TITAN -ic

[planenut]

What an achievement to put a fully functional object onto a moon 750,000,000 miles from earth after a journey lasting seven years.
The pictures that I saw were amazingly clear, and to hear the noise of descent, the data sent back will be giving the boffins months of work to do.

Sadly it's job is done, and it has died, so back to the newspaper.

 

[pipme]

So that is where deceased Skodas end up eh !! Fully functional ? are they ever that ?

 

[shaggy]

How much did that cost then because there are more important things to spend money on, like curing the common cold and stopping men's hair falling out.
Someone will say that it's out of a different budget.

 

[pipme]

A few bob to get the as s end of skoda up / down / over ? there, how do they do that ?
Unlike us lot not to have a little nuke embedded in the lander just to be spiteful --- stir up the old soup a bit !

 

[securespark]

Pip - sorry, lover, but I'm not going to rise to this one!

 

[AdamW]

How much did that cost then because there are more important things to spend money on, like curing the common cold and stopping men's hair falling out.
Someone will say that it's out of a different budget.

You'll always get disagreement on this. I think this is an excellent use of money. It has furthered our knowledge not only of Titan itself, but the information gleaned will help us deciding how our own planet was formed.

Not to mention, money spent on this is money that we can't spend on furthering the devolution of the human species by supporting those who stay at home breeding like rabbits and claiming benefits instead of actually work for a living!

Finally, a mission like this does far more to further the course of "European Unity" than anything else I can think of. Anyone who likes the idea of a full-on EU should be clapping their hands with glee. Across Europe, school-children will be learning about how "We did that!". Apart from the countries who don't belong to ESA. But they will no doubt still feel a part of it. And it makes up for Beagle II

 

[shaggy]

My ridiculous comment was to provoke an argument to justify this expense. What I was really saying was that there are more important things to spend money on. From a world population of about 6.5 billion there are over one billion living in poverty and many are dying as a result.
A man stood on the moon 35 years ago; so what?

 

[Diyisfun]

Its a case of money is found for projects that are deemed necessary, its about justification, we all do that with our own budgets & those that dont are probably in debt & should think about ' do I want it' or 'do I need it'.

 

[AdamW]

I wouldn't say your comment was ridiculous, it is perfectly reasonable and is an opinion held by many people about many things.

Point is though, we can all say that about many things. There are so many things where I can't help but wonder "Why did they waste money on that?!" It is quite common that starving countries are not starving because of a lack of food itself, but because that food is not getting to those who need it due either to politics or simply because there is no way to get it to those people. Neither of which is good. The latter is easier to fix, we could just send them a few lorries. But the former is something that we can't easily change, it's even more difficult if we take international law into consideration!

Now, assuming that by taking a billion pounds and throwing it at the third world we would cure all their problems, where do we take that billion pounds from? Some would say "take it from the science budget, space offers nothing to us". In fact that has already happened, the UK government refuses to fund manned space programmes (we would have European space shuttles by now if the UK had maintained an interest!). Others would say "sell off the art, who cares about a bunch of pictures?". A bunch of paintings hanging in the Tate offers as much immediate benefit as a lander on Titan, and at least a lander on Titan offers future benefit in that it furthers the knowledge of mankind.

The list goes on... there are countless taxpayer burdens that we could eliminate. After all, what do we REALLY need?

 

[Richardp]

I think is really exciting and I hope that man continues to waste money in this way,some say that we get a knock on affect (well it was the misses actually) which helps mankind but I don't think none stick frying pans are any good to people dying of starvation in Africa, we've recently discovered that we are destroying our planet with various omissions from planes, cars and daily stuff but we don't do anything about it so its probably better not to know, I wonder what it would take to ban cars, what if we spent millions of pounds to find out that cars will be responsible for the end of the world in 150 years? would we ban then tomorrow?.I think not., Oh! dear I've got lost!!!! Well from a selfish point I hope we continue to explore space, but I believe that we are useing resources that belong to the people that are starving, god now I feel ****!!

 

[securespark]

Adam, mate, I really think you've hit the nail on the head.

What do we need? Very little in terms of basic human needs.

We (as a nation) sit here complaining about this and that, and are little prepared to do anything to change our lot.

Other more unfortunate people don't have (for example) sanitation, clean running water, clothing, roof over their head, warmth, etc etc......

We could do a heck of a lot more than we are, but I agree with some that it is difficult to know where to start.

 

[AdamW]

Other more unfortunate people don't have (for example) sanitation, clean running water, clothing, roof over their head, warmth, etc etc......

A while back I was talking with a good friend of mine, who was genuinely shocked at the prospect of only having a basic Sky Digital package.

Well, a case in point, the Tories reckon they can save £35Bn from some areas of public spending and put them elsewhere. Now that is just SAVINGS of £35Bn. Now, putting political views aside and just looking at the fact that someone has gone through the balance sheet and identified £35Bn that can be shifted about onto something else, makes you wonder.

If every country in the EU could make savings such as that work, there would be a good £300+ billion pounds.

That would make for an absolutely amazing space shuttle and space station! Even the US trip to Mars is only reckoned to cost about £500Bn.

 

[shaggy]

Adam reckons:

a lander on Titan offers future benefit in that it furthers the knowledge of mankind.

You mentioned the Tate gallery. Well, all the Titan mission has usefully produced is a few pictures of some rocks to hang in the Tate Modern.

 

[david and julie]

Of course its a waste of money, it won't feed a single hungry person. There are far more pressing problems facing the human race than this, Africa and Aids are 2 that spring to mind.

Another aspect that bothers me is that governments usually have military reason's in mind when they undertake these projects.

As regards saving £35B, if this can genuinely and truthfully be done its time to get sacking our MP's and civil servants for gross incompetance. Any of us on here could probably manage something better than that, surely?

 

[pipme]

All we have learned about our planet thus far --- did little for the tsunami victims !! Welcome to the real, bl##dy harsh, world.
See 'em popping up everywhere now "Told you so ..." etc
And now, "Expect this type of thing every 30 yrs .. here there and somewhere else !!"
Now we maybe see why Churchill was a great leader -- maybe a killer, maybe lots of stuff --- But he got the job done - full stop ! They are born, we desperatley need to find them they are needed !!

P