I spent a whole lotta years and a whole lotta my parents money getting an aerospace engineering degree in the first half of the 1990’s, because for some reason I was just sure that we were going to go off into space and people like myself would be needed to design the numerous manned spacecraft that would be required. Little did I know that the American aerospace engineering industry had no interest in designing any such thing (much less building such things). And little could I have imagined that fifteen years after getting my degree, the American government would essentially abandon manned spaceflight. With the mind-boggling damage that the FedGov has done to the American economy, they’ve also done a most effective job at wiping out any real prospects for private spaceflight to take up the slack.
So, imagine my irritation upon reading that not only has NASA been neutered and gutted, it’s being turned into yet another arm of the government meant for little more than surrendering to our enemies:
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a recent interview that his “foremost” mission as the head of America’s space exploration agency is to improve relations with the Muslim world. … “When I became the NASA administrator — or before I became the NASA administrator — he charged me with three things. One was he wanted me to help re-inspire children to want to get into science and math, he wanted me to expand our international relationships, and third, and perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science … and math and engineering,” Bolden said in the interview.
First and foremost, Chuck, it’s not the role of the US Government, never mind NASA, to make people in other nations “feel good” about something their ancestors may or may not have done the better part of a millenium ago. Second, if you want to inspire the kiddies… wiping out manned spaceflight is not the way to do it.
He said the United States is not going to travel beyond low-Earth orbit on its own
Grrrrrrrrrraaaaaauuuuck.
I cannot express just how much this Royally Pisses Me Off.
The United States travelled beyond low Earth orbit on its own forty fricken’ years ago. it is perfectly capable of doing so again. But *not* when it’s being run by incompetant jackasses like Bolden and whatever MORON installed him in that position. Telling Americans that we are incapable of doing what our ancestors did, and begging for help from those who would see us destroyed, is not the job of the NASA administrator.
The NASA administrator should be out there beating the drums for American exceptionalism. Telling us not that our time is over, but that the future is limitless, and that we should be grabbing for it.
23 Responses to “Not What I Went To Engineering College For”
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Everyone in power in Washington now fits at least one of three profiles. Stereotypes exist for a reason. I can’t imagine any situation more counterproductive for America, but it may be exactly what the current administration has intended to do from the outset.
I just about emailed you that link a couple hours ago. Words escape me. I don’t know what’s worse, that Barky has tasked NASA with this or that the “administrator” agreed to it.
“The NASA administrator should be out there beating the drums for American exceptionalism. Telling us not that our time is over, but that the future is limitless, and that we should be grabbing for it.”
Scott? That would require a real American, not a sad a$$ed, over educated f**king moron like Chuckie Bolden, or the last 5 NASA Administrators. All of them embraced the Carter Doctrine of sh*tting all over America and technology. And now we sit here, wondering how it happened, when it is these over educated, Democrat Party f**ks who have gleefully dragged us down to the level of a 3rd world sh*thole. And all of them made MASSIVE amounts of money f**king America.
Eef**kinghaw.
I was saying this earler.
Which muslim country reached the moon? Which muslim countries fired up a drone? Which reached Mars? Which reached an asteroid? Heck, which muslim country broke the sound barrier? Which had the first motorized flight? The first balloon? Steam engine?
Reaching out to India, China and Japan in space exploration would make a lot more sense. But making sense has been outlawed.
Also:
“foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science …”
Which would be what?
Math comes from China. The zero comes from India. Algebra, while having an arabic name, is also comes from India. Decimals may go back to the Babylonians. Steam engine, that goes back to Greece and Rome. Medicine, that goes back to Egypt (where they performed basic brain surgeries.)
The “historic muslim contributions to science” are either stolen or simply taken from people long before them. Remember, islam took over the Sassanite Empire and the East Roman empire. Especially the East Roman empire had a lot of knowledge stored away. Most “muslim” scientists weren’t even muslims, but rather Jews and Christians. They could do something because a handful of “decadent” leaders allowed them. Those leaders would be killed today.
The “golden age of islam”, which is always used when referring to “muslim” inventions wouldn’t have worked without Jews and Christians.
