NASA: What happened?

jcc

There was a time, I hear, when any self-respecting American geek's dream job would have been working with NASA.

Now everyone wants to move west and strike it rich at a tech company.

What happened?

Did people discover they were more financially motivated than they thought they were? Are all the interesting space problems solved? Is it no fun without the Soviets to compete with? Did bureaucracy finally get the better of it? Something else?

Thoughts?

Unknown

NASA shot themselves in the foot with the shuttle program. Once they go back to rockets and exploring, they'll be interesting again.

There was an interesting program on the History Channel (maybe Discovery's Science Channel) about the state of NASA and how the shuttle program set them back. Wish I could remember the name of it, but the show was on a while ago.

rhinocero

Pretty much a combination of booming tech jobs and NASA starting to suck, yeah. It's not NASA's fault, it's just neither party really cares that much about space anymore.

Andrew

We have lost the exploration part. Sending satellites into space is old hat now. The Space Station is nothing new and right now is only maintenance. We need to start breaking new barriers.

zombie a gogo

Public vs. Private...enough said.

Omnutia

Public vs. Private...enough said.

Anyone think that it will be a private company who lands on Mars?

spiritfiend

I think the whole spirit of competition is gone. If the Soviets were still around and trying to be the first one to Mars, the USA would probably be more serious about space exploration.

HungryJoe

I believe it was the race bit. Once the race was done, there was no reason to continue.

There were plans for a space station as a "pit-stop" on the way to the moon. If the plans had worked out, we would have started working on the space station after Project Mercury. It would have provided a much more sustainable space presence. Sadly, that plan was nixed because it would've meant missing the self-imposed deadline of 1969.

Andrew

I think the whole spirit of competition is gone. If the Soviets were still around and trying to be the first one to Mars, the USA would probably be more serious about space exploration.

Psh, fuck competition. What about survival?

I don't think the human race will survive the next thousand years, unless we spread into space. There are too many accidents that can befall life on a single planet. But I'm an optimist. We will reach out to the stars.

We should use global warming to push exploration to the moon and Mars

Σπεκωσποκ

I still want to work at NASA... I am interested in the development and application of viable scramjet engines. I just hope that it won't happen before I get my degree.

kiwi_bird

The experience I've had with NASA as a German was to compete in a "Moon Buggy Race". It ended with me calling the local police and some of the people there being fined. Granted, it wasn't really NASA but some guys who worked there. Yeah..

George Patches

We won the space race so we stopped spending massive amounts of money on NASA (the Apollo program was the largest peace-time commitment of resources in history). As a result of the lack of funds, NASA became lame.

HMTKSteve

If only aliens from outer space would attack America... then NASA would be cool again.

Andrew

I actually recently just turned a job down to NASA...

GreyHuge

I wish NASA was still awesome. I have always had a dream of becoming a space colonist.

@Andrew : Out of curiosity, what capacity would you have operated in?

Andrew

@Andrew : Out of curiosity, what capacity would you have operated in?

I would have been a programming intern. I'm not sure on the exact details because they wouldn't offer to pay for housing during the summer and I can't afford to pay for an apartment during the summer while I'm still in school.