Space exploration/colonization

[TNF]

Support (D/Not in favor of the possible extinction of mankind)

[bedstuy]

Support (D/Not in favor of the possible extinction of mankind)

I don't think space exploration or colonization will be a viable means of averting the extinction of mankind any time soon.  Perhaps it will be in 1000 years or 50,000 years. 

But, let's not put the interstellar cart before the galactic horse.

[barfbag]

I don't think we'll ever be able to live on other planets with the exception of Mars. NASA would be a great way to form a Star Wars missile defense system in space though. We should be expanding NASA and funding within our budget to do what we can for security and resourceful purposes. Imagine finding fossil fuels on other planets or in outer space. Oil companies would be pretty excited. You never know the day might come where we're able to drill on the moon and if the moon in multiple holes and even drill in different holes at once as if we were performing double penetration. Yes though I do support furthering NASA and exploring space.

[Antonio the Sixth]

I'm fine with it, if there is money left to fund it after we have fixed the hundreds of more serious problems we have.

[barfbag]

I'm fine with it, if there is money left to fund it after we have fixed the hundreds of more serious problems we have.

There are more important things, you're right.

[Goldwater]

I support space exploration, but I think we're a few centuries away from colonization.

[Blue3]

Support it, but there's quite a few higher priorities right now.

[TDAS04]

I support space exploration, but I think we're a few centuries away from colonization.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

We could do colonization of Mars now with the technology we already have, but it wouldn't be cheap and those paying for it likely wouldn't see any financial benefit from it and that won't change in the next few centuries.  However, colonization is is many ways a more practical option than manned exploration of Mars with the explorers returning.

Indeed, if one wanted to colonize Mars as cheaply as possible, we'd dispense with traditional family relationships.  Send up three or four young Eves and a hundred or so fertilized embryos in cold storage for genetic variety.  Not that I think we'd be willing to do that with humans, tho any animals we send for the colonists to make use of would be sent that way.  No, we'll need to include an equal number of Adams with our Eves, and maybe even a Steve or two for political correctness altho a pair of lesbians willing to be surrogate mothers would be a far more practical way to include the LBGT community in the colony since it is far cheaper to ship sperm than sperm makers to Mars.  Any successful colonization scheme is going to have to send up people willing to raise large families with some of their kids having biological parents who never got to Mars themselves for the first few generations just to insure that Martians don't become the next Oklahomans.

[Pessimistic Antineutrino]

I support space exploration, but I think we're a few centuries away from colonization.

I wholeheartedly support space exploration. of course, right now we have more important issues, quite obviously. Still though, a fair chunk of funding should be put into exploring the solar system. With limited resources here on Earth the mining of asteroids and comets could be a lucrative enterprise, although with current technology it is a fun little project at best and a big waste of time and money at worst. The Moon and gas giant planets like Jupiter could be mined for Helium-3, a precious rarity on Earth and a necessity for current space fuel.
     However the chance of finding oil on extrasolar planets is virtually zero. The discovery of fossil fuels on an extrasolar planet would imply the formation of plant and animal DNA identical to that on Earth. It would essentially have to have exactly the same conditions for life as our planet.. Unless DNA was spread via panspermia throughout the universe, we're not finding oil.
     As for Mars it is possible to colonize or even terraform it, but the technology to do so is at least 75-90 years away at best, hundreds of years at worst. While establishing a small laboratory or camp could be doable, building a sheltered colony would require decades of delicate and dedicated work. To terraform it would even be a bigger task. Countless tons of carbon dioxide would have to be created and pumped into the atmosphere to induce global warming, which on its own is a near-impossible task. Then photosynthesizing plants need to be planted to create oxygen, and comets would have to be guided onto the surface for water sources. On top of all that an artificial planetary magnetic field would have to be created and maintained. And this whole process could take centuries, possibly even millennia. So colonizing is possible in the future. Terraforming is possible but highly improbably given our current standing.
And actually reaching the stars is another problem. The thermonuclear bomb-powered ship described by anvi is the most basic, and fairly efficient compared to our current technology. Antimatter powered ships would be much better, reaching speeds up to 0.99c, although the technology is still at least 200 years away. Remember that reaching the nearest star would still take four years with antimatter-powered ships.
And breaking the light barrier is, at least for the time being, impossible.

So there you have it. Of course we should colonize space, for a multitude of reasons. But until we can solve all of our current problems, the stars will remain a distant dream.

[dead0man]

I support private individuals that want to work on it.  Highly encourage them in fact.  Wish those rich guys much luck and many happy returns on their investment, whether those returns be personal fulfillment or bank account filling.

I don't support my government spending trillions to do it.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

The Moon and gas giant planets like Jupiter could be mined for Helium-3, a precious rarity on Earth and a necessity for current space fuel.

It would be nice if we actually had a workable Helium-3 reactor before people started talking about the need for it.  Plus the cost of space mined ³He has to be compared to that of producing it here on Terra.  Granted, producing it here on Terra is not without its problems as it is a byproduct of tritium production and the primary need for tritium is for nuclear weapons with a secondary use for illumination.

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Colonization can be done today if the funds were made available.  Terraforming is of course beyond our present abilities, but is not needed for colonization to work.

