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I just noticed we have a tag. It's excerpt states this:

Questions relating to the use of technology to further space exploration.

I'm wondering what the community's opinion is on this tag - it seems to me like it is almost intrinsic - there isn't much space exploration not having to do with technology.

Thoughts?

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    $\begingroup$ I see it has been nearly six years since we had this discussion and we never did anything about the tag. Do we still want it gone? There are now 90 questions on this tag, and some of them have it as the only tag, meaning there would need to be an effort to add more specific tags if we were going to get rid of it. $\endgroup$ – called2voyage♦ Jul 1 '19 at 19:16
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For convenience, let's first analyze what questions are currently tagged under , there's not too many of them:

So this is what question tagged we currently have. Out of 11 questions in total, 8 have the keyword "technology" already implied with other tags they use, one is borderline, and two possibly necessary, but "technology" could be implied by adding other existing or new, and more specific tags.

These statistics seem to concur with the assessment that the keyword "technology" is already intrinsic to the nature of Space Exploration website, which, by definition is Q&A site for spacecraft operators, scientists, engineers, and enthusiasts. Use of "enthusiasts" is only ambiguous on its own, but not in the context of this definition. Other keywords in the definition - "spacecraft operators", "scientists", "engineers" - go hand in hand with the keyword "technology".

I wasn't entirely sure, before I started analyzing our current contents, but now support the notion to abolish the tag and rather add tags to those three questions that are arguably borderline ambiguously tagged, to make them implicitly imply the keyword "technology".

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    $\begingroup$ Would go even further: blacklist the tag. $\endgroup$ – Deer Hunter Aug 15 '13 at 9:52
  • $\begingroup$ @Deer Absolutely - it's one of those tags that will always try to come back. $\endgroup$ – Undo Aug 15 '13 at 16:56
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I think that it's a legitimate tag, if applied to a question that has a strong focus on a particular technology, rather than application.

For example, if someone asked about what tensile strength would be required to be able to build a space elevator, and how the current strongest mass-produced material compares with that requirement. Such a question seems to me would fit such a tag.

I agree, though, that such a tag could be prone to overuse or misunderstanding, as some of the high level tags on Science Fiction and Movies & TV often are.

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  • $\begingroup$ I agree that the tag does have some valid uses. Looking through the last year or two several tagged questions really do seem to be about "technology" as a thing in and of itself. $\endgroup$ – uhoh Jul 1 '19 at 22:22
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I'll play the devil's advocate on this one, and give it a spin.

tongue-in-cheek What about parapsychology/ESP/psi?

From http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/vision_remota/esp_visionremota_9a.htm

The so-called Father of Soviet Rocketry, K.E. Tsiolkovsky, stated that:

“In the coming era of space flights, telepathic abilities are necessary. While the space rocket must bring men toward knowledge of the grand secrets in the universe, the study of psychic phenomena can lead us toward knowledge of the mysteries of the human mind. It is precisely the solution of this secret which promises the greatest achievements.”

There are reports that the Soviets are training their cosmonauts in telepathy to back up their electronic equipment while in outer space. One of these back-up schemes is known to involve coded telepathic messages. This method was previously demonstrated in March 1967, when a coded telepathic message was flashed from Moscow to Leningrad. The involvement of astronauts or cosmonauts in telepathy experiments is not necessarily unprecedented. In February 1971, during the Apollo 14 flight to the moon, astronaut Edgar Mitchell made 150 separate attempts to project his thoughts from inside the space capsule back to an individual on earth.

[Appendix 1, pages 25-26.]

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