Is getting humans to Mars the most important Human Endeavour of our Times?

[r16]

when some people are on Mars before Musk we will hear colonizing Mars was never on the agenda , is a waste of scarce resources and stuff .


someguy on the web somewhere swears that he personally listened to some guy in a conference in the 1950s or so where the guy said the Moon should be destroyed by nuclear weapons and the resulting soil must be brought down and added to Antarctica . That would solve the overpopulation issue with more land to farm .

 

[Valka D'Ur]

You know, I think emperor penguins, with their majestic height and proud beaks, might be long lost decendants of European legands. We should favour them, and teach them how to keep the rest of the penguins in line and away from our new ice pastures.

It's the smaller Adelies that are more temperamental. They can be very aggressive if they think you're violating their space.

 

[Gori the Grey]

Getting "u" out of words like "endeavor" is considerably higher on my list.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Getting "u" out of words like "endeavor" is considerably higher on my list.

Move to Canada. People only get nitpicky about it in formal writing and news articles.

I use it in some words but not in others.

In some ways, Canadian English can be termed "Frenglebrit" with an additional helping of various indigenous words. Oh, and the French influence matters if you were taught Quebec French or French French (ie. the French taught in France).

 

[Lohrenswald]

only thing I feel manned missions to the moon achieved that couldn't have been done by robots (which I think that technology wasn't around during the apollo program) was create a bout of american nationalistic dickmeasuring

for science there's I guess things worth going to mars for, but I think all of that can be achieved by robots, no reason to get people there. It wouldn't matter

I don't buy the technological development thing either. I just don't feel it'll make anything useful. Even if it did I don't care about that. Technological improvement that really matters is stuff like medicine and sanitation. I've been on computers for years and it hasn't made me happy

the bottom line is it doesn't fudging matter. some dudes might land on the rust desert, wow, amazing

why give a horsehocky

 

[Valka D'Ur]

only thing I feel manned missions to the moon achieved that couldn't have been done by robots (which I think that technology wasn't around during the apollo program) was create a bout of american nationalistic dickmeasuring

for science there's I guess things worth going to mars for, but I think all of that can be achieved by robots, no reason to get people there. It wouldn't matter

I don't buy the technological development thing either. I just don't feel it'll make anything useful. Even if it did I don't care about that. Technological improvement that really matters is stuff like medicine and sanitation. I've been on computers for years and it hasn't made me happy

the bottom line is it doesn't ******* matter. some dudes might land on the rust desert, wow, amazing

why give a ****

You don't mind if the rest of us find happiness related to the space program or something that is inspired by it, though, do you?

I mean, there are many things that don't make me happy, yet I don't demand they be shut down, since they make lots of other people happy.

 

[citizenofdoom]

the mentality of venturing into the unknown:
- you know its unprofitable
- you don't see any visible short term gain
- you know the long term gain is very far away

but humanity, one of the most irrational creatures out there, still ventures and devotes themselves into:
- some physics model (standard model(cern and such...), string theory, ...)
- math research in general
- some abstract chemistry
- space program

they also did the same thing in the past:
- atomic theory in the 1800s -> nuclear plants
- ship in the european exploration era -> age of exploitation, spice trade and most importantly profitable slave trade
- some new political models -> the republic, constitution, ...

the visibility of profit reaping from space industry seems higher than some physics research in CERN.
many people are willing to pay a lot to get them into space ~ space tourism. -> gaining happiness
space seems like a technological development as important as the invention of music currently it seems ~ bringing happiness to some people

 

[Lohrenswald]

You don't mind if the rest of us find happiness related to the space program or something that is inspired by it, though, do you?

Well you know I judge people based on things they do and say, in relation to what I think

you're doing it in this post of yours

very basically put I think that if you think it's cool to see a couple guys on the rust desert, you're lame. And you think I'm lame for thinking that

A point to say that I feel is common is something about like yea human achievement. At times I guess I feel like there's a proper unity between humans, but often I don't. If a couple dudes walk around the rust desert, that doesn't really have anything to do with you or me. Especially with mars I feel it's the realm of people I hate who I think have undeserved power.

