We choose to go to the moon"

[rei101]

I rather finish war, contamination and create actual awareness about population control, I mean, people can not have kids just because, there is a need for a control based on understanding.

I rather have this planet organized rather than daydreaming in living in another one to end up with the same disaster, that is just fake to start with and subconsciously irresponsible.

[SandboxGeneral]

Originally Posted by rei101

I rather finish war, contamination and create actual awareness about population control, I mean, people can not have kids just because, there is a need for a control based on understanding.

I rather have this planet organized rather than daydreaming in living in another one to end up with the same disaster, that is just fake to start with and subconsciously irresponsible.

Finish war? I can say with confidence, that as long as humans occupy life, there will always be war - as unfortunate as that is. I don't want to turn this thread into PRSI, so I will stop with that.

I don't see any problem with daydreaming about space travel. The space program was at it's height during the cold war and brought to us some of the most useful technologies we have. I venture to say, that due to that, there have been thing invented that in some way, shape of form, has lead to the development of Apple's product lines throughout the years.

Without the cold war, and the need to outpace our rivals, many of our advancements likely never would have come to fruition.

[snberk103]

Originally Posted by SandboxGeneral

You raise a lot of good points; issues that I have thought of myself while pondering interstellar travel .... I deduced that space travel for humans is limited to our solar system. Unless or until we find a way to travel much faster than light speed.

Unfortunately, I think you are right. Though I remember reading an SF story about a "colony" ship sent out to a habitable planet system, where the colonists were deep frozen for the hundred+ year journey. They were supposed to be the first humans on this new world, and had packed all the "stuff" necessary to start a new human society - cut off from the home world. When the crew started waking up for the approach, they were met by ships from their planet, already in orbit. Seems that a few decades after the original slow colony ship had departed faster-than-light travel had been invented, and the planet had not only been colonized already - because travel was now near instantaneous there 'new and virgin' world had already become essentially a suburb of Earth. The story dealt with the psychological trauma of people picked to be pioneers on an isolated planet being dumped back into a society that had moved 100 years ahead of what they knew.

Originally Posted by SandboxGeneral

One thing I think we need to consider in a trip to Mars would be the psychological one. ... In space, on the way to Mars, you have no lifeboat, no backup and no where to go if things go wrong. How would a person(s) feel and react once they truly realize, probably in a crisis, that they are 20 million miles from Earth and there isn't anyone to help them? It will take the most stable and strong minds to make such a trip. Even then, that may not be enough - we just don't know yet.

I wonder how much different this is from the early explorers in the 1300s and 1400s who set off in their ships to see what was over the horizon? I subscribe to the notion that people like Columbus and Hudson, et al knew that there was something to be found out there, but they didn't know a whole lot more about where they were going than we know about getting to Mars. And of course their crews didn't know much at all. So obviously humans have the ability to be isolated for a trip of this sort. The question might be, do modern humans have what it takes? Have we raised people to be so plugged in that we can't cut those connections any more?

Originally Posted by SandboxGeneral

But despite all the obstacle in making a round trip to Mars and back, I think we could pull it off given the technology we have today. It's a matter of good planning, crew screening, and a proper budget to get everything needed.

I agree...

And to answer my own questions above.... on a trip to Mars the communication delay is in the order of 15 minutes to perhaps a couple of hours.... no video chatting, but lots of email with multi-media attachments. These voyagers would be much more "connected" than any of the early explorers. Heck, the crew of the RCMP vessel St Roch spent several years trapped in the ice in the Canadian Arctic during the 1940s.... with no help possible should something go wrong. They had radio contact, sometimes.... so their experience would be comparable to a Mars Mission. These 'horse sailors' were boys recruited from the farms to serve as policeman... not trained astronauts.

[localoid]

Looks like the majority of Astronauts going into space in the near future will be going as tourists rather than as scientific explorers.

Maybe it's just as well. Space exploration does seem like a job more suitable for Robonauts.

[TedM]

Moon colony! I'd live on it for sure. If that was an option.

[snberk103]

Originally Posted by TedM

Moon colony! I'd live on it for sure. If that was an option.

The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, you know...

[SandboxGeneral]

Originally Posted by TedM

Moon colony! I'd live on it for sure. If that was an option.

I'd be up for that too if it were available. I don't know that I'd want to stay there long term or indefinitely. But a short stay like a few months to a year I think I could handle.

[combatcolin]

The Truth
(Honest...)

We choose to go to the moon because otherwise the damn Russkies will get there first.

We choose now not to bother now because no-one else wants to, but Keith and Chad and the guys over at NASA are keeping there eye on the Chinese and if there's any movement then we dust off the Apollo's.

[MacNut]

Originally Posted by fat jez

Remind me again, where are American astronauts launching from at the moment? This is why the cost needs to be spread, there simply isn't the budget in NASA to do Apollo again. OK, the Iraq war may have cost enough to pay for several manned missions, but had the money not been spent on war, I bet it would have gone on welfare or similar, not on NASA.

You do know that most of the tech you use today came from the moon missions. The developments for space is what drives technology further. While you might not see the advancements short term they will show up 5 to 10 years later.

We should go back to the moon and then deeper into space. But we have to do it globally not on a per country basis. Why are we racing each other when we should be racing as a team. Just imagine the jobs created by kick starting the space race.

[fat jez]

MacNut, I think you're saying exactly the same thing as me. The benefits to all of mankind mean we should do this together, not in competition. My point is that NASA can no longer afford to do it on their own, they simply don't have the budget - hence my comment about depending on the Russians just to get men to the ISS.

[MacNut]

Originally Posted by fat jez

MacNut, I think you're saying exactly the same thing as me. The benefits to all of mankind mean we should do this together, not in competition. My point is that NASA can no longer afford to do it on their own, they simply don't have the budget - hence my comment about depending on the Russians just to get men to the ISS.

Ya I most likely misread your post to be negative. I do think space exploration is vital to our future, At some point we will need to be off this planet. Be it 20 years or 1 million years.