First off world flight.

[Bill]

A bit of an historic moment just gone by as Nasa’s Mars helicopter made the first powered flight on another planet.

Only a short hop but so was the Wright brothers a hundred years ago.

Well done to all involved.

 

Bill 😊

[Latchford Locks]

Sorry Bill I just think it's a massive waste of money that could be spent helping the poor and starving on this planet .

[Observer II]

Not exactly a future that appeals, living under glass domes like plants -   

[asperity]

I think it's a massive achievement, part of expanding human knowledge and expertise which is bringing the poor out of poverty, not directly of course, but the poor can't eat money. More people have been lifted out of poverty in the last 50 years than in the whole of human existence.

[Observer II]

Suppose it could provide somewhere to deport them to !      😉

[Bill]

I think people could always argue that anything that we don’t have to do is a waste of time and money but without challenges, life would just be an existence and there’d still be rich and poor people.

 

Bill 😊

[Latchford Locks]

I am appalled that in this day and age this kind of thing is still prevalent ............

Nearly two million children a year die for want of clean water and proper sanitation while the world's poor often pay more for their water than people in Britain or the US, according to a major new report.

The United Nations Development Programme, in its annual Human Development report, argues that 1.1 billion people do not have safe water and 2.6 billion suffer from inadequate sewerage. This is not because of water scarcity but poverty, inequality and government failure.

Space exploration can wait these kids can't.

 

[Bill]

Many of the developments for life in space find applications here on earth. The space station doesn’t get through a lot of water and I’m guessing that a whole load of R&D has gone on into technologies to recycle and purify water that will ultimately end up being used here. Sometimes pushing to the absolute boundaries of technology is the only place where real breakthroughs occur

 

Bill 😊

 

[asperity]

9 minutes ago, Latchford Locks said:

This is not because of water scarcity but poverty, inequality and government failure.

Those last two words cover it Latch. Despite all the Trillions of £s and $s that pour into the third world every year we haven't managed to convince the governing classes in these countries that the money is for their people not for Mercedes cars and private jets for their rich.

[Evil Sid]

1 hour ago, Observer II said:

Not exactly a future that appeals, living under glass domes like plants -   

Unlike the situation at present where we are living in isolation from even the next door neighbour....🤫

[Bill]

Where we should be looking to stop development and spending huge amounts of dosh is on all the military side of things.

Do that and there’d probably be enough to solve many of the world’s problems.

 

Bill 😊

[Latchford Locks]

 

38 minutes ago, asperity said:

Those last two words cover it Latch. Despite all the Trillions of £s and $s that pour into the third world every year........

INDIA has announced a new rocket ready to be launched to Venus even though the UK has sent £100million to underfunded research initiatives in the country.

Although the UK does not technically send aid to India, in 2018 the Government announced plans to provide £98million to invest in technical enterprises over the next two years. Despite India being on course to become one of the third largest economies by 2030, the UK sent the money to help stimulate jobs in India. While underfunded research initiatives received the funding, the Indian government has announced the launch of the Shukrayaan orbiter.