Is 9 billion a lot? as an american, It's hard to see that as more than the operational cost of a fighter jet.
Just trying to manage the data from the LHC lead directly to the world wide web. I'm pretty sure there were a bunch of other technologies developed, like the superconducting cable that power those magnets, that will have a big long term payoff.
I mean, sure, it's a lot of money. I think we're getting NASA moon mission level of return on our money. Paying a bunch of smart people solve really hard problems does good things for everyone.
as an american, It's hard to see that as more than the operational cost of a fighter jet.
Not sure if you're being ironic but a fighter jet typically costs a couple of orders of magnitude less than $9B - even the hugely expensive JSF (F-35) is 'only' $200M unit cost.
You're right. My estimate is off by a bit over an order of magnitude for the f-22. they cost just under 50,000 an hour to operate (http://hatch.senate.gov/public/_files/USAFResponse.pdf)
you could certainly operate more than 10 of them for 9 billion.
I think a B-2 will come close to that though. 1 billion in todays dollars and 130,000 an hour for operational costs. -it's not actually 2000 a minute, there's a bunch of work before and after each flight.
I 'm a little wary whether we get our money's worth from those huge international projects like LHC or the ISS. I would like to see a comparison of the general impact that previous smaller collaborations had compared to projects of this size.
Just trying to manage the data from the LHC lead directly to the world wide web. I'm pretty sure there were a bunch of other technologies developed, like the superconducting cable that power those magnets, that will have a big long term payoff.
I mean, sure, it's a lot of money. I think we're getting NASA moon mission level of return on our money. Paying a bunch of smart people solve really hard problems does good things for everyone.