There was little opposition to keeping a space program focused on developing military space applications. But the grotesque budget that almost eclipsed the budgets of the other branches of the military combined, thsts what people had issue with.

Reagan was handed a blank check at the time because we came off the gold standard and the financial people were telling the govt print till ur blue in the face we'll get other countries to huckleberry for us by soaking up our bad debt. We're essentially now facing that ultimate bubble fuck started in the 80's

@calfoxwc said:

typical.

ridicule the expert for futuristic thinking.

You don't think the Wright brothers weren't ridiculed?

The truth is, the "star war" tech ridiculers were dopes.

https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/5-star-wars-technologies-now-moving-make-believe-reality-ncna828906

"The U.S. Navy already has an operational ship-based laser cannon, and the U.S. Army’s ATHENA system recently shot down five drones in tests. Last June, defense contractor Raytheon fired a high-energy laser from a helicopter for the first time. And just last month, the U.S. Air Force gave Lockheed Martin a funding to build a laser that fits on a fighter jet to shoot down incoming missiles. The system should be operational by 2021. "

Right.... In 2019...

@oldbrownsfan said:

Speaking of future thinking if we do have a new branch of the military called the Space Force will they have their own military school like the Army, Navy and Air Force have and will those going there be called Space Cadets? ?

only if they identify as liberals....who believe they should be able to go to a cafeteria and have their meal for all their lives.

@calfoxwc said:

typical.

ridicule the expert for futuristic thinking.

You don't think the Wright brothers weren't ridiculed?

The truth is, the "star war" tech ridiculers were dopes.

https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/5-star-wars-technologies-now-moving-make-believe-reality-ncna828906

"The U.S. Navy already has an operational ship-based laser cannon, and the U.S. Army’s ATHENA system recently shot down five drones in tests. Last June, defense contractor Raytheon fired a high-energy laser from a helicopter for the first time. And just last month, the U.S. Air Force gave Lockheed Martin a funding to build a laser that fits on a fighter jet to shoot down incoming missiles. The system should be operational by 2021. "

Speaking of future thinking if we do have a new branch of the military called the Space Force will they have their own military school like the Army, Navy and Air Force have and will those going there be called Space Cadets? ?

ridicule the expert for futuristic thinking.

You don't think the Wright brothers weren't ridiculed?

The truth is, the "star war" tech ridiculers were dopes.

https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/5-star-wars-technologies-now-moving-make-believe-reality-ncna828906

"The U.S. Navy already has an operational ship-based laser cannon, and the U.S. Army’s ATHENA system recently shot down five drones in tests. Last June, defense contractor Raytheon fired a high-energy laser from a helicopter for the first time. And just last month, the U.S. Air Force gave Lockheed Martin a funding to build a laser that fits on a fighter jet to shoot down incoming missiles. The system should be operational by 2021. "

@clevfan4life said:

Teller was soundly discredited by his peers for essentially using the american tax payer to r&d an idea he likely knew wouldnt have any military application for quite sometime.

"Teller began as early as 1981 a campaign to convince the Reagan administration that the x-ray laser could usher in the era of "assured survival." Reagan, a superstitious man fascinated with science and technology, who knew little and understood even less physics, was an easy victim of Teller's hyperbole. Influenced by Teller's claims, Reagan delivered his notorious "star wars" speech in March 1983 and in October 1986 scuttled the Reykjavik summit by refusing Gorbachev's offers of drastic nuclear arsenal reductions rather than place limits on "star wars" research. If Reagan had had a Killian or a Kistiakowsky or a Wiesner, all men with towering scientific standing, as a science advisor as did Eisenhower and Kennedy, he would not have been misled; his science advisor was a Teller protege who did not dare express to the president his reservations about his mentor's ebullient claims. But this tale of scientific chicanery does have a happy ending: Responsible scientists at Livermore revealed the x-ray laser sham to Congress and ended the funding for the device."

That settles it, we need more politicians that have a basic understanding of physics.

