U.S. Satellite Plans Falter, Imperiling Data on Storms

When the government talks of the aging and decaying infrastructure, not many of us actually think of our aging weather satellites. We take much of the forecasting and alerts as a part of the 21st century technology, but without replacement satellites the technology and the information we get will be a thing of the past.

Experts have grown increasingly alarmed in the past two years because the existing polar satellites are nearing or beyond their life expectancies.

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Well the next fucking time Congress decides that NOAA is being too political with its views of "climate change" and decides to cut funding all the while happily signing over contracts to private companies to order military equipment the military even says they don't want, maybe they can rethink their decision.

sfsuphysics said:

Well the next fucking time Congress decides that NOAA is being too political with its views of "climate change" and decides to cut funding all the while happily signing over contracts to private companies to order military equipment the military even says they don't want, maybe they can rethink their decision.

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Sorry to add a political aspect to this thread but it will be inevitable.

And, just think: Romney wants to increase defense and military spending because, if going by the debates, he thinks our military is too small, stretched too thin, and will be unable to defend itself against foreign AND domestic threats.

We spend enough on defense on alone, and Romney wants more? The dollar can be stretched so much that when you do, certain things will be cut or eliminated. Social services? Education? NASA and the NOAA?

If the satellites we have currently are ineffective in tracking weather and monitoring climate changes, then they need to be upgraded. They should have the satellites built and contract out the launches to SpaceX or Orbital Sciences. I think having even a means to predict weather is important, especially to those who can be greatly affected by it in the US-- the Midwest states (tornadoes), the New England states (blizzards and snow storms), and the southeastern states (hurricanes).

Easy guys, editors of this site are anthropogenic climate change skeptics.

I don't think you need to stake out a political position to recognize that we are a civilization in decline.

jojo69 said:

Easy guys, editors of this site are anthropogenic climate change skeptics.

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And that's fine that they are, I have no issues with that. But they don't make vindictive decisions based upon their beliefs/skepticism like those in congress, they're not banning people from the forum when someone says "maybe we should run a little less power" or what not, they're not closing threads and shutting up discussion on energy savings because AMD is a sponsor

sfsuphysics said:

And that's fine that they are, I have no issues with that. But they don't make vindictive decisions based upon their beliefs/skepticism like those in congress, they're not banning people from the forum when someone says "maybe we should run a little less power" or what not, they're not closing threads and shutting up discussion on energy savings because AMD is a sponsor

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Absolutely, I am very satisfied with the lack of censorship in this sites' moderation. I was just warning folks that opinion on the matter is not as monolithic as one might think for a scientifically inclined site.

/derail

Look, we need that money to murder 16 year old American citizens with drones. We can't be wasting it on shit like predicting where hurricanes will go.

This is one reason politics and science do not mix. This has bad politics written all over it, especially if it's as badly mismanaged as the report says. Gone are the days when NASA was a go getter, driving innovation and making things happen. Now it's all political bullshit, and things like this are happening more and more.

I guess the Satellites didn't qualify for ObamaCare.

Challenge accepted
http://www.hobbyspace.com/SatBuilding/index.html
http://news.discovery.com/space/personal-satellite-kit.html

MajorDomo said:

When the government talks of the aging and decaying infrastructure, not many of us actually think of our aging weather satellites. We take much of the forecasting and alerts as a part of the 21st century technology, but without replacement satellites the technology and the information we get will be a thing of the past.

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That's Obama cutting the space program.

Of course, Romney will fix this, because we also need more secret spy equipment, I mean, new 'weather' sattellites.

A private company should drop one in a space x rocket and sell the information to the government.

BBA said:

That's Obama cutting the space program.

Of course, Romney will fix this, because we also need more secret spy equipment, I mean, new 'weather' sattellites.

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We've hashed this out here before. You need to go back one more president if you are looking to place blame. That and the pass nothing to make Obama look bad Congress we have now. Ask Mitch McConnell about that agenda. Obama is lucky to have got anything done for NASA so far. I'm sure that a President Rmoney would be happy to outsource NASA to China.

After privatizing it and letting Bain take over first, of course.

This is why I hate those stupid political parties. Both have good ideas and then just retarded ideas.
On-topic, looks like priorities are mixed up again. There is no need to police the world anymore, fix your own country and then resume.

BBA said:

That's Obama cutting the space program.

Of course, Romney will fix this, because we also need more secret spy equipment, I mean, new 'weather' sattellites.

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I'm reminded of the movie Maximum Overdrive (cheesy movie where all the cars get "possessed" and hold a gas station ransom) anyways the end of the movie it talks about how a Russian "weather satellite" with class IV nuclear weapons and a laser cannon destroyed a UFO