If it were cheaper than Nuclear, it would by definition be more profitable than nuclear, and the technology would fund itself... Therefore, the fact that nobody has been successful on a large scale, even WITH the horribly corrupt and wasteful government subsidies prove to me that you're simply wrong. Sure, it is true, that you could have a couple of acres of windmills and batteries supply a house or two with electricity, and you might even break even someday if you discount the maintenance costs, but in the real world, we need more power than wind can provide.

It might SEEM like NASA projects cost a lot, but when you care to include actual FACTS, you'll learn that the ENTIRE NASA BUDGET in 2008 was only $17 Billion. In a country that bails out GM for $800 Billion, and BORROWS $4 BILLION EVERY DAY, I'd say NASA had a pretty good record for return on investment.

Neil Armstrong is a true American hero and patriot, and I'm glad he had the opportunity and guts to tell Congress the very sad truth that under the current administration, our government has allowed NASA to completely fall apart. According to Wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budget_of_NASA) the ENTIRE 2008 BUDGET of NASA (NOT just the shuttle) was $17.3 Billion. This administration has wasted over $800 Billion in failed stimulus, all while castrating this agency which has provided America with so much technology that has been carried in to the private sector and our daily lives, as well as the non-tangible benefit of the PUBLIC PRIDE that our successes there have brought.

These days, our government spends over $11 BILLION PER DAY and BORROWS over $4 Billion of that money.. That's right - EVERY DAY.. Although I'm not in favor of INCREASING this number, it seems that NASA did an INCREDIBLE GOOD with what amounts to about 0.004% of the annual budget of our government, especially when compared to the money we WASTE on STUPID POLITICAL PAYOFFS to companies like Solyndra, getting HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF OUR DOLLARS as payoff to political friends of Obama. If anyone thinks that $17.3 Billion can't be shaved off the top to save NASA, they're very wrong.

I'm not an "Obama Hater" just to be an Obama hater.. I'm a GOVERNMENT WASTE HATER, and am just as against the $800 bailout that Bush initiated before he left office too. We need to stop taking partisan sides and blaming the other side, and we need to look at our priorities and fix the problems and restore pride in America. If we had any leadership in Washington today, we'd have a "Kennedy-like speech" in which we'd be challenged once again to stop looking to government for help, and be told that by the end of THIS DECADE that we would land AMERICANS on MARS, otherwise we're going to be RENTING research facilities up there from the Chinese in 20 years.

-Steve
BothSidesAreWrong@cherokeesystems.com

Only Chevy, after taking our bailout dollars and closing thousands of dealerships at the expense of tens of thousands of jobs would spend money to have SCIENTISTS try to quantify in a math formula, what constitutes a perfect handshake... Your tax dollars at work.. or rather NOT at work.. What a waste of money and time.

We call can't get our phones at the same time.. You log off, and I'll let you know when I'm done.. :-)

I love the space program too, but if we did that, we'd be a territory of China right now, and all living a communist life with no space program..

AMEN.. Especially the part about letting the deadbeats get foreclosed on... I love your idea of buying the shuttle and renting it back. It's PERFECT, ESPECIALLY if Obama kills Orion.. They'll need to rent it back for 20 or so more years.. Of course, dont get into any fixed-cost contracts, because with them printing new money like they are doing, inflation WILL go up... -Steve www.bothsidesarewrong.com Dont blame me - I wrote in Ron Paul...

You're "mostly" right.. but, dont forget, there's a difference between throughput and latency... Imagine your garden hose. a 200 foot hose may not slow down the water, and you're still getting the THROUGHPUT that you need (gallons per minute), but the water that comes out of the sprinkler head end may come out 20 seconds after it went into the other end of the hose (20 second latency)... For some jobs, with sequential read/write, throughput may be all you need (and may be where the 1% rating comes from on the original poster's PGP stat) but for something that needs to stop and start, and/or have quick access to random data, waiting for a decryption/encryption engine isn't a good fit, even if it is hardware. -Steve