I agree. This is like nobody following Columbus. It's just plain wrong, it's not how humans are wired.
The transistor wasn't a private-sector invention. Neither were computer memories. Of course, none of this takes away from the fact that NASA has evolved into a mess. Unfortunately.
NASA has filed more than 6,300 patents with the U.S. government. We are surrounded every day by technologies developed for space exploration. The artificial heart for example, resulted from experiments on the space shuttle and a partnership with renowned heart surgeon Dr. Michael Debakey. The hand held Jaws of Life used to save victims from car wrecks originated from the system used to separate the space shuttle from its booster rockets. Even the insulation that keeps our homes warm and energy efficient is based of the technology used to insulate the space shuttle. Throughout its 40-year history, our space program has set goals that required innovation and technology yet to be developed, and the results have been astonishing. Miniaturized integrated circuits, satellite technology, GPS navigation systems, bone-density measurements, miniaturized heart pumps and other technologies derived from NASA research and development have saved and improved our lives. New spin-offs include water filtration systems that turn wastewater into drinkable water, wireless light switches, remediation solutions for sites contaminated by chemicals, the development of Liquidmetal and sensors on reconnaissance robots used in Afghanistan and Iraq to deal with improvised explosive devices. The list goes on and on. These advances are found in our food, our building materials, medical procedures and the vehicles we drive. So the next time you wonder if it is a waste of time and money to explore space remember that it is actually an investment that improves the quality of our lives. The one-half of one percent of the national budget devoted to NASA IS be the best investment we make, providing for long-term, high-dividend research, and technology breakthroughs. Economic growth is driven by technological innovation, and space exploration fuels this innovation. WE spend $976.3 billion every year in the US on pets, toys, gambling, alcohol and tobacco. It is 63 times the amount spent on space exploration â with the difference that NASA has not destroyed lives as the alcohol, tobacco and gambling did. It is not the exploration spirit that Americans need to give up in order to alleviate poverty. In Fact, spends almost 80% of our GDP on social program. The NASA Hubble Space Telescope has literally changed our understanding of the universe. A telescope on the moon, shielded from both solar and earth radiation, has the potential to see further into the universe than anything previously built. During the Apollo moon landings, we arguably learned more about lunar geology and the solar system in general than we could have in many decades of robotic probes. If you would like to see how NASA's research and development efforts aid America's economy in dollars and cents, please visit the webpage on Measuring Return on Investment for Space Programs and Agencies: http://www.sti.nasa.gov/tto/ PD: And in Fact The NASA DID help invent computers!. The Apollo program needed a computer that could be used on the Lunar Excursion Module for calculating orbital trajectories. The delay involved in having computers on Earth do the calculations was considered too great, and there was a chance that the LEM would be behind the Moon when the calculations were needed. A programmable computer, with a few kilobits of memory, which did not require a lot of battery power was required. As a result, the first microprocesseor was created, which is a computer on a chip. That means that all of the components needed for the computer to operate where on a single wafer of silicon. This created a revolution in computing, which resulted in desktop computers becoming possible. Without the demand for a small, low power computer, the microprocessor would probably never have been created, and desktop computers, or 'personal' computers, as they were known, would never have come into existeance.
Jay Forestor, a non government researcher, invented computer memory. 6000 patents with a budget of ~ $20B per year isnt really that many. There are startup companies today barely spending millions of dollars per year on research with hundreds of patents. And you can see from this article that IBM collected more than 4000 patents in 2009 ALONE. http://websphere.sys-con.com/node/811999 So, a private sector company collected almost as many patents in ONE YEAR as NASA has collected in it's 50+ year history. think about it: spaceships still fly at about the same speed as they did 50 years ago as there have been no breakthroughs in propulsion. Humans haven't been out of low earth orbit in almost 40 years.
Only the 3 shuttles are being retired, NASA isn't being shut down or anything and the private sector is already launching commercial satellites, it is ready to take the next step and put men in orbit. "NASA is retiring its three remaining space shuttles to focus on future missions to an asteroid and eventually Mars. Meanwhile, the private sector has been charged with developing spacecraft to reach the International Space Station and other possible destinations in low-Earth orbit." http://www.space.com/11363-nasa-space-shuttle-replacement-30-years-anniversaries.html A lot of the inventions mentioned like GPS, satellite technology etc came out of the "other" space program anyways (www.nro.gov), not NASA, and I think it is a safe assumption that this work continues unabated.
I remember seeing test footage of a spacecraft Richard Branson was involved in designing and it floated like a leaf back to earth minimizing reentry heat. The test pilot had a difficult time controlling the descend. I dont have that video but this was the idea of the spacecraft for commercial use. <iframe id="dit-video-embed" width="640" height="360" src="http://static.discoverymedia.com/videos/components/nws/df92734e7de97f46d3f31310ad8e72685583a469/snag-it-player.html?auto=no" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" allowtransparency="true"></iframe>
Branson is extremely close to achieve his space goals. But right now the King in the race is SpaceX and their Falcon's rockets owned by Pay Pal funder Elon Musk. We have to understand that the private sector has been the force behind space exploration tech (Boeing, Lockheed etc).
You poor fellow. I thought real estate was the sign of our declining power. A truly terrible thing when the perennial ATM machine stops working and nobody can fix it. A whole lotta cryin/weepin instead of fckin going on. @ 1:53 high pitched weepin @ 2:30