4 ms·

Our society would be unrecognisable without it. Most of the things we complain we could be doing instead of the space industry, we have good information on to c

Our society would be unrecognisable without it. Most of the things we complain we could be doing instead of the space industry, we have good information on to complain about them due largely to the space industry.

ProAm 12y ago
I think that is true for our space industry in the 50's and 60's, but we've had a space station up there for years and what has come out of that? Im playing a bit of the devils advocate, but honestly all I hear is 'we are preparing for deeper space missions..."
- TeMPOraL 12y ago
  > but we've had a space station up there for years and what has come out of that? Nothing at all... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_research_on_the_International_Space_Station http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_research_on_the_Inte... ISS scientific value coverage in media sucks, I'll grant you that.
  - ProAm 12y ago
    And it is arguable that the science being done on the ISS doesnt have as massive of an impact on society when you compare it to what we gained with early space exploration. Just because it is called 'science' doesn't mean it's beneficial, there are plenty of useless scientific studies that are performed everyday around. For instance the 'Portable Glovebox (PGB)' that was on the ISS sounds like really amazing research being performed....
    - lotsofmangos 12y ago
      Which bits of research in the glovebox were you thinking of?
      - ProAm 12y ago
        " The PGB provides two levels of containment; the first level being the enclosure itself (box, gloves, filter), the second level is realized through a negative pressure of 4 mbar inside the box." -- This is not ground breaking science.
        lotsofmangos 12y ago
        The box isn't the science, it's a box for doing science in and a portable one was useful as their other glovebox is fixed to the wall. You might as well complain about research institutions for being made out of bricks.
    - TeMPOraL 12y ago
      http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/366.html http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experimen... "The Portable Glovebox (PGB) was developed for the European Space Agency for use on the International Space Station (ISS); it can be transported around ISS and used in any laboratory module. The PGB confines accidental spillage of materials and helps prevent contamination of biological materials when the experiment containers are opened for observations, sampling, and fixations." Yes. Figuring out design and use of lab equipment for microgravity conditions, as well as actually using it in further experiments, is definitely not beneficial for anything.
      - ProAm 12y ago
        The specs on this thing are less than impressive and could easily have been developed on earth. (See my response to the other comment). Its a clean box with negative pressure.
        TeMPOraL 12y ago
        Part of the experiment actually involves using this thing for microgravity experiments (also gaining knowledge about operations of space labs). Unless you have an antigrav generator handy or suggest science should be done in a vomit comet, I'd say it's important. BTW. one of the important research done in orbit I recently learned about is figuring out how plants sense gravity. There were some cool results wrt. that, and this is the kind of research that is both important and hard to do on the surface.
        ProAm 12y ago
        My original argument was that the ROI is debatable in terms of how much we spend on space these days. Is it worth billions of dollars for the things we have talked about? Probably not in the grand scheme of things (Im not knocking space, or research just the fact that people bitch about how little we spend when it sort of makes sense to me).
        12y ago

ProAm 12y ago

I think that is true for our space industry in the 50's and 60's, but we've had a space station up there for years and what has come out of that? Im playing a bit of the devils advocate, but honestly all I hear is 'we are preparing for deeper space missions..."

TeMPOraL 12y ago
> but we've had a space station up there for years and what has come out of that? Nothing at all... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_research_on_the_International_Space_Station http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_research_on_the_Inte... ISS scientific value coverage in media sucks, I'll grant you that.
- ProAm 12y ago
  And it is arguable that the science being done on the ISS doesnt have as massive of an impact on society when you compare it to what we gained with early space exploration. Just because it is called 'science' doesn't mean it's beneficial, there are plenty of useless scientific studies that are performed everyday around. For instance the 'Portable Glovebox (PGB)' that was on the ISS sounds like really amazing research being performed....
  - lotsofmangos 12y ago
    Which bits of research in the glovebox were you thinking of?
    - ProAm 12y ago
      " The PGB provides two levels of containment; the first level being the enclosure itself (box, gloves, filter), the second level is realized through a negative pressure of 4 mbar inside the box." -- This is not ground breaking science.
      - lotsofmangos 12y ago
        The box isn't the science, it's a box for doing science in and a portable one was useful as their other glovebox is fixed to the wall. You might as well complain about research institutions for being made out of bricks.
  - TeMPOraL 12y ago
    http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/366.html http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experimen... "The Portable Glovebox (PGB) was developed for the European Space Agency for use on the International Space Station (ISS); it can be transported around ISS and used in any laboratory module. The PGB confines accidental spillage of materials and helps prevent contamination of biological materials when the experiment containers are opened for observations, sampling, and fixations." Yes. Figuring out design and use of lab equipment for microgravity conditions, as well as actually using it in further experiments, is definitely not beneficial for anything.
    - ProAm 12y ago
      The specs on this thing are less than impressive and could easily have been developed on earth. (See my response to the other comment). Its a clean box with negative pressure.
      - TeMPOraL 12y ago
        Part of the experiment actually involves using this thing for microgravity experiments (also gaining knowledge about operations of space labs). Unless you have an antigrav generator handy or suggest science should be done in a vomit comet, I'd say it's important. BTW. one of the important research done in orbit I recently learned about is figuring out how plants sense gravity. There were some cool results wrt. that, and this is the kind of research that is both important and hard to do on the surface.
        ProAm 12y ago
        My original argument was that the ROI is debatable in terms of how much we spend on space these days. Is it worth billions of dollars for the things we have talked about? Probably not in the grand scheme of things (Im not knocking space, or research just the fact that people bitch about how little we spend when it sort of makes sense to me).
        12y ago