Well, given were phasing out our aerospace industry – do we really need a NASA?
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yeah I started in the Shuttle program Jan ’81. I figured by now we’ld be doing something like 2001 a Space Odeyssey. Thought I’ld be helping open the final frounteer for industrialization.
….and now NASA’s most important mission isn’t just reduced to PR to make folks feel good — its to make Muslum kids feel good?!!!
At least you had the advantage of not growing up in the 1960s and assuming that, by the time 2010 rolled around, if I wasn’t working on the moon, I’d be working with people who were. And, they would proudly fly my flag.
I was trained as a historian, so I’m trying to take the long view on this (if only as a way to combat depression). Mankind will venture out int the solar system and beyond, it just won’t be us. That sucks beyond measure, but at least it’s far enough out that I won’t have to watch it happen.
Look, it’s EXACTLY the same situation that was described in the Jerry Pournelle book “High Justice”. A quasi-socialist anti-business government with no interest in space, while private businesses are going it alone. Why not just let it be?
What’s the current thought on commissioned officers in the military providing feedback into the orders of a commanding officer? Could Bolden have suggested that such courses of action were not in the charter of NASA? This assumes he’s capable of standing up for himself and that he doesn’t agree.
I found a book on the history of math in Japan and China. In it, and in at least one other source, it was reported that the missionaries to Japan found that China’s emperor employed Arabs to teach math at court. So they at least had the ability to learn it well enough to teach it in foreign lands. I thought I’d seen a report in the last year that it has been decided that Archimedes had discovered most of what is usually credited to the Muslim mathematicians of the 12th-15th centuries.
To the kind of person who is now in power, the future is not limitless. It is limited by their comprehension of the world around then, and by their fear of what they don’t understand. This is the primary reason for much of America’s problems.
“before I became the NASA administrator — he charged me with three things”
Bolden sucks, but he’s getting his marching orders from someone. Give credit where it’s due and blame the head honcho, not just the lackey.
In addition to what Mountainbear said there is some stuff on Google about
Shivkar Talpade who supposedly built an unmanned “vimana” eight years before the Wright brothers at Chowpatty Beach in India using what the
ancient Indians called a mercury vortex engine to power it.
There’s a *lot* of stuff on the web about “Vimanas.” Doesn’t mean any of it is accurate, sensible or in any way anything other that pure mythological bunk.
The Indian/Hindu civilization is in excess of 4,000 years old. That’s a whole lot of time to dream up a whole lot of claptrap.
> Brianna Says:
>== Bolden sucks, but he’s getting his marching orders from someone.
> Give credit where it’s due and blame the head honcho, not just the
> lackey.
Still, if you weer interviewing for the NASA admin job, and those were listed as your top 3 priorities – would you take the job?
Perhaps at least some of his orders are within the proper purview of NASA. Isn’t NASA charged with the task of locating, identifying, and communicating with alien cultures? Islam certainly fits the description of ‘alien” in the context of civilization as we know in the 21st century.
My training was in history, too, George. Sometimes the long view, however comforting on a personal scale, just isn’t sufficiently comforting. In my case, I spent a long time working with power systems before I chose history, and I know that identifiable, quantifiable needs just can’t wait for some undefined future.
Vimanas? Show me the hardware. I can find all sorts of stories. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shivkar_Bapuji_Talpade
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_flying_machine
History is filled with good stories.
“Still, if you weer interviewing for the NASA admin job, and those were listed as your top 3 priorities – would you take the job?”
I would never be offered the job or accept it under any conditions. It is far too political and I prefer to deal with reality.
“Isn’t NASA charged with the task of locating, identifying, and communicating with alien cultures?”
Yes, but historically speaking, those in the SETI community always assumed that the alien cultures we would be communicating with would be MORE advanced than our own, not less.
> hose in the SETI community always assumed that the alien cultures we would be communicating with would be MORE advanced than our own, not less.
Good one!
