Does space matter to you?

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Postures
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21 May 2011, 10:53 pm

Carl Sagan is my hero.

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21 May 2011, 10:56 pm

Master_Pedant wrote:

the best Private companies have done is put people in orbit around Earth (while not small feat, certainly not equivalent to a moon landing, much less your sought after lunar mining).

http://www.space.com/3567-texas-firm-draws-plans-orbital-gas-station.html

It might not be that far away

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21 May 2011, 11:15 pm

Vigilans wrote:

Master_Pedant wrote:

the best Private companies have done is put people in orbit around Earth (while not small feat, certainly not equivalent to a moon landing, much less your sought after lunar mining).

http://www.space.com/3567-texas-firm-draws-plans-orbital-gas-station.html

It might not be that far away

Do you think that Stone Aerospace will actually do this, meeting their 2015 deadline for privatized LEO operations?

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21 May 2011, 11:19 pm

iamnotaparakeet wrote:

Vigilans wrote:

Master_Pedant wrote:

the best Private companies have done is put people in orbit around Earth (while not small feat, certainly not equivalent to a moon landing, much less your sought after lunar mining).

http://www.space.com/3567-texas-firm-draws-plans-orbital-gas-station.html

It might not be that far away

Do you think that Stone Aerospace will actually do this, meeting their 2015 deadline for privatized LEO operations?

Assuming they follow the timeline of the other private companies it is possible. I suspect they'll rely on Bigelow Aerospace for space station and lunar construction technology and SpaceX for launch capabilities

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21 May 2011, 11:34 pm

The best bet for interplanetary commerce is probably in the area of autonomous robots which do not require Earth environments for maintenance and can derive their energies directly from sunlight. They also are much more resilient to radiation which is highly destructive to life. No doubt humans can be genetically engineered to be more spaceworthy but this takes time and a good deal more expertise than we now possess while radical changes and advances in robotry seem much more likely in the offing. It is not inconceivable that robot civilizations will arise on the other solar planets that might be somewhat independent of Earth control and can have economic and social arrangements with Earth life. The dangers probably will arise when the robots advance quickly beyond human control and decide that Earth itself is a field worth exploiting. But that is probably a matter of centuries in the future The Solar system is large and rich enough to contain both systems for a long time without destroying the advantages of cooperation.

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21 May 2011, 11:37 pm

Sand wrote:

I for one welcome our A.I. overlords
You're correct though, autonomous robots are definitely a premier way of exploitation. Pushing R&D in a direction that accomplishes this would boost A.I. technology in other fields as well. Create something smarter than ourselves to solve all our problems? Could be the best solution

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21 May 2011, 11:59 pm

ruveyn wrote:

simon_says wrote:

This is a great time for the development of a space industry. There are several private companies about to come online to supply the space station, a number private capsules for astronauts in development, and a private space station under development.

If these things work out we'll have a commercial space program working alongside NASA for the first time in history.

NASA is now an impediment to progress. It is a bloated and corrupt organization. Its management is an abomination.

ruveyn

Not saying that NASA isn't problematic (it's bureaucracy desperately need cleaning up and reducing in size), but I think there is still a place for it. Rather than developing rockets and launching them it can do research into basic space technology and, most of all, operate science missions. Even people in the NewSpace corporations (I'm thinking of Elon Musk in particular) think that NASA has an important place. It just needs to be redefined some.

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22 May 2011, 12:01 am

When it comes to genetics, I can't wait for the day when we can genetically engineer one of these

into one of these

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22 May 2011, 12:08 am

Doing radical genetic engineering might be safer in large space laboratories with induced gravity. No risk of contaminating the local environment with species without predators. That could be the ideal place to develop flora & fauna capable of surviving on specific planets in the solar system. Slowing or speeding rotation can increase or decrease the gravity thus allowing simulations of different d/planets, moons or asteroids where Humans might want to grow food, and the ability to control sunlight and day/night patterns

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22 May 2011, 12:16 am

Vigilans wrote:

I personally think there's been a giant whole in our ecosystems ever since Giant Flightless Carnivorous Birds went extinct 1.8 million years ago! :cry:

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22 May 2011, 12:42 am

As much as I admire its ingenuity I would rather Tyrannosaurus Rex remained on the endangered species list.

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22 May 2011, 12:47 am

Master_Pedant wrote:

ruveyn wrote:

The voyages that counted were done by the English, the Spanish, the Portugese and the Dutch. They came to North America and they stayed and built something new.

ruveyn

Said voyages were also financed by the governments of the day.

Pretty sure the Mayflower, full of religious separatists, was not financed by the government. The London/Virginia company, which founded Jamestown, had a crown charter but was also privately financed.

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22 May 2011, 12:54 am

Master_Pedant wrote:

Vigilans wrote:

I personally think there's been a giant whole in our ecosystems ever since Giant Flightless Carnivorous Birds went extinct 1.8 million years ago! :cry:

The world is a much emptier place without them...

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22 May 2011, 1:11 am

Sand wrote:

The price of putting even one individual in space is overwhelming and over the half century of the development of space technology the costs have remained monstrously high.

This is only because we haven't progressed beyond rocket technology to get things to orbit. With a launch loop, space elevator, or other nonrocket system, getting to orbit will become relatively cheap.

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22 May 2011, 1:12 am

psychohist wrote:

Master_Pedant wrote:

ruveyn wrote:

The voyages that counted were done by the English, the Spanish, the Portugese and the Dutch. They came to North America and they stayed and built something new.

ruveyn

Said voyages were also financed by the governments of the day.

The demonstration that there were private contributions to exploration and development does not in any way negate the importance of government in these matters. Throughout history to the present time both government and private sources were involved in human activities with both good and bad results from both sources.

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22 May 2011, 1:39 am

psychohist wrote:

Master_Pedant wrote:

ruveyn wrote:

The voyages that counted were done by the English, the Spanish, the Portugese and the Dutch. They came to North America and they stayed and built something new.

ruveyn

Said voyages were also financed by the governments of the day.

You do know that the important voyages to chart out the land and start the fisheries that made North America so attractive for future explorers was financed by the government, right? John Cabot's 1492 visit to Newfoundland was well before the Mayflower.

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