They'll spend this money, millions of dollars, and to bring some dust. Is that very sane government?
[Posted
June 25, 2009]Return to the Moon in Doubt
Why spend to go all the way there when the same rocks can be had here on Earth for a fraction of the cost?
Top: A piece of moon rock up for grabs in a competition sponsored by New Scientist magazine, Above: Reportedly it was retrieved from the Dhofar region of Southern Oman on the eastern border of Yemen (go to photos, New Scientist)
Doubts grow about NASA moon return
A senior NASA official expressed doubt on Wednesday that the agency could send astronauts beyond low-Earth orbit without extra money or using vehicles radically different form those it is currently working on.
NASA's space shuttle programme manager John Shannon made the remarks in a presentation to a committee reviewing NASA's human spaceflight plans at the request of the White House and chaired by former Lockheed Martin CEO Norman Augustine.
Shannon said the space vehicles designed by NASA's Constellation Program to replace the space shuttle and ferry astronauts to the moon were "well thought out", but that the agency does not have enough money to make them a reality.
The White House budget request for NASA released in May proposes to freeze the agency's spending between 2011 and 2014 – eliminating billions of dollars of growth envisioned for those years in previous requests.
And in early June, the House Committee on Appropriations cut $670 million from NASA's budget for exploration, which provides funds for Constellation, a 17 per cent drop from the White House request of $3.96 billion. go to story
Sri Guru and Gauranga
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Science & TechnologyThey have gone to the moon, but for all their labor they have simply taken away some dust and rocks. The rascal government exacts taxes and spends money unnecessarily. This is their intelligence. It is a state of asses, that's all. The politicians have no sympathy or compassion. They do not consider that the hard-earned money is coming from the public and that they are spending it by shooting big rockets off to other planets. All they do is promise to bring back more dust. First they may get a handful of dust, then they promise to bring back tons of dust. What is the meaning of all this? more
Wasting money on dubious exploration
excerpt from "Answers to a Questionnaire from Bhavan's Journal", Vrindaban, June 28, 1976
PRABHUPADA: ...Just like these people are going to the moon planet and.... Actually whether they have gone or not, that is a doubtful thing, but the thing is, why they are coming down again? That is our challenge. If you have gone to the moon planet then colonise there. But why you have come down again and do not talk anything about. What do you think?
BRAHMATIRTHA: Well I couldn't say. They've been there they say.
PRABHUPADA: They say, you believe, but we are common man, lay man, we say that if you have gone there, why you do not live there?
BRAHMATIRTHA: Yes, they just bring back rocks to show us, we have rocks here.
PRABHUPADA: If there is rock, if there is sand, then why don't you colonise there? What is their answer? If there is same sand, same rock there, then why not... [break] ...some money and can bring some sand and bluff people that you have gone to moon planet. And people are satisfied, they're paying for another excursion to the Mars. This is going on. If you have gone there, there is land. If you fly in the sky and if you get a land then you can stay there. And because you cannot stay there, you come back again. So their... The Mayavadi's position is there [1], aruhya kricchrena param, they merge into the impersonal Brahman but there is no place to stay, they come down again to this material world. You may go many thousands and millions of miles in the sky but you want to stay somewhere. But if you cannot get any place to stay then again you come to this Moscow and New York. So our enquiry is that if you have gone there, then why don't you stay there? What is the answer? Hm? Kirtanananda Maharaj?
KIRTANANANDA: They say the atmosphere is not suitable.
PRABHUPADA: Then why, rascal, you go there? And spend so much money, rascal? You could not understand the atmosphere is not good for us, go there and spend so much money?
BRAHMATIRTHA: They impress the people.
PRABHUPADA: That means they are bluffer and they are bluffing the all fools and rascals. That's all. He could not understand before going there, before spending so much money the atmosphere is not good?
HARI-SAURI: But without personal, direct experience they...
PRABHUPADA: For your direct whims you have to spend so much money? The people are so befooled they do not challenge them. Yes. Everyone knows, suppose one is coming to the western country, Europe and America, we knew it, that it is cold country, we must take proper dress. And we have come and we are staying. So this is knowledge. So if you do not know what is the atmosphere there, what do you spend so much money? And again you are going to the Mars. Are you fixed up what is the position there? Then you'll again bring something, some dust and rock. This business will go on at the expense of the... You can do. You have got money. You can do that. But we are Indians, we are coming from poor country. If you spend so much money for nothing, that is very, not very palatable for us. If one tenth of the expenditure you would have given to us for spreading this Krishna consciousness movement... No. Not a single paisa they will give. And they'll spoil money for going to the moon planet and bring some dust. That's ... Kirtanananda Maharaja is struggling to construct a small residential quarter here, and he has to beg, he has to collect, he has done... Why the government does not pay? "Here so many people are living. Let them live comfortably." But they'll spend this money, millions of dollars, and to bring some dust. Is that very sane government? And people are so fool that they do not challenge the government, "Why you are spending for nothing?" They can do that. They brought back Nixon. Why not stop this unnecessary expenditure? Hm? Kirtanananda Maharaja?
KIRTANANANDA: It makes perfect sense, Prabhupada.
PRABHUPADA: Yes. For nothing. And it is sure certainly you can write down, their Mars going also will be failure. Let it, you take in writing. I may die. I am old man. Take it down. It will be failure. I told ten years before that "It is childish." One press reporter inquired in San Francisco, what is your... "No, this is childish, wasting money." The reporter came to see me in Los Angeles. He remembered that. If you want to spend for nothing like that, you can do that. You have got money.
1 – Mayavadis are persons who subscribe to Mayavada, or the idea that this world is false or illusory (maya) and based on this belief disengage from material entanglement and meditate on the impersonal feature of God, known as Brahman. back to text