Space Race
What's with all the over coverage of the Shuttle Discovery and every nuance of its mission and landing? I know that this is NASA first time back on the wagon, but reporters are acting like this is some kind of ex-sports star's murder trail. I think that since the last shuttle blew up, space missions have gained an air of edgy danger, at least to us shmuks. We never care about much unless there is some pyrotechnics. So space has become a new sport. Say goodbye NASCAR. What is a car, super charged as it is with Nitro, blowing up compared to a whole god damned (literally) shuttle! Now that's excitement. If NASA pulls off more clean landings like the one they did this morning, us shmucks will wander away. There are better things to watch than perfectly planned and executed, multi-million dollar technical coordination. So I think NASA should mess up every now and then, just to keep their audience. I'm not talking death (although that really helps), but missing bolts, torn fabric, cracked windshields. Now that's TV!
posted by Stephen "Steve" at 8/09/2005 08:40:00 AM
3 Comments:
The whole NASA manned flights need to be grounded. The unmanned flights with JPL have been advancing hundreds of times faster.
Once we get our robots on MARS then we can get back in the shuttle.
Posted by Courtney
I read a great statistic yesterday that, although not really applicable to real life, puts things in perspective.
Over the last 20-odd years, there have been roughly 115 space shuttle missions. 2 of those have ended in disaster. Also, each flight costs hundreds of millions of dollars to put on. If these same success/disaster rates were applied to the airlines, there would be about 30-40 airline crashes every day.
Posted by Justin
Courtney - I love robots too. But they can't think on their toes like us peoples can. They don't even have toes. Maybe that isn't importnat in space.
I remember the guys from Moxy Fruvus talking about how smart Blue Chess Machine (I forget its name) is when it comes to playing chess. It could beat the pants off people. But what if there was a fire in the chess-playing stadium? Blue Rubble ain't so smart then.
Justin - Do those statistics reflect the missions that they lost or were otherwise compermised that didn't involve astronauts? I'll bet they don't look as good with unmaned flights included. Therefore, there would be even more plane crashes everyday!
Posted by Steve