Bolden’s statement disappoints me too, but realistically, isn’t it a fact that the big NASA projects have always had more political than technological/scientific motives behind them? Apollo started as a reaction to Gagarin and was throttled as a long-term base project even before the actual landings. ASTP was a political animal. ISS, well, that’s kind of obvious. All the manned military programs were killed off before flight, and Skylab was a one-shot deal with no planned follow-ons. You can look at project after project and proposal after proposal for sustained, long-term programs and the tech needed to make them run (eg NERVA) and they just didn’t make it because they didn’t serve a larger political end. So as wrong-headed as this new thing is, it’s really not atypical of what NASA has had to do for decades.
I can sort of see what they are trying to do…by getting Muslim countries to spend more time on science education, they hope to decrease the numbers of superstitious uneducated Muslims that terrorists can get their hands on.
That being said, it’s certainly not NASA’s main duty any more than sending inner-city kids to Space Camp was.
Reaching out to Muslims is going to result in Muslims having access to the information to strike out on our scale. I cannot imagine anyone with a normal view of daily life who would want to provide them with that. There will no decrease in the number of superstitious uneducated Muslims until Islam fades to the level at which Christianity functions today.
Observer has a point. One can argue that the whole things started with Ike looking for a safe way to watch the USSR. But that’s no reason to continue a practice that is rooted in fear of tomorrow. Bolden — and the entire administration– “reaching out” is action directed by fear. The hope is that the Muslims will change if they see that we are loving and caring and non-hostile, but that approach has never worked — neither on an international level nor in the ghetto. Government is now an entity no longer associated in any practical way with the will of the American population.
Whoa, there kids. Someone please furnish some proof of what this story is reporting here. I think this is more hysterionic garbage from the crypto-Republican Tea Baggers. Because I go to NASA’s site, and there is the story, plain as day: we are using commercial craft to go to LEO, and designing advanced craft to go to Mars and beyond. We will be working with other nations except China. Nothing is said about Muslim nations.
Why cry about Obama, where were you hypocrites when Bush was underfunding and dooming Orion and Constellation? Why cry about Obama when every prez since Nixon has underfunded NASA? Why cry about Obama when no other nation, except maybe Russia, is providing anywhere the level of funding the US has for NASA?
To the poster, given your attitude, I have no wonder you don’t have a job in aerospace. And if you do, you will soon be going the way of Gen. Stanley McCrystal. That is, if you are an aerospace engineer at all and not some Tea Bagger hack out to confuse people. You embarrass yourself and dishonor our great country. Get a grip.
> Someone please furnish some proof of what this story is reporting here.
About five seconds of looking on YouTube brings up the Al Jazeera video of Bolden saying exactly what he’s reported to have said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlcNUq77_LM
> I think this is more hysterionic garbage from the crypto-Republican Tea Baggers.
Since you were proven wrong so quickly and efficiently, *imagine* what I think of the rest of your comment.
> more hysterionic garbage from the crypto-Republican Tea Baggers.
Gee don’t you just love how racy sex slang is now political terms to nisult political opponents.
We put Von Braun out to pasture after we landed on the moon. Along with Von Braun went our vision and outward drive. We’ve been living a lie since 1972 when Cernan took the last step off the moon. Von Braun would have humans on the moon and Mars by 2000. NASA needed a shake-up and a more commercial friendly attitude. However the needless gutting of our entire manned space program and our capability to send our astronauts into space is tragic and epic in its impact on out future world status.
I want to shoot the frickin moon, establish a moon base and develop lunar ISRU and markets. Then turn the focus on mars. Boots on the ground not cop-out look but don’t touch “can’t do’ BS that Augustine and Bolden are preaching. I want to reach out to the moon for our country for our future let the damn hateful radical middle eastern evil doers fend for themselves.
I support the commercial efforts but I want nothing to do with Flexing around in LEO at the boondoggle ISS for the next twenty years. Those that that have the vision of a lunar return and an outward “CAN DO” manned space program need to join together perhaps on a lunar return blog or forum, pull resources and funding to support efforts that share the vision. IT IS TIME TO MERGE INTO A COHESIVE LASER FOCUSED EFFORT TO SHOOT THE MOON!!!!!!!!!!!!