Jᴀᴄᴜʀᴜᴛᴜ - Tʜᴇ Cᴀsᴛ Oᴜᴛ

I should add that I hope I'm wrong, I'd love to see serious space expansion happen in my lifetime. My point is that people who think this is a legitimate option for dealing with the problems we have on Earth are dreaming, it's just a fantasy for people who'd rather think about that than come up with ways to fix our problems here. Space habitats are the most complicated and most expensive "solution" I can think of.

Of course, if we ever see what looks like a habitable planet we should send out a sleeper ship for sure, if we have the tech and resources.

Someone just won a NASA contest for a space elevator design. Once we get that workinging, building things in space will become "astronomically" cheaper.

You can't tell what new inventions there will be between now and then.

We just need a new world war to spur invention.



Seriously, I dont' think that the solution is space, but it's a fact that the space race was responsible for a lot of invetions we take for granted today.

I agree, and you're right, an elevator would help.

I think I posted about the space elevator contest at Worm's in the Science & Tech forum.

Yeah, I remember reading it. We're probably a good 20, 25 years away from that though, aty best, The problem is fullerene fibres, they're the best candidate for materials, but they're still super expensive to manufacture, and I don't think we've managed to get the fibres longer than a cm yet (if even that long). We'll get there, but nano-tech has a long way to go before we have the materials necessary to make some of this stuff happen.

technology curve is steep-steep-steep

the Apollo mission went with less computing power than can be found on a wristwatch today

I've seen electric generators multiply output 20-fold in my life time, &etc.

we have the technology, and the money, but not the will

I hate to say it, but again, without a major profit-motive, modern humans don't seem to move very fast.

I thought for a long time the whole UFO thing was a world-government plot to get us
unified against an "external threat" - in the mid-seventies it dawned on me that the US government
couldn't admit to the UFO thing, whether real or imagined. the idea that the USAF wasn't in total
control of the skies of America was untenable ....

I don't know...
as much as I loathe the military, I'm convinced that if Chuck Yeager had maintained
control of the Air Force Space Command, and been tasked with a Moon base by 1970,
I'd be typing this on Mars ....

or, we'd still be hip-deep in a Solar System wide war with the Soviet Union ....

SandChigger wrote:Exactly.

It's kinda like war, with the spinoff tech that eventually trickles down into civilian use.

And this just in (5 hours ago):

Iran has successfully sent a research rocket into space as the country marked its National Space Day.

Defence Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi hailed the successful launch saying: "Iran will not tolerate any non-peaceful use of space by any country."

Technicians said that live video transmission and a "mini-environmental lab" aboard the Explorer-3 will enable further studies on an "experimental capsule" containing a mouse, a turtle and worms.

Iran launched its first domestically made satellite a year ago which ended its mission in late March after 40 days in orbit.

The wrong people are going to get there before us. A few years back the Chinese announced plans to put a man on the moon by 2020. They haven't cancelled or extended the date so far as I know.

Oh well.

LOL! Heaven forbid anyone other than the Americans should get there first. As if losing out on the Olympics wasn't soul-destroying enough.

chanilover wrote:LOL! Heaven forbid anyone other than the Americans should get there first. As if losing out on the Olympics wasn't soul-destroying enough.

We DID get there first, boyo.

Seriously, if you think I'm just another rah-rah American, you haven't been paying attention. Do YOU really want Iranian weapons in orbit (I know, a mouse, a turtle and worms is still a LONG way from that) or the Chinese "liberating" the moon?

Really?

Yeah, I really don't give a shit if Turkmenistan goes to the moon before we/the US does again.

SandChigger wrote:

chanilover wrote:LOL! Heaven forbid anyone other than the Americans should get there first. As if losing out on the Olympics wasn't soul-destroying enough.

We DID get there first, boyo.

Seriously, if you think I'm just another rah-rah American, you haven't been paying attention. Do YOU really want Iranian weapons in orbit (I know, a mouse, a turtle and worms is still a LONG way from that) or the Chinese "liberating" the moon?

Really?

