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No, they don't. The scientists at NASA are as good as those in the private sector. If the private sector needs it badly enough, it'll make it without government
by churchill 3y ago
No, they don't. The scientists at NASA are as good as those in the private sector. If the private sector needs it badly enough, it'll make it without government interference.
- lolinder 3y agoThis is a really shallow strawman. No one has been arguing that NASA scientists are better than private sector scientists. The argument is that having a seemingly-stupid goal that takes a lot of work can spawn off legitimately useful technologies that would never have been targeted by the private sector because moonshots aren't good investments. The theory is that it's a good way to very quickly iterate through many different ideas.
- tombert 3y agoI agree. This is just my opinion, but I feel like stuff is way more likely to be actually be accomplished if there's a tangible goal. A goal, even an arbitrary one, helps you actually figure out the limitations of a theory or design, and if you don't have a goal it is far too tempting to handwave away important questions and live in theoretical land.
- OGWhales 3y agoIn a similar vein, F1 racing has an enormous amount of engineering effort put into it in the name of winning a race and those efforts can have positive impacts outside of F1. It does sadden me that these days their designs are much more restricted, as I enjoyed the wacky ideas we would occasionally see when the rules were less restrictive.
- orwin 3y agoAnd sports, especially after the leagues/OIC fell hard on drugs, are pushing nutrional science (and medecine) like crazy. Even in weird ways: my sister can afford to pay her rent/food herself while studying because she prepare meal plans for a water polo team, which helps her study and find ideas for her college projects. Hopefully she can get through her studies without working in a kitchen again.
- google234123 3y agoThere aren't that many NASA scientists btw and they mostly are drafting requirements for the private sector scientists to actually do.
- lolinder 3y agoWas that true during the Apollo program?
- s1artibartfast 3y agoYeah. The Apollo missions flew on Rockets designed and Manufactured by Boeing (S-IC), North American (S-II), and Douglas (S-IVB). The lunar lander was designed and manufactured by Grumman. That said, a lot of engineering goes into setting good purchasing requirements and assessing the results.
- tehjoker 3y agono they wont bc the private sector cant sustain long term interest in projects that dont have profitable application on a 5 at most 10 year horizon.