[speaker001:] uh it was interesting I just read in the paper the other day that they finally sent up the the uh former Soviets whatever you call them now recently set up some relief for the guy that's been up orbiting the mirror space station for the last ten months
[speaker002:] oh right  right I guess he had some culture shock and all the changes that took place while he was in space
[speaker001:] boy I would think so that's incredible but could you imagine being in a in such an enclosed area for such a long period of time and totally isolated
[speaker002:] um-hum yeah I don't think yeah it's it's pretty difficult to imagine I think that they don't have the same considerations for the human being as we do in this country
[speaker001:] no no I don't think so either I I was also kind of surprised that uh I don't maybe maybe there were technical uh limitations on what could be done but it it seemed like a perfect opportunity for the uh United States space program to uh at least offer to get involved with them in in send up some sort of a relief or supplies or something and
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] get some sort of a union going
[speaker002:] well I think uh maybe something like that may be in the works in the future trying to get some joint ventures between the two countries in terms of space exploration
[speaker001:] yeah I hope so I'd like to see something like that
[speaker002:] yeah I think uh you know the they have a lot of resources over there and probably some cheaper labor and things where we could benefit by purchasing booster rockets or maybe something on that we can probably get from them cheaper than we can produce ourselves
[speaker001:] right how do you feel as far as spending uh the tremendous amounts of money that need to be spent to keep the program going how do you feel about
[speaker002:] well I don't know I think it's kind of hard to determine uh the truth I mean you listen to some sides of the story and they they don't they want to cut funding because they feel that the rewards of exploring space are very limited and then there's others who say we can learn a great deal it's kind of hard to figure out what's true and what's not true
[speaker001:] right yeah it really is it's uh I'd certainly hate to see anything come to a grinding halt
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] although I guess uh certain logic could be applied to figure out how much spending it can do in any given year or period of years
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] but I'd like to see you hear talk about this uh future space station that may be built may serve as a a uh intermediate point between like a trip to Mars or something like that and
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] seems like the next next big step that needs to be taken is interplanetary travel but that also seems so
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] um I don't know like the thing that some the figment of somebody's imagination
[speaker002:] yeah definitely at this point it is I have a friend who works for McDonald Douglas in California and there's a prime contractor on the on that space station
[speaker001:] oh
[speaker002:] and um I know recently I their funding was at least guaranteed for another year
[speaker001:] oh is that right
[speaker002:] so they're going to continue but I've also read a lot of bad things about it how they're talking about the value of the space station is very limited in the amount of information that can be gathered is is minimal but now now that's only one side of the story you know I'm sure if you ask someone from McDonald Douglas they would tell you there's a lot more to be learned from it
[speaker001:] oh really I would think so I'd certainly think so and then you have the unfortunate mix between military politics and scientific exploration that
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] they're uh starting up star wars again evidently and that gets I don't know I think a lot of people lump that into the category of space travel even though it really has nothing to do with
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] uh scientific quest for knowledge it's more uh paranoid
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] preventative thing for the military
[speaker002:] well I guess I some of the I mean I see a good unmanned type space exploration sending uh satellites and or uh unmanned vehicles into orbit or to other planets like Voyager and that sort of thing that seems to be pretty valuable and maybe more cost effective than trying to put human beings into space
[speaker001:] definitely definitely in fact it seems uh that a a lot of those benefits were unexpected as far as they had plans for these things and they sent them up years and years ago and they never expected them to be still transmitting data back
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] that's incredible some of the pictures that have come back
[speaker002:] yeah and and in a lot of ways it's improving the technology in terms of um signal processing and and data transmission and trying to determine uh a picture from the information the very weak information they're getting back from these signals
[speaker001:] yeah yeah I agree I think that's definitely been worth while and like you said it's very cost effective and
[speaker002:] and that's
[speaker001:] probably yields as much information as as having somebody actually up there
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] although I sure wouldn't mind being the guy that's actually up there
[speaker002:] oh really
[speaker001:] yeah yeah I think so
[speaker002:] I don't know I don't know if it's quite as glamorous as it it seems like it would be
[speaker001:] I I don't think it's glamorous I probably wouldn't enjoy it all the time while it was happening but boy could you imagine looking back