Is this just me being miserable? maybe

doesn't change the fact that I think the whole mars mission stuff is a bunch of vapid bullfeathers. I see you going around being pretty vocal about your strong opinions, and here I am voicing mine in a thread where it's asked

 

[Lexicus]

very basically put I think that if you think it's cool to see a couple guys on the rust desert, you're lame. And you think I'm lame for thinking that

I think it's cool but me thinking it's cool isn't a justification for the use of scarce resources on it

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Well you know I judge people based on things they do and say, in relation to what I think

you're doing it in this post of yours

very basically put I think that if you think it's cool to see a couple guys on the rust desert, you're lame. And you think I'm lame for thinking that

A point to say that I feel is common is something about like yea human achievement. At times I guess I feel like there's a proper unity between humans, but often I don't. If a couple dudes walk around the rust desert, that doesn't really have anything to do with you or me. Especially with mars I feel it's the realm of people I hate who I think have undeserved power.

Is this just me being miserable? maybe

doesn't change the fact that I think the whole mars mission stuff is a bunch of vapid bullfeathers. I see you going around being pretty vocal about your strong opinions, and here I am voicing mine in a thread where it's asked

"Lame" isn't the word that comes to mind. "Rude" is more apt in the latter case.

Of course they'd send more than two people. I have no idea what you're getting at with "undeserved power." I doubt that any astronaut has "power" just for being an astronaut. If Chris Hadfield (former commander of the International Space Station and the coolest Canadian astronaut ever) turned up on my doorstep and told me to make him a sandwich, I'd tell him where to find the bread, margarine, knife, and peanut butter and he could make the damn thing himself (I'd make it for him if he asked politely). But after it was made, I'd love to spend a week talking to him about the space program and the TV show he was on where they showed the tests some of the astronaut candidates go through even to just be picked for training, and it would still only scratch the surface.

Yes, I am vocal about my strong opinions in a thread about humans going to Mars. Your point?

 

[Hygro]

. Especially with mars I feel it's the realm of people I hate who I think have undeserved power.

Is this just me being miserable? maybe

yes. 100%

Grow old succumbing to envy

 

[Kyriakos]

While I can see the argument that doing x while y and z are still far more pressing, can be shortsighted, I certainly don't see the argument for trying to do x when you have insufficient tech to pull it off.
Mars missions - even the current ones, with sending a robot - only can happen once every two years, when the planet is closer. Unless you think we will send a rescue mission when it will take double the resources, you are essentially condemning the fools who would go to Mars to death, because there is no likelihood they will have enough to stay alive.
That said, if we are being realistic, the oxygen will run out before the food/water, and any facilities for creating those will collapse after a few months at best, so the 2 year gap for sending missions to Mars won't matter.

I suppose we will have the tech in the future. Probably after another massive world war here, because it is customary for third world planets to have creatures that will fight over bits of it.
Then again, everything fights for stuff. At least humans can reflect on the insignificance, so stop fighting occasionally.

 

[r16]

the undeserving people aka Elon Musk and company actually do not have anything about going to Mars . The US Goverment wanted a new supplier and whatever for high tempo space operations and stuff . The old companies and their amalgation aka Lockmart would have eaten Musk alive but they were assured the victim would not be them and stuff . Space-X protected and funded by Pentagon at the end of the day does not care for Mars . Would not even care for Space but it was where the market was . With the added bonus of impressing the idealists , with tales of colonizing some other planet .

 

[Kyriakos]

At least Musk hasn't proposed we go to Proxima Centauri.

 

[Samson]

At least Musk hasn't proposed we go to Proxima Centauri.

No, but breakthrough starshot have.

 

[AmazonQueen]

No, but breakthrough starshot have.

At least that might lead to a remaster of SMAC.