If the universe goes on expanding forever, the matter contained therein will be spread extremely thinly; everything will approach ‘absolute zero’, motion will (excepting quantum uncertainty) completely stop; humanity WOULD become extinct… Also, time itself may, at some point in the future, come to an end; humanity could, obviously, not hope to survive the end of time…
If a large asteroid collided with earth, now, what chance would you give our species of surviving this catastrophe? Are there any breeding pairs of Homo sapiens anywhere else than on earth??
Nope.
It will never be practical. Although we can live in Antarctica, it will never be practical to build large communities that sustain a full life from cradle to the grave.
Space makes Antarctica look like a Holiday Camp.
Yes, by now we were supposed to have a colony on Mars and several Moon bases taking tourists to and from the Lunar surface, if we were to accept the predictions given to me as a child in the sixties.
The sad fact is that there is nothing on the Moon, nothing on Mars, and nothing anywhere in the entire Solar system that we need, can’t get here on earth, and is remotely economical to collect.
That is exactly what the thread has been about - even if it is possible to pilot a ship all the way out of the Solar System to find another habitable planet. It will Never be economical to do it.
And even if we do it to escape the exploding sun, out local cluster of stars are most likely to be of the same age or older.
There have been people on Antarctic for 100 years, and people at the top of Everest for 50 years, yet no one is going to build a school, a hospital, a Mall and a MacDonalds in those places.
Except man cannot completely devour this source, because of the way it has been defined=created, it is an inexhaustible source. The source is limitless, undefinable.
Technology will always find alternative sources of energy: after the sun dies, albeit a very long time before it (if humanity survives) technology may reach levels unimaginable, even by todays standards. And I mean of science fiction, not of "real" science.
What if we weren’t bound by the same economics that we are now? It was never economical to travel across the world for leisure or mere curiosity until new forms of transportation/fuel developed.
So we better get going then to be safe. Even if we fail, do you not think there is anything enriching about studying space and exploring space?
I don’t know about you guys, but misanthropy is driving me into space. I want to be alone. I don’t like being in societies, towns, cities, civilization, states, systems, slavery. I want out of human slavery. I want to be away from other people.
The more clogged Earth becomes, the more men like me, who just want to get away from other people, are going to band together and leave by pure volition and willpower. Frankly, I can’t stand it, like Agent Smith from the Matrix when he’s interrogating Morpheus. You know, he just wants “out” of the matrix. That’s like me. I just want out.
Space offers this freedom, to the men who need it most. If you don’t understand, if you can’t empathize, then of course you’ll want to stay safe and warm and cozy on Earth. But you guys need to understand, not everybody else is like you, and not everybody enjoys this human slavery.
I agree. Hell is other people, and the pit of Doom is other people’s children.
One thing we get in space, is very close proximity and interdependence on other people.
No we are making amazing in-roads into the understanding of space - possibly more than we ever expected. But ALL without humans.
And the more technology develops the more we realise that we don’t need or want manned flights.
NASA has designed radiation proof suits for space particularly for the Mars expedition but, it will be used on space stations for the builders. The suits have been under works for a couple of decades now and is ready for use. The original suits are nothing compared to these. Not just radiation proof but more. Pretty cool really. The problem has been to bring the costs of making them down. Space stations will be done by private business. Mineral rights and discoveries that profit are the carrots driving private industry to space. Employees will live on the stations and ships that are being fabricated and built. As always profit will bring us to the new frontier.
Sometimes men have to become slaves to each other, in order to acquire independence and freedom.
Men need to work in groups to get out into the extensions of space. I mean, you could engineer and build your own spacecraft. But it’d be expensive. So stupid poor people automatically are inaccessible to space travel, exploration, and freedom. Then again, a person could become homeless, dig a hole, bury him or herself in it. There are other routes to freedom, although all routes seem sacrificial and costly.
Thank you for your ideological response. Can I ask why private enterprise has not gone to the moon?
Were we to have waited for private enterprise to go to the moon we would still be waiting. There is no economic sense to go to the Moon and much less to go to Mars.
The Whitehouse has said ‘never’, with the current US budget. If the US can’t afford it then how much less private enterprise?
There is nothing on Mars of worth.
Estimates for a two man trip range from $6billion to $15billion. Say $9 billion.
Even if it were made of solid gold, it would not be worth the expense of the trip.
Let’s say there was a big stack of 24ct gold bars conveniently lying around on the surface of Mars.
And you were lucky enough to be able to sell it for $3000 per Kg, when you got it back to earth.
You would need to collect 3 million KG of pure gold to break even on the trip (based on 9bill),
The trouble is that the added payload of 3 million Kg would mean the cost of the trip would accelerate beyond the break even point. You would have to take so much more fuel to be able to escape the Martian gravity.
Trouble is that selling $9 billion dollars of gold would mean the value of the gold would plummet.
And, of course, there is no convenient stack of 24ct gold bars on the surface of Mars as far as we know.
Gold is the only mineral? You forget until recently technology has been prohibitively expensive to all but governments. Technology and material costs have dropped drastically to appeal to the private sector. If it can’t be sold to governments then the investment must be sold privately. Switzerland and corporates already are investing. There are other corporations worldwide building towards it. Governments will piggyback the private sector. You really need to expand your reading material.
It surprises me that ostensibly intelligent people can be so short sighted. It’s a good job such people can’t quench the human spirit for expansion and exploration.
You guys know what drove white euro settlers into the western u.s. states?
It was a propaganda campaign which, run by the media moguls, which told about the gold boom. There’s wasn’t really very much gold there. But the promise of gold tricked most people into ditching their comfortable lives, to strike it rich in the west. We need to do this again. We need to convince the humans on earth that there’s tons and tons of gold on mars. And that will drive the average human into space.
It worked before, it will work again. This is where the term “fool’s gold” came from, actually.
Dude, minerals and metals are essential. The profit is in building and expanding. Do you not think that the wealthy will not bring conveinces with them? The over wealthy are bored. They will expand and will need the lower classes to serve. It is happening slowly but it will happen. The private sector demands space. Space has metals, minerals and potentials. Fantasy is becoming reality within three more generations or less.
