Korean Job Discussion Forums

[mack4289]

Apparently, people still care about sending their countrymen into space. Why they care about is beyond me. Give Korea credit, though, they're only spending 6 billion won of tax money, the rest is coming from SBS.

http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2880189

"A computer scientist has prevailed over more than 36,000 applicants to become Korea�s first astronaut, scheduled to blast into space in April 2008 aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

The Ministry of Science and Technology said yesterday that Ko San, 30, a former researcher at the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, was chosen over Yi So-yeon, a 28-year-old female Ph.D. candidate from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology who was the other finalist. The two have been training together at Russia�s Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center near Moscow since January.

Yi will continue training and will serve as a back-up to Ko, with the same astronaut status and salary.

The idea of a Korean in space has been discussed since 2000. Applicants were solicited in April 2006.

Ko will be a payload specialist for his eight-day voyage aboard the International Space Station, where he will conduct 18 separate experiments, including tests on the effects of weightlessness on the human body, according to the ministry.

The trip does not come cheap. The government is spending about 6 billion won ($640,000) for operational expenses and the SBS network, the voyage�s broadcasting sponsor, will give 20 billion won to the Russian Federal Space Agency."

My personal favorite incident of using space exploration as a patriotic distraction was when Dubya proposed returning an American to the moon in January of 2004. This was 10 months after the invasion of Iraq. Things weren't going so well there, plus we were still trying to stabilize Afghanistan, plus there was the whole global war on terror thing. How going to the moon fit into any of this was unclear, to say the least. This struck me as something Dubya had been pushing for in private meetings, with his advisors trying to tactfully explain why it was such a stupid idea. Finally they get exasperated and just say, "Let him have it. He'll get eaten alive when he proposes it and then he'll shut up about it." Here's the article http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/01/14/bush.space/.

[jaganath69]

Eek, don't get Mithradates started on this.

[mindmetoo]

There is enough wealth in the world to do science and feed the poor.

[IncognitoHFX]

Don't knock space travel. Its one of our most important long term goals as a species.

Yes, I did tape half of TNG.

[cbclark4]

The OP would rather crowd the Earth and complain about polution.

[whatever]

[mack4289]

So can someone tell me how we've benefited from space travel? Or how we will benefit?

[dutchy pink]

We benefit from space travel by learning more about the world we live in. People bash Korea for not knowing anything about the world outside of Korea... considering Korea to be the center of the universe, etc.. Same is true for the planet. If you think the Earth is the center of the Universe, and anything beyond it is irrelevant, unimportant or just stupid, you fall into the same trap.

A far as the future of our species, why not? DNA is on an endless quest to survive and expand. We, as humans, are governed by the same instincts. If this planet becomes uninhabitable, which it will, do you think humans, would you? just sit back and die, saying," Oh well, it was a good run." No, we would look for ways to survive and that would entail moving off this planet and living on another.

Feeding the poor or exploring space is not even an issue. We are not doing one to the detriment of the other.

[mack4289]

I never said money used to pay for space exploration is taking food away from poor people. Regardless of how that money would be used otherwise, I think manned space travel is a waste of money. There's a possibility that, when this planet becomes unihabitable, we go somewhere else. But where else do we go? I believe, that even in the most nightmarish environmental or nuclear war scenarios, that Earth is still by far the most inhabitable planet.

Can anyone tell me any tangible benefits we've gotten from manned space travel?

[cbclark4]

[jdog2050]

[Ya-ta Boy]

I agree. Everyone should just stay at home. Travelling is bad for everyone. Just kill any foreigners who show up at your door.

All these highly intelligent, highly skilled, highly educated physicists, mathematicians, chemists and whatnot should get jobs at 7-11.

[ED209]

[ED209]

Oh and to show at least one Korean how tiny Korea is compared to Japan.

[ella]

Google "benefits of space exploration" and you'll get back many good reasons.

TNG fan here, too.