Manned vs. Robotic space travel

[Paradox]

while some things will be better served by machines for now, i believe our future to lie among the stars. or at least our own star system. baby steps.

popular science has an article that features a propulsion system that could get humans to mars in 39 days, much better than the previous estimate of 6 months. mars is awesome, but i think we should 'practice' more with the moon first. then mars and an asteroid or two, then lets hit up some of the moons of jupiter and saturn.

just recently, a likely Earth-like planet was detected just 20 light years away. if the findings hold true, that should be our ultimate goal for a fleet of generational ships.

"but money is better spent Earth-side instead of on space!" this is horse-hockey. space exploration does and will provide plenty of terrestrial benefits. plus, our planet will not last forever. if we dont work on expanding out frontiers now, then when? let the next generation work on it? and so on?

the lines are open. first caller?

 

[De-Ting]

Links or it didn't happen.

 

[Paradox]

ass

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gliese_581_g

 

[De-Ting]

I think it's more likely that we will kill ourselves via war and carelessly devouring our Earth's resources before we'll be able to muster up the technology to colonize a tidal locked planet 20.5 light years away.

*gasp*

 

[Longo_2_guns]

I believe that we need to travel and colonize elsewhere. The odds of the human race alone even existing are so small it isn't even funny, and there's millions of crazy species on this planet. So we need to keep a log of this somewhere safe for other species to see for when we all die.

And we should fill it with wasps, since they're likely alien anyway.

 

[lokness]

I agree with De-Ting, It's awesome to dream and everything but if we can just lay our firearms down and get along, its only then can we can finally pour money into R&D into space travel and other bs. The amount of money that goes into researching on killing more people efficiently (i.e aircraft, bombs, guns, armour, A.I) is massive. Imagine if we channel all that into space travel.

 

[Chris_Crime]

i really want them to figure out this dark matter for fuel thingamajig

as a bonus to our loyal readers, 'thingamajig' does not come up as an incorrect spelling in firefox. ironically, 'firefox' does. :O (capitalization error, but it still counts!)

but yeah. get that dark matter stuff going and the skies the limit on space travel! I'm for cutting the defense bill for it. it's not gonna happen, but hey, we can dream.

I still want to see what happens to human life as it passes through a radiation belt. what long term effects, if any? and why not insta-dead? inb4 neil armstrong & "hmmm" on NASA gear deflecting space radiation "hmmm..."

 

[madster111]

We need to figure out a way to travel FTL.
Wormhole generators?


We were all born 50-100 years too early ;_;

 

[Kijan]

We need to figure out a way to travel FTL.
Wormhole generators?


We were all born 50-100 years too early ;_;

Don't fret, Italy is pouring it's cash into research for an elixir of life, so we'll probably become immortal... for the right price.

 

[Eyebrowsbv31]

I'd like to point out to the "Lay down the guns crowd" the only reason we got to the moon was to make sure we had the biggest dick in the dick waving contest with the USSR.

The reason NASA has faltered these past 2 decades (besides spending their time becoming an outreach center for muslims for the US gov) is because the gov., along with nasa, have no one to battle dicks with.


Also, they should shoot a probe loaded with bacterias and stuff and see if they live on the new planet. Yeah?

 

[lokness]

Dude, the moon landing was a hoax. Didn't you read the papers?

 

[Paradox]

i see nasa and government being thrown around a lot. do not forget the private and commercial sector. those guys are doing real things and getting results for far cheaper than a national space program can.

 

[Eyebrowsbv31]

Dude, the moon landing was a hoax. Didn't you read the papers?

I hope this is sarcasm.

Yes! Pvt. industry is getting us to the moon again, but only to make monies. We need a mad man with trillions to save the world. Will probably be Russian or something.

 

[madster111]

i see nasa and government being thrown around a lot. do not forget the private and commercial sector. those guys are doing real things and getting results for far cheaper than a national space program can.

This.

I honestly don't see why shuttles are meant to cost so much fucking money.
I'm betting a private company could build one equal in use to the NASA ones for 10mil or less, verses the... What, 2bil it costs NASA to build one?
After all, they're basically just less armored submarines with engines attached, built into a vaguely plane shaped shell.

Then when the shuttles are in space, they're controlled and given directions from the ground.
Why?
On-board computers can do this without the unnecessary delays and numerous people in rooms controlling it.
Even a single public sector computer these days can do those sort of calculations without effort.

 

[keepithowitis]

^Well it also needs to withstand the forces of entering the earth's atmosphere... yes, the same one that can destroy meteors.

 

[madster111]

^Well it also needs to withstand the forces of entering the earth's atmosphere... yes, the same one that can destroy meteors.

Greater than the ~6000psi a well made submarine can withstand?
And that's before you factor in Titanium.
Cover the entire thing in the black tiles and/or the silica glass crap that can take most of the heat away and the Titanium simply will not melt.

Providing the heat isn't allowed to enter the cabin, the Atmosphere presents little problem.
Even if you were insane and had no angle of attack.

 

[DocMoc]

Long before we launch ships out to the far yonder, we need to perfect colonization first. The ambitious first steps to spreading ourselves into the galaxy is first to create a habitable environment on the moon: here and here

Step two, perfect teraforming on Mars. By then, maybe we'll have figured out how to travel long distances in short times. We have to learn how to set up living environments on places other than Earth before we think about blasting out into the galaxy.

 

[madster111]

Long before we launch ships out to the far yonder, we need to perfect colonization first. The ambitious first steps to spreading ourselves into the galaxy is first to create a habitable environment on the moon: here and here

Step two, perfect teraforming on Mars. By then, maybe we'll have figured out how to travel long distances in short times. We have to learn how to set up living environments on places other than Earth before we think about blasting out into the galaxy.

I was thinking we would do Mars first. After all, it would have resources that would make colonizing it worthwhile.
Then we need to develop FTL so we can colonize the nearby earth-like planets so WHEN earth goes down the hole we can still survive.

 

[trust_no_one]

First...we should explore our own oceans. It may as well be an alien planet for all we know about it. It is a good "baby step" for us to work on, and yet still be "home".

Also the wide variations of life below the ocean would better prepare us for any exploration on any other ice/water planet/moon we would venture off to.