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> 4. NASA ...

You misspelled ESA ;)




ESA has a few instruments mounted on Rosetta too. NASA's: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/microwave-instrument-for-th...

(Unless this was sarcasm)


Did you misspelled ESA (really this time)? As it is an ESA mission with ESA spacecrafts but there are some NASA instruments.


I just worded it that way to point out they both have instruments on it. Sounded like what was important to point out. But yes, NASA has a couple instruments among the many ESA has on it, on an ESA mission.


Does it really matter which letters we paint on our spacecrafts?


I think so, it shows which nations spent their tax money on it. Instead of spending it on other things.


Like invading Iraq.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/lorenthompson/2014/06/27/iraq-op...

4. A sizable colony on Mars . I got the idea for this commentary from the space section of the wildly popular Reddit web-site. Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson posed the question of what could be achieved if all the money spent on wars was instead given to NASA. The resulting exchange was pretty fanciful, but one of the options mentioned might make sense — building a colony on Mars. Mars is the only other truly Earth-like planet in the known universe, it has water and it is reachable. SpaceX founder Elon Musk has claimed that a colony of 80,000 could be established for $36 billion. He tends to hyperbole, so let’s say he is off by an order of magnitude (1000%). We could still create a sizable colony for a fraction of what was spent in Iraq, providing a sanctuary from Earth’s next asteroid hit.


Or using the money that was used to bail out the banks. Just today, I read that Austria spent 19 billion EUR on bailing out Hypo Alpe Adria bank. Use that, and the WhatsApp money, and you have a Mars colony :)


Do we (I'm from Austria) even have that amount of money?


You do now! (Its called debt, citizen. Harden up!)


I love paying taxes if the money is used to sent science labs into space.


Eh, I've always considered space missions global. As a European, I consider this "everyone's" mission.


Giving credit is a form of gamification.

It motivates people, companies, and countries.


probably not as much as where we paint them. ;-)




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