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Space exploration: Where do we go from here?

J

joecct

Well-known member
58 years ago, JFK said, "We choose to go to the Moon, not because it is easy, but because it is hard."

It's hard now, and we ain't going anywhere. Whether it is lack of will, lack of money, lack of vision, lack of leadership, lack of (________), we're stuck in a rut since 1972.

Elon just launched in the fog and stuck the landing thru the fog. I'm not saying SpaceX is the answer, but they're moving the needle.

We're not going anywhere unless we figure out a new form of propulsion that does not involve hauling gobs of fuel around to fuel the engines. Somebody will figure it out. Maybe on my lifetime, probably not.
 
Re: Space exploration: Where do we go from here?

I'd concentrate on being able to tell more and more about things farther and farther away. We should know an exoplanet can support us before we visit it. I don't know how long that will take, but we've really only been using our brains to explore scientifically for 1000 years and we've gotten to where we can figure out mass, density, revolutionary period, and rough geological makeup of exoplanets. The science might be here in another 100 years.

Then we need to have a way of "getting" there. I'm not sure "getting" will mean people traveling. Instead I can imagine armadas of self-replicating sensors and scouts at the molecular level traveling there at lightspeed and assembling machines and comms gear so that we can observe while they move around, continue to build, explore, test and hopefully eventually make contact if they find anything interesting. No space ships. Maybe eventually being able to beam instructions to copy consciousness into those creations. (This also makes ambulatory life back home unnecessary, since you can pump your consciousness anywhere and, for that matter, into anything -- want to be a dinosaur?)

I mean the porn spinoffs alone should pay for it.
 
Re: Space exploration: Where do we go from here?

The asteroids either in the Belt or the Aft Trojans of Jupiter should be able to pay for all of it.
 
Re: Space exploration: Where do we go from here?

joecct said:
The asteroids either in the Belt or the Aft Trojans of Jupiter should be able to pay for all of it.
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I never understand how that would work.

Gold is $1300 an ounce. Say there's a solid gold asteroid out there that's one trillion ounces. If it becomes accessible that doesn't mean it will be worth $1.3 quadrillion. It means gold will fall to a thousandth of a cent an ounce.
 
Re: Space exploration: Where do we go from here?

Kepler said:
I never understand how that would work.

Gold is $1300 an ounce. Say there's a solid gold asteroid out there that's one trillion ounces. If it becomes accessible that doesn't mean it will be worth $1.3 quadrillion. It means gold will fall to a thousandth of a cent an ounce.
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False. It will never become accessible to the general public. It will be owned in whole by Giant MegaSpace Exploration, Inc., who will sell it for $1300 an ounce, one ounce at a time, for the next 10,000 years.

Cecil Rhodes would wet himself.
 
Re: Space exploration: Where do we go from here?

LynahFan said:
False. It will never become accessible to the general public. It will be owned in whole by Giant MegaSpace Exploration, Inc., who will sell it for $1300 an ounce, one ounce at a time, for the next 10,000 years.

Cecil Rhodes would wet himself.
Click to expand...

See also: Diamonds
 
Re: Space exploration: Where do we go from here?

Heard on the radio yesterday: On this day in 1983 Sally Ride becomes the first woman to walk on the moon.

Sigh.
 
Re: Space exploration: Where do we go from here?

SpaceX goes 2 for 3 on booster recovery this AM. The are batting 0.5 for 3 on center core recovery, but they did get the fairing!
 
Kepler said:
Submitted without comment.
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Nothing new. Operation Paperclip did a quick "de Nazification" on the scientists and technicians and shipped them off along with their families to an Army facility in the USA. The Russians did the same for the German scientists they laid their hands on.

I forget what happened to the SS guys who were to blame for executing the slave laborers.

If you really want to have fun look up Reinhard Gehlen and Abwehr Ost.
 
Re: Space exploration: Where do we go from here?

joecct said:
Nothing new. Operation Paperclip did a quick "de Nazification" on the scientists and technicians and shipped them off along with their families to an Army facility in the USA. The Russians did the same for the German scientists they laid their hands on.
Click to expand...

I wasn't presenting it as breaking news. I really enjoyed the graphic presentation. It reminds me of "smart people comics" like Logicomix.

If you really want to have fun look up Reinhard Gehlen and Abwehr Ost.
Click to expand...

That is fascinating. There are lessons there for fighting the Dumpies from within.
 
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