

NASA Mars Rover Spirit












Over its six years of activity, Spirit traveled 4.8 miles.




Spirit's farewell will be broadcasted next week on NASA TV.

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RE: it goes like a lightning
By Motoman on 5/25/2011 3:33:38 PM , Rating: 1
Meh. That only wasted a few million dollars.

Now, with the national debt at like 1.2 trillion dollars...

RE: it goes like a lightning
By geddarkstorm on 5/25/2011 3:51:53 PM , Rating: 2
Isn't it something projected to be around 14 trillion now? At least, those were the last round of numbers I heard flying around. I sure hope it's only 1.2 trillion...

RE: it goes like a lightning
By drycrust3 on 5/25/2011 4:23:57 PM , Rating: 2
Isn't it something projected to be around 14 trillion now?

Yep! $14,349,171,xxx,xxx.

RE: it goes like a lightning
By TSS on 5/26/2011 6:47:29 AM , Rating: 2
Eh, no. That's the *Federal*, or national, debt.

The TOTAL US debt is actually $55,3 trillion, according to That includes Household, Business, State Local and federal governments and financial institutions.

And that's not even counting social security, which has started running permanent deficits and has a $2,7 trillion trust funds consisting of government treasuries, or loans to the government which the government will have to pay up pretty soon in order to meet social security obligations.

And let us not forget medicare and medicaid.

IMO though this isn't the most shocking information found on The most shocking thing is the "total government spending", or state, local and federal government spending combined. $6,85 trillion!

From wikipedia:
One of the main reasons for the cancellation of the Apollo program was the cost. In 1966, NASA received its biggest budget of US$4.5 billion, about 0.5 percent of the GDP of the United States at that time. In 1969, the cost of a Saturn V including launch was US $ 185 million (inflation adjusted US$ 1.11 billion in 2011)

So to put these numbers in perspective:
Your National debt can buy you 12973 Saturn V launches.
Your Total debt can buy you 49820 Saturn V launches.
Your Total Liability can buy you 102702 Saturn V launches.
EVERY YEAR, the federal government spends as much as 3204 Saturn V launches
EVERY YEAR, the total government spends as much as 6171 Saturn V launches
The Nasa Apollo program was canceled because it was too expensive, after 12 launches.

RE: it goes like a lightning

RE: it goes like a lightning

RE: it goes like a lightning
By FITCamaro on 5/25/2011 4:07:09 PM , Rating: 2
You mean deficit. And its at $1.6 trillion.

RE: it goes like a lightning
By quiksilvr on 5/26/2011 2:11:19 AM , Rating: 2
And am I the only one that forgot about Challenger and Columbia? I'm not saying NASA is terrible but its far from perfect.

RE: it goes like a lightning
By Chaosforce on 5/26/2011 9:30:19 AM , Rating: 2
If it was perfect it wouldnt be human.


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