"Teller began as early as 1981 a campaign to convince the Reagan administration that the x-ray laser could usher in the era of "assured survival." Reagan, a superstitious man fascinated with science and technology, who knew little and understood even less physics, was an easy victim of Teller's hyperbole. Influenced by Teller's claims, Reagan delivered his notorious "star wars" speech in March 1983 and in October 1986 scuttled the Reykjavik summit by refusing Gorbachev's offers of drastic nuclear arsenal reductions rather than place limits on "star wars" research. If Reagan had had a Killian or a Kistiakowsky or a Wiesner, all men with towering scientific standing, as a science advisor as did Eisenhower and Kennedy, he would not have been misled; his science advisor was a Teller protege who did not dare express to the president his reservations about his mentor's ebullient claims. But this tale of scientific chicanery does have a happy ending: Responsible scientists at Livermore revealed the x-ray laser sham to Congress and ended the funding for the device."

????

WSS

For example, the American Enterprise Institute is a conservative think tank. There is clearly a desired conclusion before anything else. 

@mld-woody said:

- a lot of scientific advancement has come through the goal of military advancement

- our military budget is bloated and has waste throughout

- the scientific experts need to be listened to as projects are being driven

I'm torn on Space Force. It has the ability to drive the funding needed for scientific advancement. But at the same time it is military based and will probably have a lot of waste built in 

True - I was IN the military - and at plenty of levels - there is surely waste. Historically, it has often been outrageous.

it isn't just the military - the same can be said for most government budgets. Welfare, congressional, epa, ...

it is just an open barrel of opportunity with not nearly enough critical oversight. I did post an example  of your solid point - "

scientific experts need to be listened to" above -

Dr. Edward Teller and other scientists worked directly with Pres Reagan before Pres Reagan decided to start years of research on the subject of "star wars".

    I know just from working on a very small scale - R&D is incredibly expensive. A few times in my career in that environment - I was given a serious huge task to accomplish a project under secrecy - and was given an unlimited budget to accomplish it.

Which, is kind of cool, and spooky at the same time. IT was expensive But after I accomplished it, it gave the company a gigantic competitive technological advantage that gained many high million dollar contracts over many years. Eventually, many years later, the advantage was recreated in another company, etc.

But my part in that, was a drop in the bucket of their entire R&D budget. Fox example - conductive polymer research alone went years before practical applicability to production of the real thing. That was just one expensive part of the entire R&D dept.

New tech costs huge budgets to accomplish. There should be no place for fraud in budgets, and in government - there sure must be oversight to abuse in just about any gov budget. Waste/abuse ... just seems to happen with too many people. And it only happens because of people.

   I did it - my career expanded hugely for years.

https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2017/01/23/barack-obama-military-administration/

those last two were written by an admiral and

" Mr. Donnelly is a resident fellow of the American Enterprise Institute and the director of its Marilyn Ware Center for Security Studies. "

Antagonistic blather just doesn't positively contributie to any discussion.

- our military budget is bloated and has waste throughout

- the scientific experts need to be listened to as projects are being driven

I'm torn on Space Force. It has the ability to drive the funding needed for scientific advancement. But at the same time it is military based and will probably have a lot of waste built in 

Read up on Dr. Edward Teller. Learn more than emotional knee jerk declarations of bs.

the truth of the matter:

https://www.nytimes.com/1985/03/04/world/reagan-s-star-wars-bid-many-ideas-converging.html

The opposition to reagans star wars initiative is that from a standpoint of known principles of physics and engineering, the concepts made no sense at the time and would cost the u.s taxpayer inconceivable sums even by todays standards. Reagan was just showing his early stages of neurodegeneration when he was just getting taken in by science fiction movies instead of listening to the scientists who would actually work on such programs.

Heres where i show my ed i mean jabf side.....the pentagon has and is working on shit prob the russians and chinese cant even conceive of. That being said, under normal circumstances under a normal clear thinking president who wouldnt give this bew space farce a blank check in exchange for blowing him live on the air......a space agency specifically handling these bew threats isnt the worst idea unless as i said, they're cut a blank check and arent required to produce much for that mobey. Exactly like the defense industry works today, ie the F35 program.