inexpensive energy...though it seems incredible, a global cheap, plentiful energy supply will go a long way to tackling many 'traditional' problems...

Exploitation of space resources for energy production/utilization on Earth will be among the most economical uses of space resources here on Earth. The alternative is the laissez-faire policy that we seem to be inflicted with in perpetuaty. Our politicians need to become aware of the need to develop policies that will make us energy independent.