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INSIDE LOCK - the end of space exploration


rjp34652

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As a boy I spent many hours reading about space travel. Educational films and books were legion and the occasional movie or lame TV show about adventures in space added hope and expectation that one day mankind would leap off of planet Earth and discover wonders beyond.

Then I grew up.

We went to the moon and found nothing but gray rock and dust. No moon men greeted our landings. No space aliens opposed our ships. We sent robots to every planet in the solar system and even landed our artificial ambassadors on some of them.

We learned a lot about how to navigate the stars and what those lights in the sky were made of and even how some of them looked up close. Everywhere we went we looked for kin among the stars and found nothing but rocks and dust. Every advance in science and every celestial discovery whispers that we are indeed alone and unique. Many refuse to accept the facts and rely on imagination and conjecture to populate the empty sky with friends and enemies in our own image.

While back on earth we continue to murder and enslave one another, to pollute the only living globe in known space and to deny the mathematical truth that there is a God who made it all.

The global economy is staggering from financial abuse. Political instability threatens to put an end to international cooperation in space exploration. It's just plain too expensive to throw people into outer space. Despite the glamor of our fictional stories and the heroism of our space pilots we've become jaded about the whole thing.

The Final Frontier is closed.

There seems to be nothing more to learn up there. Few new things present themselves for challenge and observation that we cannot see from points on earth or from our robot space craft. If man is going to risk his life exploring the cosmos there must be a purpose. But purpose eludes us at every point and with fewer and fewer dollars to waste on discoveries of little importance the once mighty US space program is withering on the vine. All of man's efforts to understand the universe have come down to a few handfuls of lunar dust. We might just as well have stayed home and collected the dirt from our own back yard!

High achievement has been in vain. Man has soared beyond the sky and has found - nothing. It is said that Alexander the Great once bemoaned the lack of more worlds to conquer. Will history record the same for our own age? Denying God and striving with extraordinary effort to install ourselves in the heavens, we have succeeded only in turning our backs on a most ancient truth.

What does it profit a man if he should gain the whole world (and the stars above) and lose his own soul?

Humanity has lost its soul and isn't even aware of it. We are left with a handful of dust collected from our nearest neighbor in the sky and ignore the lesson it teaches.

What does it profit us..............

Where do we go next? How much effort will it take? And what will we find when we get there?

And at what point will God enter the playground and declare that recess is over?

Edited by rjp34652
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I've always enjoyed reading a good space opera, and even tried writing one at one point in my life. The fact, though, is that Scripture is pretty clear about how things will turn out. This age is temporary, and when God's plan of redemption is completed -- that's when I think the "fun" will start. In eternity. I think we'll all have plenty of time to explore the new heavens and new earth after God has taken care of the current mess.

Just my opinion, your mileage may vary. :)

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There seems to be nothing more to learn up there. Few new things present themselves for challenge and observation that we cannot see from points on earth or from our robot space craft. If man is going to risk his life exploring the cosmos there must be a purpose. But purpose eludes us at every point and with fewer and fewer dollars to waste on discoveries of little importance the once mighty US space program is withering on the vine. All of man's efforts to understand the universe have come down to a few handfuls of lunar dust. We might just as well have stayed home and collected the dirt from our own back yard!

High achievement has been in vain. Man has soared beyond the sky and has found - nothing.

My dear good man, you fail to understand the heart of us geeks and scientists. There is always more to learn. And while you believe space exploration has produced nothing but lunar dust, the facts speak otherwise:

The NASA Space Program has so far produced some 30,000 technological spin-offs.

Since the early 1970s NASA has had Biomedical Application Teams at each of the NASA Research Centers, whose purpose is to facilitate the transfer of Space Program technology to the medical industry. This reduced the cost of medical technological research, and development, for the companies. Health care costs, passed on to the patients, would have been higher then they are now without these developments.

Technology Application Teams

Technology Application Teams have promoted the transfer of NASA technology to many industries. Many areas of concern to mankind have benefited from technological advancements in space. Many researchers might have been satisfied with the status quo, if new unexpected ideas hadn't become available from the Space Program. The electronics industry would have been satisfied with their vacuum tubes.

Here is a lost of some of the technology spin-offs

Denying God and striving with extraordinary effort to install ourselves in the heavens, we have succeeded only in turning our backs on a most ancient truth.

What does it profit a man if he should gain the whole world (and the stars above) and lose his own soul?

Humanity has lost its soul and isn't even aware of it. We are left with a handful of dust collected from our nearest neighbor in the sky and ignore the lesson it teaches.

What does it profit us..............

Where do we go next? How much effort will it take? And what will we find when we get there?

And at what point will God enter the playground and declare that recess is over?

Well, I can agree with that much, but it's more than exploring the cosmos that reflects how far man has fallen.

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The global economy is staggering from financial abuse. <snip> It's just plain too expensive to throw people into outer space.

Gotta agree with this here, Rjp. Even if I disagree that space exploration is useless, the cold, hard truth is that the US has no money. We're in the red and have been for a very long time, so long that I do believe all those idiots up there in Washington think we can just keep on spending money we don't have, and the bill's never going to come in.

I will say this though. If the Space Program is to take a hit in their budget (and it should), then everything should take a hit, and that's the only way we're to dig ourselves out of this hole.

End rant. :soapbox:

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That which is natural comes first followed by that which is spiritual. The moon landing has it significance in the fulfillment of the manifestation of the sons of God where men finally walk the walk and talk the talk. The church is represented by the moon in the creation, let nature teach you we are told. She doesn't have any of her own light and is just a bunch of dust but when the Son gives her light she shines in her fullness all white and wonderful to the eyes.

