Blastfrog wrote:
Also, I'm not so sure the space program comparison is accurate. Yes, Russia's is still functional and they still use primititve tech, but the reason NASA isn't doing well is because of the internal politics of the US. Our politicians would rather gut funding for the advancement of mankind for the sake of redirecting those funds to destructive, uncivilized wars for short-sighted goals of lining Haliburton and Cheney's pockets. The fall of NASA has nothing to do with overdoing things, but rather being starved by outside forces.
I wasn't making, explicitly, a comparison of space programs, but rather a comparison of the practicality, safety and total cost of the space shuttle vs the soyuz system.
The space shuttle, although a technical marvel, tried to fill to many niches at once, while the soyuz recognises that it is a manned vehicle and that alone. By adding technical complexity with little benefit (you can lift about as much unmanned payload on an Atlas or Titan or, god forbid, a vostok as a shuttle for less cost), the shuttle program, on its own and with no bearing towards the rest of NASA's operations, was a failed project -- it performed less missions than it was proposed to be capable of, cost more than was proposed and was overall, a failure.
I could have easily made a similar point with an AR vs AK analogy -- AK is meh tier but works in adverse conditions and has a longer lifespan; AR is better weapon, but requires more upkeep and lasts less long.
Now then, concerning the space program itself: your disdain for "destructive, uncivilised wars" is actually quite misplaced concerning spaceflight. Although space programs and enthusiasm for exploration in the cosmos is generally accopanied by naieve carl sagan-esque peacenik feelings, one thing and one thing alone must be recognised about spacecraft: on the whole, they are strategic weapons -- and for this precise reason, you see war mongers such as reagan or bush expanding space programs, while men such as clinton and obama cut funding to such programs.
War, especially war between strategically minded nations, drives spacecraft development -- principally because such warfare drives the development of newer, faster, higher capability ballistic missile systems.