"Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps down new roads armed with nothing but their own vision."

Ayn Rand

From the dawn of civilisation, we as a species have yearned to discover what lies over the hill; how to do a job easily; how to prevent disasters and disease and various other endeavours.

Have we, as a civilisation lost this desire? The Egyptians built magnificent edifices, the Romans explored the limits of the known world and the west picked up that baton and continued to explore. We have been to the moon and we have sent probes to the limits of the solar system, and yet, now, NASA lacks funding and focus. A combined effort built the Concord Supersonic aircraft. Has economic necessity curbed this spirit within us? Have we conquered all there is to conquer and there is only the impossible remaining? Sure innovation and advances are still being made, but there appears to be a reluctance to assault the larger projects. The manned Mars mission seems to have fallen to the wayside, and I can't help but feel that there is a certain apathy among people, and a resistance to rise to meet the challenge.

Please address the topic and not what Columbus meant to the Native Americans, or that the Apollo missions never happened, or even posit nonsense about aliens building the pyramids etc. If you wish to go down those roads, open your own thread please.

Obama killed the manned space program, ended the Mars mission, and stopped the construction of the new space vehicle when it was ninety percent complete. Whether SpaceX and the other private companies can take up the slack is unknown. They already have a vehicle albeit much less capable than the Constellation and Orion.

Once a program is killed, it takes much more money to start it back up. With the budget constraints the US is facing, it is unlikely NASA will be headed anywhere anytime soon.

The World saw what the US could do in nine years with the Moon landings. China has a head start in that direction and will probably take dominance in space within five.

Where curiousity & adventurous, inventive spirits exist, there is continual discovery. The earth has been been explored. Yet space, oceans, anthropology, the brain, humanity, the arts, sciences, spirituality, etc carry on. What makes you think this?

Well, with the withdrawal of funding to NASA, it seems that we are avoiding challenging ventures owing to the cost. The manned Mars mission was a visionary expedition that has little hope of revival in the current climate. Most space agencies are now geared to commercial applications as opposed to actual exploration. I know space programmes have much opposition within the electorate, but the technological advances achieved from rising to such a challenge are immeasurable.

IMO it is about where government focus' aims. How can we justify space exploration when we need to sort out our own planet earth first? I believe the Spirit of Discovery is still there. But it is not and nor should be the highest priority.

But hasn't that always been the case? One could argue that we need space exploration because of what we're doing to Earth (e.g. population pressure and depleted resources).

Space gives us a focus for high tech. Many of the advances in metals, sealants, electronics, medicine, and aviation have come from the space program. It gives a avenue for some of our best minds to create in a way that generates unimagined discoveries in many different fields.

The world has changed since the Hubble Space Telescope. Men repaired it twice and maintained it several times.

The knowledge gained by space weather observation is enormous.

One could. But would we not take earths political, greed & competitive corruption with us only to corrupt, even destroy whatever we find?

One could look at it that way, or the survival instinct at work.

As long as there are humans, there will be a spirit of discovery. Heck, as long as there are cats.

Only if you stop.

I discover more everyday...So it isn't dead with me.

what is "Competitive Corruption",and what role does it play in Scientific Discovery?

Discovery isn't a "Collective" Effort,but more one of Individuals Co-operating and Learning from each other!

http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/science.html

http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/technology.html

seems these days Corporations are making more money by suing each other in the Billions for Infringements,than by Innovations!
add to that the Looting by Governments under the Guise of sundry anti-Trust-Laws,allegedly designed to "protect" the Consumer!

It's resting.

Possibly pining for the fjords...



http://youtu.be/npjOSLCR2hE

Beautiful plummage.

OK - so I was being sarcastic. No I do NOT think that the spirit of
discovery is dead at all. Not even slowing down. Inventiveness is
only accelerating fueled by the average educational level
rising worldwide, population growth and improved communication of
ideas, results and technology.

Look at the improvements in CAD tools for design. Look at the
burgeoning patents base. The world is awash in fantastic innovations
and we are only seeing the beginning of the beginning. It is an
exciting time to be alive to witness this explosive advancement.

Its all about funding. No money, no further...

I would think economic necessity would stimulate, not curb, the spirit of discovery...And no, we are not even close to conquering all there is to conquer because conquering breeds the necessity to conquer....The learning curve is not diminished just because the end of an experience or discovery is bittersweet....In fact, it is just the opposite, the more we experience and discover, the bigger the curve becomes which may (does) contribute to the illusion of an apathetic spirit or a reluctance to assault larger projects ...IMO, it is the knowledge gained from each new discovery that drives or feeds the spirit to discover and learn more and more...A never ending process....