RE: Hubble Space Telescope
Hello David,
Yes, space exploration is very poorly-planned. The Apollo missions ceased in the early-mid 1970's and we haven't seen any expansion of them. It is US taxpayers' money that funds it, and maybe it was justified during the Cold War but cannot now be so.
I was wondering exactly the same thing. Why send up a telescope that wasn't operating to the full? Maybe it was sent up in a rush to beat Russia, like the Soyuz programme?
Love,
Patsy.
xxxxxxx
RE: Hubble Space Telescope
LOL, this is a bit off-subject, but in 1991 I met a young (22) American businessman on his first trip abroad and his first business trip alone. One evening I was watching a documentary about all the Apollo landings, with footage of all the famous scenes of the 70s - playing golf on the moon with rocks, and the moon buggy, etc. It turned out that this guy - who was American - didn't know that man had ever been to the moon! So I had to fill him in on the whole story. Goodness, is that an anecdote about American naivety or what??
RE: Hubble Space Telescope
Blimey! what had been going on in the USA for your visitor not to know about the Moon landing?
Flip! He must have been living in the hills or somewhere!
Love,
Patsy.
xxxxx
RE: Hubble Space Telescope
ORIGINAL: songstress
Blimey! what had been going on in the USA for your visitor not to know about the Moon landing?
Flip! He must have been living in the hills or somewhere!
Love,
Patsy.
xxxxx
USA passport holder here [sm=hidesbehindsofa.gif]
Uh, yeah, this is hard to fathom. The younger generation who were not born then missed all the wonder of the 60s and 70s and have been learned to conceptualize via TV patterns, such as 30 minute shows with advertising timed just long enough to get snack food out of the frig, and news shows that are structured for the maximum impact no matter what the content, to woo more lucrative sponsorship. There is a subset who are programmed by PC gaming. They're called nerds.
A bit more expansive on this would be to say something like: assume there are 3 major dynamics of any society: economic, political (decision-making), and cultural. These are not static or even balanced most of the time, at least on a global level. In the middle ages of Europe, the dominant dynamic/force was the Church, which made the cultural dyanamics strongest and sometimes even caused human suffering. The political was the ally to the strongest dynamic, and the economic dynamic was pretty flat, until the guild system developed and strengthened eventually into the industrial revolution.
(I know, way to quick and facile a history but I'm doing broad strokes on purpose, in order to get to this .....)
In our time, the economic dynamic is dominant. Even personal relationships are often subject to thoughts of income/outgo and balance of payments. But certainly, the power of global economic forces is behind most of the decisions made in the arena of the political (the sub-sets of political are social order, social justice, and communal welfare). And the cultural, which includes education, basic roles, language, religion, etc, is collapsed, one manifestation of which is those arenas are fighting within themselves -- major battles over whether Spanish should be taught in public schools in the USA, e.g.. An example of the overall imbalance might be that in most countries teachers are paid less than corporation executives or even middle-level managers or accountants.
In the USA, people who work in the political dynamic have to go begging for their livelihoods from the dominant dynamic, the economic. My personal observation is that there are 2 main clusters of sources for political funds ... the oil industry and its relatives; and the pharmaceutical industry and its allies such as the health insurance plans. If you see a politician attacking one of these, such as drilling for oil in the pristine Alaskan wilderness, look closely at how he finances his laudable stance, and you'll find he's quite beholden to the pharmaceutical industry. And vice versa, usually.
Even our previously non-political Public Broadcasting Corporation is now coming under attack .. the late Bill Moyers, a true-blue Texan, who recently retired, has had all his shows scrutinized to prove that there were more anti-GWB and anti-administration comments by his guests than pro. So, unless the sponsors of TV shows see some financial advantage to teaching the new spending generation about the Moon landings, it ain't gonna happen.
Anyhow, yes, science is part of the cultural dynamic except when it suits the economic dynamic who think they can get something from it.
What needs to happen is for someone to "discover" petroleum on Mars.
At least, that would help the USA scientific support budget, where we are so much dependent on petrol .. Europe still has trains and fewer long distances cross-country, etc, so a bit less dependent. Russia, however, ... well, recent revelations about Iraq and the Oil-for-Food programmes. Then, there's China, where the auto industry is growing at an alarming rate and will continue to do so.
Just my personal opinion, mostly!
Kath
RE: Hubble Space Telescope
Hi Kath,
I wouldn't disagree with your broad brush strokes about the world. (That's an English way of saying 'I agree'.) I think you'd enjoy the large tome, "Tragedy and Hope" by Carroll Quigley on the inner dynamics of what really makes society tick. (PM me if you read it - I know the story of what happened to him post-publication.)
As for the young exec who had no idea his own countrymen had been to the moon - he fits into your pattern. About 21 (in 1991 maybe), and probably bred in-family to go into business, also Harvard or Yale mayhap. So the point is, he was OK at what he did, and on his first solo trip, but he was really still just a kid in all other respects.
V