Wait for it. I think I hear the sound of trumpets coming!

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I've never understood our eagerness to spend all that money for space exploration when we havent explored some of the earth and almost none of the seas. :confused:

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My dear good man, you fail to understand the heart of us geeks and scientists. There is always more to learn. And while you believe space exploration has produced nothing but lunar dust, the facts speak otherwise:

The NASA Space Program has so far produced some 30,000 technological spin-offs.

Since the early 1970s NASA has had Biomedical Application Teams at each of the NASA Research Centers, whose purpose is to facilitate the transfer of Space Program technology to the medical industry. This reduced the cost of medical technological research, and development, for the companies. Health care costs, passed on to the patients, would have been higher then they are now without these developments.

Technology Application Teams

Technology Application Teams have promoted the transfer of NASA technology to many industries. Many areas of concern to mankind have benefited from technological advancements in space. Many researchers might have been satisfied with the status quo, if new unexpected ideas hadn't become available from the Space Program. The electronics industry would have been satisfied with their vacuum tubes.

NEBULA has some good points, the lists of which are informative. However, my main point is that the door of history seems to have closed on the era of space exploration. The benefit we have derived from all that sacrifice and expenditure of resources is questionable.

"The genius of Man in our time has gone into jet-propulsion, atom-splitting, penicillin-curing, etc.

There is none over for works of imagination; of spiritual insight or mystical enlightenment. I asked for bread and was given a tranquilizer.

It is important to recognize that in our time man has not written one word, thought one thought, put two notes or two bricks together, splashed color on to canvas or concrete into space, in a manner which will be of any conceivable imaginative interest to posterity. We have educated ourselves into imbecility."

- Malcom Muggeridge

One hundred years from now will it really matter if our culture developed the Tom Tom, a device that occasionally misdirects one's destination? In the twenty second century and beyond people will still have to ask one another for directions - provided we haven't used our space technology to wipe the earth's surface clean of life.

Granted that there may have been some limited benefits, but my point again is that the era has ended.

Do I fail to understand the hearts of geeks and scientists? I understand more than you know - and in my time I confess to a bit of pride. Read on....

I live in central Florida and can remember times when the double sonic boom of a returning shuttle rattled the windows of our home and made the dogs bark. And I remember the day when Columbia was supposed to return and we heard nothing. We knew something was wrong before we were told. I've been in my own front yard many times and watched all our neighbors run out into the street participating in the unequaled privilege of watching with unaided eyes as the space shuttle blasted our daring astronauts beyond the sky. We've journeyed to the east coast beaches and watched shuttle launches up close and personal. We've been to Cape Kennedy so many times I could give you a personal tour all by myself. To this day we can see unmanned rockets reach for the stars without the aid of television (THE ONLY way to watch a launch I can tell you).

But these days the eyes of man are on the ground and in the dirt. We no longer look outwardly for some great noble discovery in the heavens and we no longer look within for spiritual grace guidance salvation and purpose. We have become coppertops(1). Our only empty purpose is to service the masters of commerce and war.

It's debateable whether health care costs have indeed been lowered by discoveries related to space technology. Of what use are advanced bio-medical tools and treatment when a patient cannot afford it or acquire transport to a location where it's available?(2) The same failing economy that cannot support adventures in space has also failed to provide adequate health care for millions - not to mention a satisfying vocation that pays wages a man can live on.

Have advancements in electronics really been a blessing to our culture? Our children are obsessed with video games, texting and all the distractions of computerization. Our favorite toy is the TIVO cable DVR. Education itself has sunk below levels common two hundred years ago. The church, now a whore of science and technology, has plunged itself into the sewage of heresy.

The government and the military are the greatest benefactors. New more efficient ways of killing our fellow man have been developed and our government now has the power to eavesdrop on every single aspect of a man's life. No tyrant in history has ever had such power at his disposal. The lesson we learned once long ago has been forgotten....

Absolute power corrupts, absolutely.

Our efforts to transcend the limits of earth and sky have yielded nothing of permanence or importance. Having no noble purpose within ourselves we've discovered none among the stars. Instead we find ourselves crawling in the dust, on the ragged edge of a culture which has drenched itself in sin and debauchery. It's end is imminent and my original question still stands.

At what point may we expect God to step in and end the charade? Surely even His legendary patience must be growing thin.

but that's just me, hollering from the choir loft...

(1)Term from the motion picture 'THE MATRIX'. It described human beings as a source of bio-chemical electricity to sustain cybernetic industry.

(2) My wife owns and operates a medical walk in clinic in Tarpon Springs, Fl. She regularly provides health card at costs below that charged by hospitals. A recent case in point - a man had a medical problem that she could diagnose treat and cure for $200. A few years before the fellow was treated at a local hospital for the same ailment and paid more than two thousand dollars. The man is a lawyer and gave us a long dissertation on the cheating that goes on (as well as an appreciative gift basket a few days later).

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rjp - what you are describing . . . exploration isn't the problem. Greed in the heart of man is.

If you take away space exploration, what will you have gained? What will you have improved? The money will just be diverted to government bureaucracy, scientists and educators will be out of jobs, technology advancement will slow down here while it increases in China and Japan, poor people will still live in poor homes, etc.

I truly find it baffling that your solution is to attack imagination and innovation to deal with a spiritual crisis???

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