Yes
No
To help dispel that notion, here's a list of missions currently in operation. Take a few minutes to look through them if you like. Private industry has no interest in undertaking that degree of scientific exploration anytime soon. To see that sort of "problem" arise is something I'd love though, to be honest. NASA programs like COTS and CCDev are beneficial for the agency and everyone else.
Neil deGrasse Tyson on the privatisation of space.
- John Milton in AreopagiticaGive me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties
i'm pretty sure that if a deep space exploration is going to be lunched a military presence on the ship is also needed, who is gonna protect the scientists if they encounter hostiles life forms or internal struggles arise on the ship?
And btw military budget is spent for the largest part in buying weapon such as carriers, airplanes etc. Intested of building a new carrier you can build a space-carrier.
Also private space travel aren't something to rely on, unless there is a profit no one is gonna putting money into it, and as thing are right now even in the event that something valuable is found in space or another planet no one is authorized to make business out of it.
Last edited by bufferunderrun; 2013-01-20 at 10:51 AM.
Who cares about using money to solve our problems here?
We gotta go to the big grey rock in the sky!
No, it's for the good of the companies who make money from it. Any benefits to mankind is incidental to that. Which does not mean that there won't be any, but don't mistake the motives for altruistic ones.
Anyhow, NASA is extremely underfounded, as is most space agencies these days.
DeviantArt Page: http://jkuhl.deviantart.com/
"Whoever did this obviously did not know about the people of Boston. Nothing these terrorists do is going to shake them… For Pete's sake, Boston was founded by the Pilgrims, a people so tough, they had to buckle their goddamn hats on." -Stephen Colbert
The United States spends far more than any other country on healthcare. Additional spending isn't an investment, it's money down the toilet of making sure our doctors and industry executives are wealthier than their counterparts in other nations.
---------- Post added 2013-01-20 at 08:30 AM ----------
This sardonic reply only works well if you pretend NASA has never solved terrestrial problems.
People keep saying "space can wait until x problem is fix"
If we wait until all the problems are fixed, then we're never going to space.
DeviantArt Page: http://jkuhl.deviantart.com/
"Whoever did this obviously did not know about the people of Boston. Nothing these terrorists do is going to shake them… For Pete's sake, Boston was founded by the Pilgrims, a people so tough, they had to buckle their goddamn hats on." -Stephen Colbert