Quote:
Originally Posted by Hack&Lube
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.
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Too true, too true.
There will have to be a shift into business running the show in these types of science endeavors if we want results like that again. Of course that is going to be tough because of morality and political issues. (IE, who owns what in space etc.)
And of course, there will have to be money made in it, which will be tough for the first few companies starting the projects. Course after the first pioneers, the floodgates may open.