We've been lied to!

[Irace86.2.0]

...waiting for the flat Earth'ers to post their proof videos too..

Originally Posted by ZionsWrath

Interesting.

What do you think about privatizing space travel and companies like SpaceX?

From what little I know, NASA's budget is somewhat proportional to the interest the public and government has in space exploration and science. Interest was high during the race with Russia in the 60's. Now it is low. Tax payers either don't want to invest more in NASA, or the government doesn't feel it is in the interest of the people to allocate more of the budget to NASA.

What are the effects of this? NASA is constantly under a microscope. If they do anything risky and fail then that is tax payer money going down the drain. If they don't have results from their efforts then they could lose more of their budget, so they don't throw all their money into new rocket technology or other single focus projects. They spread it out among imaging research, space station and space studies, planetary research, etc. Their projects are low risk and budget conscience, so parts are resourced from multiple sources from the lowest bidders. Their efforts to be efficient are not the same as a company would be.

Take SpaceX for example. Musk wants to go to Mars. He has other goals, but that is his focus. To do it he needed to reduce costs. He found that if he could reuse a rocket then that would be a huge savings. He also realized that he could make the parts in house and save money doing so. It means investing more capital and taking more risk, but there is inefficiency in trying to source parts then trying to figure out how to make them work together and paying people to integrate multiple different systems. This is the Apple vs Android approach that Musk is taking.

My general perception is that we need NASA, and we need private business. NASA can adopt technology from the private sector, and the private sector can help to flame interest in space exploration, so there is more public interest in science and space exploration. More investment is a good thing. Space isn't getting privatized, as long as the people/tax payers still think NASA is relevant and can contribute something to science, research and space exploration.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by Irace86.2.0

...waiting for the flat Earth'ers to post their proof videos too..

[Leonardo]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

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