Why We Should Go Into Space

[Kraven Kor]

Re: Why We Should Go Into Space

 

Yes, it was just a joke. And I couldn't agree more so far as "red vs. blue" goes - if you ask me, the entire liberal vs. conservative thing is a game of cups, meant to keep the masses fighting each other while the fat cats make off with the loot.

 

My apologies for having ruffled any feathers - but if Jon Stewart can say it, I feel safe enough repeating it (he didn't ever say the exact joke I did, but did make plenty of other "chinese stuff made of lead" jokes.)

[megaplayboy]

Re: Why We Should Go Into Space

 

Actually, the dumbest reasons to go into space are "because Earth is too fragile" and "because our Sun will burn out someday". Why, you might ask? Because, using current technology(or even whatever we might be able to come up with in the next 20-25 years), addressing those two issues is essentially a logistical impossibility. Even in the next 75 years, putting a colony or Lagrange habitat into space that could survive in the event something catastrophic happens to Mother Earth is likely impossible/impractical. Over the very long term, if we're talking about colonizing planets in distant solar systems, lots of logistical problems crop up, not least of which are the mind-boggling energy requirements for sending even 10,000 tons out across the cosmos, and accelerating to and decelerating from a velocity that would be meaningful(i.e., something fast enough to reach another world before food/air/etc. run out, or something else bad happens).

 

When we have a provable propulsion tech on the drawing board that can reach even 0.1 percent of lightspeed, maybe colonization is something to think seriously about. Until then, it's just a pipe dream.

[Robot_Nixon]

Re: Why We Should Go Into Space

 

Yes, it was just a joke. And I couldn't agree more so far as "red vs. blue" goes - if you ask me, the entire liberal vs. conservative thing is a game of cups, meant to keep the masses fighting each other while the fat cats make off with the loot.

 

My apologies for having ruffled any feathers - but if Jon Stewart can say it, I feel safe enough repeating it (he didn't ever say the exact joke I did, but did make plenty of other "chinese stuff made of lead" jokes.)

 

No problem, no feathers were ruffled at you, it was directed at the general idea that we westerners think the chinese are inferior. I know what you did was just try to lighten the thread, and in response I went from addressing you directly in the first paragraph and then addressing the national feeling of arrogance in the next two. I should have delineated those two points a little more distinctly.

[Lawnmower Boy]

Re: Why We Should Go Into Space

 

Actually, the dumbest reasons to go into space are "because Earth is too fragile" and "because our Sun will burn out someday". Why, you might ask? Because, using current technology(or even whatever we might be able to come up with in the next 20-25 years), addressing those two issues is essentially a logistical impossibility. Even in the next 75 years, putting a colony or Lagrange habitat into space that could survive in the event something catastrophic happens to Mother Earth is likely impossible/impractical. Over the very long term, if we're talking about colonizing planets in distant solar systems, lots of logistical problems crop up, not least of which are the mind-boggling energy requirements for sending even 10,000 tons out across the cosmos, and accelerating to and decelerating from a velocity that would be meaningful(i.e., something fast enough to reach another world before food/air/etc. run out, or something else bad happens).

 

When we have a provable propulsion tech on the drawing board that can reach even 0.1 percent of lightspeed, maybe colonization is something to think seriously about. Until then, it's just a pipe dream.

 

 

Or, alternatively, until we're good enough at living in space to take our time.

 

Time. None of this argument makes any sense whatsoever unless you think we're on some kind of deadline. And we're not. Nor would hurrying necessarily get us out there faster. Hare, tortoise, you know. We have a focus right now --the International Space Station. We'll be on an asteroid before the ISS is phased out --hopefully an icy one. Bring the ice back, and the replacement to the ISS can be an order of magnitude bigger.

 

From there? I won't live to see the ISS's replacement phased out; but I'd say a lunar base, followed by a cycler station; and then a Mars mission, probably within my youngest niece's lifetime.

[megaplayboy]

Re: Why We Should Go Into Space

 

Or, alternatively, until we're good enough at living in space to take our time.

 

Time. None of this argument makes any sense whatsoever unless you think we're on some kind of deadline. And we're not. Nor would hurrying necessarily get us out there faster. Hare, tortoise, you know. We have a focus right now --the International Space Station. We'll be on an asteroid before the ISS is phased out --hopefully an icy one. Bring the ice back, and the replacement to the ISS can be an order of magnitude bigger.

 

From there? I won't live to see the ISS's replacement phased out; but I'd say a lunar base, followed by a cycler station; and then a Mars mission, probably within my youngest niece's lifetime.

 

Of course, maybe one of the keys to colonization of other star systems is the extension of the human lifespan, to a degree unimaginable to current biotechnologists and medical experts.