Requirements to become an astronaut

[Hielor]

It's a question of interests. But you may be right that people like me would not be very useful for something like the Space Transportation System. I think a little bit the way like Wernher von Braun and others of that era, who did what I also would have done as a NASA person in 1972 (to resign), when it came out that Apollo is over and a potential mission to Mars (the Moon was just the first step) had been settled because of budget cuts. What we did after Skylab until today might be technological achievements, but by far do not even reach our level of capabilities.

I agree. The problem is that it's hard to get public money for the space program. During the initial Space Race it was relatively easy to get all the money they needed, since there was the perceived threat of the Soviets and what could happen if they conquered the moon before us.

However, these days, most politicians proposing more funding for NASA don't get very far. The average American doesn't care about space any more than they care about the lost shoe they just ran over on the highway. They don't see any direct, immediate benefit to them, so they're not willing to fund it--nevermind that a lot of things that people use in their everday lives have come from the space program.

The average american would rather have another $200 (or however much the tax breaks/refunds amounted to) in their pocket each year than a base on another celestial body.

Imagine what the space program could have done with the $700 billion that got given to the financial institutions. I'm pretty sure that that's higher than the total amount that NASA's had to work with in its entire 50-year history.

 

[willy88]

Imagine what the space program could have done with the $700 billion that got given to the financial institutions. I'm pretty sure that that's higher than the total amount that NASA's had to work with in its entire 50-year history.

Seven hundred billion dollars?

 

[Moonwalker]

I agree. The problem is that it's hard to get public money for the space program. During the initial Space Race it was relatively easy to get all the money they needed, since there was the perceived threat of the Soviets and what could happen if they conquered the moon before us.

However, these days, most politicians proposing more funding for NASA don't get very far. The average American doesn't care about space any more than they care about the lost shoe they just ran over on the highway. They don't see any direct, immediate benefit to them, so they're not willing to fund it--nevermind that a lot of things that people use in their everday lives have come from the space program.

The average american would rather have another $200 (or however much the tax breaks/refunds amounted to) in their pocket each year than a base on another celestial body.

Imagine what the space program could have done with the $700 billion that got given to the financial institutions. I'm pretty sure that that's higher than the total amount that NASA's had to work with in its entire 50-year history.

And it gives me a bad feeling whenever I keep in mind that the whole initial space race basically was possible because of war - Wernher von Braun at Peenemunde during WWII, and he and others at Cape Canaveral and in Russia once again during the cold war. But on the contrary, the history of space race demonstrated very well that humans can accomplish the impossible if they try. Imagine that Kennedy announced a manned moon landing including a safe return within the decade, just after Shepards 15 minutes first US flight which was not even an orbital one. It's still incredible, and it shows us our potentials.

And yeah, if we take a $700 billion space budget into account (which is 7 times the NASA budget for the ISS program), I think that would even make von Braun (may he rest in peace) jump out of his grave. I think that money actually is the basic key. We have a lot of good scientists and engineers around the globe. Just give them enough money and we would see amazing stuff lifting off the launch pad not even too long in the distance...

PS: the average German does not even know that humans did not land on the Moon since 1972. Most people don't care about space flight at all. But I think that this is the case almost everywhere.