Incidentally, because I'm not expecting Martians to be scampering on the surface any time soon, rather than a seasonal calendar based on the Martian sidereal year of 668 or 669 sols, I think a civil calendar based on the synodic period of Earth and Mars (759 or 760 sols) is likely to work best.  Have the new year begin around the time of conjunction when the Sun interferes with communications. (Unfortunately, the period between conjunctions varies too much have a calendar based on strict observance of the conjunctions have years that are all the same length. Then assuming a calendar of 23 months of 33 sols, the ninth month would see launchings taking place, both of Earth to Mars and any of Mars to Earth.  The fifteenth month would see the landings take place. (This is for Hohmann transfer orbit, which is the quickest orbit between Earth and Mars.  There are other orbits with lower delta-v requirements, but they also take far longer and would only be suitable for unmanned transfers.)  The fifteenth month when all new colonists from Earth would arrive would be especially festive.

[Blue3]

Space colonization won't really happen until there's profit to be made in it, enough to outweigh all the costs and risks.

What do people think of NASA idea's of sending advanced 3D printers to the Moon and Mars, to construct shelters and objects from the surrounding materials, so not all of it has to be shipped from Earth? That would significantly decrease the costs.

Also terraformation could happen, but over a very long time. I remember reading that if we put enough of a certain bacteria on Mars, it could transform the atmosphere to be thicker/warmer and generate enough oxygen for the air to be breathable for humans... after about 200 years.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

What do people think of NASA idea's of sending advanced 3D printers to the Moon and Mars, to construct shelters and objects from the surrounding materials, so not all of it has to be shipped from Earth? That would significantly decrease the costs.

I'm doubtful that any robot we send up there in the near term would be able to extract feed stocks of sufficient quality from the local materials as to make 3D printing advantageous over other methods of constructing shelters ready for humans to move in.  That isn't to say 3D printers will not be a help. They'll mean that the colonists will not need to carry or keep on hand as large a stock of spare parts, but I expect the feedstocks for those 3D printers will be carried from Terra, tho once the hydroponics are up and operating, 3D printing of basic plastics can certainly be done from local materials.  Also, preliminary robots will no doubt produce consumables such as oxygen to be ready to use as soon the colonists arrive and do some of the preliminary excavation work for the underground habitat.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

I don't favor space programs based on principle, however if we develop space weapons and/or colonies with which we can project our country's might to the stars, then obviously I'm in favor. Sadly, many in the United States--other than Ronald Reagan and Newt Gingrich--lack the vision for such things.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

I don't think I support space colonization, but I would be fine with more exploration.  I hope we'll be able to send astronauts to Mars in the future the same way we were able to put a man on the Moon, but not to live there.

[traininthedistance]

I'm strongly in favor of pretty much any spending on sound scientific research, which of course includes NASA's probes and satellites and telescopes and such.

Manned space travel, however, is pretty much the height of gross inefficiency, and has virtually no scientific purpose that we can't fill much cheaper, faster, and more effectively with robots at the moment.  By the time the sun gets too hot for life to exist on earth*, it will be another couple billion years and Homo Sapiens as we know it will be long gone, evolved into something else or driven itself to extinction.  If by some lucky chance there is still sentient life on earth, they can (and should, of course) deal with it then: right now, though, we need to learn to walk before we can run.

*Assuming, of course, that the most dystopian AGW predictions do not come to pass; right now of course it looks like they won't but there's always a bit of long-tail risk.

[morgieb]

More important issues, but the world is not infinite. Of course, neither is the universe....

What happens after the universe dies?

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

More important issues, but the world is not infinite. Of course, neither is the universe....

What happens after the universe dies?

Who says it has to die?

[Associate Justice PiT]

     An important issue that we would need to address is gravity. Someone who was born and raised on the Moon or on Mars would likely not be able to function on Earth, because their musculature would be too weak. If we want a colony, we should probably develop artificial gravity to help sustain normal development, lest its inhabitants become permanent outcasts from the blue planet.

[dead0man]

     An important issue that we would need to address is gravity. Someone who was born and raised on the Moon or on Mars would likely not be able to function on Earth, because their musculature would be too weak. If we want a colony, we should probably develop artificial gravity to help sustain normal development, lest its inhabitants become permanent outcasts from the blue planet.

Aye, that will be a problem but it also seems like a fairly easily solved problem without the need for fake gravity.  Strength suits when they first get back on Earth and/or exercise for a few months before the planned visit.  Or just suffer for a few days while you come "home" to bury grandpa (or whatever) then hop back into space.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

     An important issue that we would need to address is gravity. Someone who was born and raised on the Moon or on Mars would likely not be able to function on Earth, because their musculature would be too weak. If we want a colony, we should probably develop artificial gravity to help sustain normal development, lest its inhabitants become permanent outcasts from the blue planet.

Aye, that will be a problem but it also seems like a fairly easily solved problem without the need for fake gravity.  Strength suits when they first get back on Earth and/or exercise for a few months before the planned visit.  Or just suffer for a few days while you come "home" to bury grandpa (or whatever) then hop back into space.

Maybe for those coming from Luna spending only a few days on Terra would be feasible if you were rich enough to afford a round trip, but not for Martians.  Orbital mechanics make it such that a Martian who visited Terra would have to spend roughly 550 days here, altho some of that could be spent on Luna while they waited for the launch window.  The same also applies to visiting/colonizing Mars.  A round trip to Mars and back to Terra would also involve spending roughly 535 sols on Mars with the whole trip taking a little under three Terran years.

The economics of space travel are such that any Martian colonists will be stranded there even without any medical complications.

[Grumpier Than Thou]

Support wholeheartedly (D)

[John Dibble]

Yes, though at this point it's a matter of getting the technology to make it cost effective.

[barfbag]

Does anyone believe in life in outer space or on other planets in different solar systems?