re: Russia to ban Americans from the Intl. Space Station

Honestly, serves us right. It is absolutely humiliating for us to depend on the Russians to get to space. The best thing that could happen to our space program is for Russia to kick us the frick out of space and for China to land on the Moon (which they're actively planning on).

Soon enough the dumb brutish nature of our country would come out, have a working shuttle to get us not only into space but to the Moon within the year. Then we'll tell the other countries to go frick themselves due to the new insecurity of our dick size, and we'll go to Mars within 5 years. It will advance science for me, but will appease the "America, frick Yeah!" mentality for the average idiot.

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Those damn robotic missions were a huge success (not to mention, cheap). I don't know why they're not doing more of those. I think one of them is still freaking running.

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Oh yeah, huge success. Found a god damn rock. It takes months for those machines to do what a human can do in five minutes.

And who gives a flying frick about robots out in space anymore? After the Sputnik, the Viking, and the Voyager probes, no one gave a shite about these machines in space. We need a man out there risking his neck for the advancement in science and mankind at large. Probes aren't going to do it anymore. Mankind must go there, or we will fail as a species.

And before you say it, yes I know the Curiosity rover has uncovered more than that, but a man could do in a few days what that robot has done in over a year.

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We're talking about a cut to manned space flight, not all the various types of NASA missions.

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Manned space flight is what makes the money though. When were in a race with the Soviets to the moon in the 1960s, technology as we know it advanced on an accelerated scale. Seeing images of astronauts walking on the surface of another world inspired millions of people from around the world to get involved in science, mathematics and engineering.

People don't get boners from images beamed back by unmanned probes from the surface of Mars. They may look at them and say, "Oh, that's interesting," but they won't be transfixed to their screens like they would be if a man was beaming those images back from millions of miles away.

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Manned space flight is what makes the money though

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For who? Not for NASA. Its extremely expensive.

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People don't get boners from images beamed back by unmanned probes from the surface of Mars

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We should only fund NASA programs that give people hard-ons! Drink Brawndo!

Who gives a frick about Russia and their fricking threats. They won't be able to afford their program without us lifting the sanctions on them pussies.
There is nothing, and I mean nothing, Russia can do and sustain to harm us in this manner.

By next year, Putin or whoever runs that dump, will be begging for us to lift sanctions.

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Its not always necessary to send a living person to do it, though. Manned space flight should be reserved for when it is necessary and pays heavy dividends. Repairs and upgrades to the Hubble telescope, for instance, are probably the single biggest most important thing manned space flight has provided us in the past 30 years.

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No. No one will remember the Curiosity Rover even 5 years from now (if they still do today). A guy walks on fricking Mars and gathers up that evidence, he'll be remembered for thousands if not tens of thousands of years. Despite the epic clusterfrick of his mission, Magellan is remembered centuries after his death. Merely 2 generations ago we were willing to accept these losses, and we should still in the name of exploration and the advancement of mankind. Mankind as a whole won't advance until either the Singularity or when man steps foot on Mars happens. It will be a single event that will be measured and remembered for thousands of years. The man who first steps foot on Mars will have a reputation and name that far exceeds Columbus, to where literally every person in the world (aside from isolated tribes) should be able to tell you his name.

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We should only fund NASA programs that give people hard-ons! Drink Brawndo!

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Yeah, we should you moron, since stuff like that inspires people to dream and advance technology. Do you know what the Moon Landing did for this country? It was the single defining moment for us as a species and is the greatest accomplishment we have done as a species. Going to Mars would change everything. It would accelerate technology, would make us look more towards the long term, would change our view as a species, and would prolong our potential for survival. It would be the single greatest and innovative moment in man since Columbus set foot in the Americas. It would change everything.

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The US will have its own delivery vehicles by 2020.

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Doubtful. The next president will change course AGAIN on manned space flight.

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For who? Not for NASA. Its extremely expensive.

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The private sector. As I stated before, a whole generation of mathematicians, engineers, and scientists was spawned by the space race of the 1950s and 60s.

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We should only fund NASA programs that give people hard-ons! Drink Brawndo!

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Lest we forget, NASA was originally founded to put a man in space before the Russians. Unmanned probes were simply a byproduct of that quest as well as the quest for the moon.