Space: Is it worth it?

[Cailst]

Space, the final frontier; or is it just a waste of time? Are the billions of dollars spent in sending machines and men where no man has gone before justified by any of the knowledge gained so far? Could they be put to better use in other realms of government spending or would it be better for the taxpayers to keep the money? And if such spending is justified, how should space exploration progress? Should it mainly focus on sending robots into space to conduct research? Or do humans offer enough of an advantage to justify the extra expenses in ensuring their safety? Should space agencies mainly focus on exploration or should settlements of some kind be established? And how extensive should those settlements be? Should they be on the level of Antarctican settlements where all the people are temporarily there and then they come home after a summer or a year or two? Or should they be like the settlement of the Americas and Australia where families move there to raise families? And are there other aspects of space exploration worth considering?

If an asteroid is big enough to destroy the world and cause a huge drop in population, there would be no chance of repopulating. Diseases and starvation would kill the survivors.

If there were settlers in space that could survive without constant shipments of food, air, and water, then they certainly could survive to return to the Earth and fix it up.

None of which we know where it is nor do we have the equipment to do it.

Actually, we do know where some minerals are. For example, we know of Helium-3 on the moon and there are plenty of hydocarbons on Titan as well and trillions of tons of minerals on asteroids.

Which would result in a war, just like the pilgrimage.

How? There are no known inhabitants on any of the planets other than Earth. They'd have no one to fight against.

Such as what? a toothbrush?

There are a lot of technologies first discovered for use in space.

 

[Random Hero]

Yes, human supremacy and dominance must spread like wildfire throughout the galaxy.

:CHappy

 

[Insanity]

I'd say full colonization and terraforming techniques as possible, with robotic scouts researching other large planetary masses. Research stations could be established like the ones in Antartica to coordinate both the construction and research aspects of exploration.

 

[The Gloaming]

I say that when, and only when we know we can build a self sustaining colony on the moon, we should continue further exploration. Otherwise, we should just use a portion of the funding to explore the oceans, which we still know little about, and actually lie within our appointed territory. Who knows if some aliens are kicking back space beer and cleaning their flak cannons just waiting for use to step foot on their lawn and ask to borrow their power tools.
:CIsee

 

[Empress]

there are a few asteroids in the batista family in the inner belt that a asteroid the size of an American football field can contain more gold in it than humans have used in the entire history of our species.

Helium 3 is rarer and harder to find on earth, the gas giants are swimming in them with them.

I can list 5 bajillion reasons I think it's worth it.. those two are right there however for the more modern politically minded way of thinking " I demand pay out right away, **** the long term " reasons.

 

[Random Hero]

There are a few asteroids in the Batista family in the inner belt that a asteroid the size of an American football field can contain more gold in it than humans have used in the entire history of our species.

This settles it for me.

We can invest our soon to be worthless paper currency, and get legitimate currency in return.

Plus, think of all the jobs created for asteroid mining.

 

[The Gloaming]

think of all the jobs created for asteroid mining.

I'd do it. I can't imagine how many chicks I'd get just by flashing my metallic asteroid-mining equipment in their faces. Also, it would be somewhat like deadspace IRL, but without that sweet dismemberment...

Unless there's an ....... 'accident'
:CSly

 

[Empress]

ooh there is more material wealth just in the inner parts of the Sol system than you could even phantom, not to mention once we get into the outer system, and even into the Oort cloud and such.

sadly though it's bureaucracy. They want results/return " today" and dont want to wait for 5, 10, 20 years for their investments to ripen...Big reason I am an avid supporter of the private sector on this.

 

[Insanity]

So, corporate-control over bureacatic control? I'm game, just let me control a corporation and private army.

 

[Jake]

I don't know about short term, but eventually we'll have mining colonies set up in the asteroid belts and, if we explore the rest of the solar system, probably set up shop on the moon, Mars and Europa.

Unless something is developed to circumvent the problem that relativity presents, I don't think humanity will seed many if any Earth-like worlds we happen upon, and if we do then I doubt we could keep up communication and the civilizations there would develop on their own.

 

[Honorable]

@Calist
1. We would waste countless resources to re-supply our colonies and precious materials by traveling back and forth from space.
2. Ok so we do know where they are, but we don't have the equipment to harvest them.
3. When the British colonized America, they were met by Spain and French, who ended up fighting each other.
4. Obviously I am unaware of these technologies, please list some.

 

[Empress]

nagh were stuck in system for the most part until we establish wormhole based FTL or something similar.


though no true FTL that we cant do because of a major problem that being an object of mass accelerating closer to the speed of light gains infinite mass which requires infinite energy to propel it... and at true LS, flying away from earth for 4 years, then 4 years back will see earth aged a few thousand years.....so yeah we need to crack wormholes or something similar

 

[Green Ranger]

We're better off developing things down here first. Things like colonization bring up countless new problems that I doubt we're ready to face anytime soon.

 

[Ser Gregor]

**** that, I want the Enterprise now.

 

[jpchewy01]

**** that, I want the Enterprise now.

This.

 

[Ash]

NFL and NDL main topic this year is Space and if the American federal government should conttinue exploration past Earth's mesosphere. . .
On affirmative I think that it can help better the understanding of who and what we are.
On the opposition we've already ****ed too far with some things and are almost done destroying our own world, I would rather not mess up the rest of our galaxy.

 

[Insanity]

**** the rest of the galaxy, let's just colonize Mars.

 

[Crosby]

I think it will be worth it in the long run, but with our current technology we cant do much. As long as we are still trying to develop space fairing technology we probably will see a very profitable outcome.

 

[Empress]

colonies I don't think we need to bother with just yet, at least not for a while... research and mining though I think we are more than ready and able to... I mean the makeshift mars research program is in itself a short term colonization of a year on mars before they come back, and send out the next batch similar to the space station.

Mining for the most part can be automated, the only real real issues come with getting things up and down...it's costly now, but again, once the elevator system is good to go sure many many private sector companies will jump on it really fast given the return involved.

closest I expect to see anytime soon is low orbit hotels, as several of the big hotel corporations are already making plans and investing in research in space habitation and the likes.

 

[Ender]

Today we have the means and know how to colonize the moon. Want to know whats keeping us back? $$$$ we don't have the funding.