Iran with space capabilities is scary, of course. China, as long as thy don't put bombs up there I couldn't give a shit if they paint the whole moon red.

SandChigger wrote:

chanilover wrote:LOL! Heaven forbid anyone other than the Americans should get there first. As if losing out on the Olympics wasn't soul-destroying enough.

We DID get there first, boyo.

Seriously, if you think I'm just another rah-rah American, you haven't been paying attention. Do YOU really want Iranian weapons in orbit (I know, a mouse, a turtle and worms is still a LONG way from that) or the Chinese "liberating" the moon?

Really?

LOL! I was pulling your leg. Keep your hair on! Oh no, too late!

A Thing of Eternity wrote:China, as long as thy don't put bombs up there I couldn't give a shit if they paint the whole moon red.

It's funny you saying that, 'cause I had this weird image the other day of the Chinese colonists eventually spreading an atom-thin layer of red dust over the near side!

Dongfang hong! Yue ye hong! "The East is Red! The Moon is, too!"

chanilover wrote:LOL! I was pulling your leg. Keep your hair on! Oh no, too late!

Ha! I've got MORE HAIR IN MY NOSE AND EARS than you've probably got ON YOUR WHOLE BODY! So there!

...

Um, that didn't come out exactly the way I hoped, did it...

I'm with SR on this one...

I hate giant corporations and shit, but if that's the vehicle it takes to get ME into space, I'll back it 100%. If other planets in the solar system could be effectively mined for resources, it could lead to a lot of prosperity and innovation. Colonization, propulsion (or other methods of transportation), and deep-space exploration would follow swiftly.

SandChigger wrote:

A Thing of Eternity wrote:China, as long as thy don't put bombs up there I couldn't give a shit if they paint the whole moon red.

It's funny you saying that, 'cause I had this weird image the other day of the Chinese colonists eventually spreading an atom-thin layer of red dust over the near side!

Dongfang hong! Yue ye hong! "The East is Red! The Moon is, too!"

chanilover wrote:LOL! I was pulling your leg. Keep your hair on! Oh no, too late!

Ha! I've got MORE HAIR IN MY NOSE AND EARS than you've probably got ON YOUR WHOLE BODY! So there!

...

Um, that didn't come out exactly the way I hoped, did it...

Funny because it's probably true! I'll exhibit evidence in the member picture thread if you will.

Be careful what you propose!

I mean, the gross-out factor of the nose hair alone has me trying to remember where the camera is....


So, who wants to start up a space development corp?

I'm in ....

You can be the brilliant scientist who plans everything, Freak can be the get-r-done mechanic,
Mandy can be the hot-chick pilot, Omph can be the no-nonsense, you-people-cut-that-shit-out
CEO, I'll be the pessimistic but lovable old coot (hell, that thing'll never fly ...), trang can
be weapons-master for the inevitable firefights .... &etc

It could be like Jacurutu Star Trek. You know that Redbuggeezer will be the first one to be eaten by the slime monster when we teleport down planetside. After he's been anally probed, of course. And provided Chigger doesn't clog up the teleport with his nasal hair.

Yep ... startin' to look like I'm a' gonna hafta hurt ya.

What does that make me? Security Chief 'Roc' Ingersol?

In all seriousness though I believe we've come to a limit in capitalism, its great for managing the medium range but it just can't handle long term huge projects that won't have an immediate profit. Without the profit we can dream about it but the people who would actually do it have nothing to start with. The cost isn't just impossible to fathom, its actually impossible to make the project of moving off this planet and into space viable if we consider the cost at all. The only other cost to measure it to is the consequences of what we will have to do to remain planet bound with rampant population growth and extremely finite resources.

Ampoliros wrote:The only other cost to measure it to is the consequences of what we will have to do to remain planet bound with rampant population growth and extremely finite resources.

And we all know big business ALWAYS has that in mind...

Unless they progress beyond the recent "puffin" flyer, I mourn for what is the slow painful death of the space program. And to think, at the age of five, Astronauts were the shit - they could do ANYTHING.