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Originally Posted by Daradon
Yeah, that's what I thought.
I've been reading a bunch of science heavy space books lately and been thinking about what happened there in which we are further from the moon now than we were in 1963 and it's just been getting me thinking on science heavy projects that might have real benefits to the human race. Or at least, if not benefits, then something more physical to show off anyway.
Science has become so theoretical in the last 25 years. And while I realize that technically, the LHC is proving such theories and is in fact physical, it's still so far removed from life in the real world it is hard for average people to care about.
Wondering if we'll every see a return of heavy science with heavy engineering or exploration I guess. Or at least something tangible coming form it we can all use like the internet.
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It's all money and politics. We only made it to the moon because of the cold war. Big science and big projects and things like that were politically motivated, funded by the military, etc.
Once all that ended, NASA was in dire straits, the Shuttles were aging, there are no replacements, the Hubble was going to be scrapped, big particle accelerators aren't being built in the US, etc.
Big science, the splitting of the atom, etc. all this stuff happened because of the war. The jet age, aviation, rockets, space exploration, satellites - again, all because of war.
We just aren't going to have the sorts of things kids of the 60s dreamed of having today because we are too worried about other things and putting all the money (correctly) into trying to get a working society and economy, etc. and all the regular small things.