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In reply to the standard generic sarcastic (and uninformed) "what has space really done for us?" question:
Kevlar originally grew out of research by DuPont for expected use in the space program.
And its definitely something that a whole lot of cops and soldiers can't live without. Literally.
while you're thinking on that, keep in mind how many of these things you currently or in the past have used...or are used around you. Do you REALLY think you can live without them? Could your friends? http://spaceplace.jpl.nasa.gov/spinoffs2.htm
Long-term research is what feeds the products we won't be able to live without (literally) 20 years from now. Much of what we can't work without (including computers) are either developed for, or improved upon, for use in space. Your bank's near-100% computer uptime came about because of software engineering techniques once developed to handle the operating systems of the (still running!) Pioneer and Voyager missions. This lost mission alone was doing research on hydrogen for future non-petrol cars.
In the Microsoft and MTV age, we've learned to think we can live without 100% uptime and failsafe technologies. But we can't. Our infrastructure, the support systems that keep society going, are all incredibly failsafe dependent, and the space program was and is the best innovator for finding new ways to be failsafe. Everything we do has side effects, many that help us in ways unimaginable (e.g., Y2K seemed a waste of money when "nothing happened" on Jan 1, 2000...but the back up systems developed to protect against a Y2K power crash saved wall street and the entire economy from absolute collapse when the WFC was destroyed).
Things developed in one genre of our lives can be utilized in another in ways nobody thought possible. Aspirin came about because of some muckity-muck with Coal Tar, but the first false-stab at it (Perkins missed it by only a couple of atoms) created the first artificial dye, and led to more experiements with Coal Tar that created the entire plastics industry as we know it. Some chemist trying to cure the headache created by accident created what the 20th century is most famous for.
A quest for artificial fertilizer to solve the German food crises of the late 19th century made oxyo-accetiline gas welding possible (and with it seemless, rivetless ship-building and the entire modern U.S. Navy, especially the submarine fleet, and also smooth non-jointed rails that make metro more comfortable than any 19th century train ride, and make the Japanese bullet-train the safest ride on the planet...not to mention brings joy to roller-coaster fiends all over the world).
The Scot who invented the steam engine (Watt, based on properties of water discovered by Joseph Black, who himself was really just trying to help Scotch Whiskey makers save on fuel costs), also invented the carbon-copier in order to deal with the paperwork in all his patent lawsuits. That carbon crystal compound he developed is today used in genetic research.
When you cut off a realm of research, you also cut off the incredible realm of side-effects of the application of that research outside its original domain.
This "blog" alone is a side effect of three other forms of research: Berners-Lee's HTTP, HTML, and URL; Netscape and David Winer's specification of RSS; and SQL database technology, all first combined in the weblog form by Slashdot. Take away any one of those things and we wouldn't be talking here now...yet none of those things were invented so that this blog conversation could take place.
What would you lose by losing research? We can't know the answer to that...so its best we not stop.
Joe
Kevlar originally grew out of research by DuPont for expected use in the space program.
And its definitely something that a whole lot of cops and soldiers can't live without. Literally.
while you're thinking on that, keep in mind how many of these things you currently or in the past have used...or are used around you. Do you REALLY think you can live without them? Could your friends? http://spaceplace.jpl.nasa.gov/spinoffs2.htm
Long-term research is what feeds the products we won't be able to live without (literally) 20 years from now. Much of what we can't work without (including computers) are either developed for, or improved upon, for use in space. Your bank's near-100% computer uptime came about because of software engineering techniques once developed to handle the operating systems of the (still running!) Pioneer and Voyager missions. This lost mission alone was doing research on hydrogen for future non-petrol cars.
In the Microsoft and MTV age, we've learned to think we can live without 100% uptime and failsafe technologies. But we can't. Our infrastructure, the support systems that keep society going, are all incredibly failsafe dependent, and the space program was and is the best innovator for finding new ways to be failsafe. Everything we do has side effects, many that help us in ways unimaginable (e.g., Y2K seemed a waste of money when "nothing happened" on Jan 1, 2000...but the back up systems developed to protect against a Y2K power crash saved wall street and the entire economy from absolute collapse when the WFC was destroyed).
Things developed in one genre of our lives can be utilized in another in ways nobody thought possible. Aspirin came about because of some muckity-muck with Coal Tar, but the first false-stab at it (Perkins missed it by only a couple of atoms) created the first artificial dye, and led to more experiements with Coal Tar that created the entire plastics industry as we know it. Some chemist trying to cure the headache created by accident created what the 20th century is most famous for.
A quest for artificial fertilizer to solve the German food crises of the late 19th century made oxyo-accetiline gas welding possible (and with it seemless, rivetless ship-building and the entire modern U.S. Navy, especially the submarine fleet, and also smooth non-jointed rails that make metro more comfortable than any 19th century train ride, and make the Japanese bullet-train the safest ride on the planet...not to mention brings joy to roller-coaster fiends all over the world).
The Scot who invented the steam engine (Watt, based on properties of water discovered by Joseph Black, who himself was really just trying to help Scotch Whiskey makers save on fuel costs), also invented the carbon-copier in order to deal with the paperwork in all his patent lawsuits. That carbon crystal compound he developed is today used in genetic research.
When you cut off a realm of research, you also cut off the incredible realm of side-effects of the application of that research outside its original domain.
This "blog" alone is a side effect of three other forms of research: Berners-Lee's HTTP, HTML, and URL; Netscape and David Winer's specification of RSS; and SQL database technology, all first combined in the weblog form by Slashdot. Take away any one of those things and we wouldn't be talking here now...yet none of those things were invented so that this blog conversation could take place.
What would you lose by losing research? We can't know the answer to that...so its best we not stop.
Joe
