Given the obvious fact of ongoing space exploration (Curiosity being the most prominent), NASA is obviously capable to some degree. Current missions demonstrate success and competence in areas that few other organizations have even attempted.
In other words, the machine is still running- put money in one end, and a space program comes out the other. If that’s not a good enough ROI for you, that’s one thing. But I think a group of people that are running daily experiments in their Martian science laboratory qualify as functional.
The first electric cars were made in the 1880s. Is Tesla Motors using old technology?
The Mars rovers use lots of new technology (the aerobraking system and “skycrane”, to name one). NASA has certainly experimented with new propulsion technology like VASIMIR and ion drives, it’s just that these are high-specific-impulse low-thrust platforms unsuitable for launch but good for maneuvering once in orbit. Not all aspects of a field will advance at the same rate. Compare processing power to battery capacity, for example.
Given the obvious fact of ongoing space exploration (Curiosity being the most prominent), NASA is obviously capable to some degree. Current missions demonstrate success and competence in areas that few other organizations have even attempted.
In other words, the machine is still running- put money in one end, and a space program comes out the other. If that’s not a good enough ROI for you, that’s one thing. But I think a group of people that are running daily experiments in their Martian science laboratory qualify as functional.
Yeah, but it’s all old technology. Launching rovers using plain-vanilla chemical rockets was first successfully done by Russians in 1970.
The first electric cars were made in the 1880s. Is Tesla Motors using old technology?
The Mars rovers use lots of new technology (the aerobraking system and “skycrane”, to name one). NASA has certainly experimented with new propulsion technology like VASIMIR and ion drives, it’s just that these are high-specific-impulse low-thrust platforms unsuitable for launch but good for maneuvering once in orbit. Not all aspects of a field will advance at the same rate. Compare processing power to battery capacity, for example.