Space should it be the final frontier?

[Andu Indorin]

Originally posted by rmsharpe
I say funnel NASA's exploration budget into a missile defense program.

I don't care if we land on Jupiter, I'd still be dead after a nuclear holocaust

Originally posted by CornMaster
I say we funnel NASA's budget into education.

You can't land on Jupiter....it's made of gas.

Touche!

 

[ainwood]

Originally posted by FearlessLeader2

2) We will need to develop a recycling system that is 100% efficient, and be able to maintain it indefinitely. This capacity will be able to be used to clean up the earth in short order, and keep it that way on a more or less permanent basis. This can't help but benefit everyone.

[PEDANTIC]

You can't have something 100% efficient - it goes againt the fundamental laws of thermo.

[/PEDANTIC]

 

[ainwood]

Originally posted by Andu Indorin




Touche!

[STILL PEDANTIC]
Yes, but at low temperatures, and high pressures (like you find on jupitor), things that are "gasses" on Earth are actually in solid form.
[/STILL PEDANTIC]

 

[Sir Gareth]

Humans live for exploration and i believe if we don't explore space we will become bord. We must explore, and explore as viciously as possible.

 

[Maj]

So long as the military finds some use for space then I'm certain NASA and other national space agencies will continue to receive adequate funding.

we cannot survive in the long term as a species while confined to one planet.

Of course we can. Unless of course we destroy the biosphere somehow. The Earth cannot sustain 6 billion people indefinately but it could support a few million scattered across its face. The Sun has how long to go, 7 billion years?

Either we will find some way to sustain a massive population or billions will die in a short span of time. We like to think our "wonderous" technology will pull us out of any tarpit we throw ourselves in. Meanwhile, our societies are having great difficulty coping with globalization and the greatest strides in science and tech come from the development of tools meant mostly to destroy human life. Viva humankind.

- Maj

 

[Padma]

Anyone who recognizes my nick should realize that I am all for further space exploration.

There are already many points made in its favor above. No need to reiterate them here. But I still have to get my 2 cents in.

It seems to be almost hardwired into our genes: the need to grow, to explore, to face the unknown. It also seems that a counter-impulse is hardwired: to stay at home, to be safe, to husband what we have. Anthropomorphically, (there's a word for ya ) it is as if the human race were trying to decide on an optimal survival strategy.

I am firmly in the camp of growing and exploring. Standing still leads to stagnation, and stagnation leads to death.

 

[kundor]

What would be the point of our existence if we stay on this planet? If we live on this rock and go extinct (as we will eventually if we don't leave,) the earth will eventually be absorbed into the sun and it will be as if we never existed at all. There would have been no purpose to anything humans have done.
We MUST get out, we must find other life (and it is out there; assuming the universe is infinite (as it must be if you define it as everything) then any possibility--no matter how improbable--will repeat an infinite number of times. The chance of a planet developing intelligent life could be one in a trillion trillions, and there will be an infinite number of intelligent species out there.) If they learn from our deeds, and our culture is passed on, we will have mattered. Even if we can't meet them, if we leave traces of our passing on this galaxy, someone may find it someday. We will have had an effect-however small-on the cosmos.

 

[FearlessLeader2]

Originally posted by ainwood
[PEDANTIC]You can't have something 100% efficient - it goes againt the fundamental laws of thermo.[/PEDANTIC]

Ve-eery cute. 'Fundamental' laws of thermodynamics eh? You should be slapped with a salmon for that.

Still, one can TRY to get that efficient, and bring it up to 99%, and THAT, my friend, will be very good for the earth, as well as for any long-haul deep space vessel.

The point stands, attempts to improve the efficiency of recycling efforts will have a positive impact on life on earth, no matter where the technology is invented, or what its original intended purpose is.

 

[CornMaster]

Originally posted by FearlessLeader2
Ve-eery cute. 'Fundamental' laws of thermodynamics eh? You should be slapped with a salmon for that.

What...this salmon?

Physical and Chemical Laws and Rules are only so until we understand the forces on them better. Rules are made to be broken. Just like the threoy of the Atom!

 

[polymath]

We have to get off this rock at some stage - all manner of disasters can befall the Earth, so I think it would be best if we don't keep all our eggs in the Earth's basket.

 

[Rowan]

There is the possibility that we may find free beer in space!
Lets go find it civerenoo's
[dance] [dance]

 

[allan]

Yes, for all the reasons above! Plus a few more:

1) Prevention of extinction through war. Even if we hold our population to it's current number (6-odd billion), the planet's resources will dwindle over time, and humans will fight over the scraps that remain. I doubt seriously too that nuclear weapons (or other WMD) will ever completely vanish, so that spectre hangs over us too. And as resources and prosperity dwindles, there will be more groups of desperate, fanatical, and apocalyptic-minded people that would have no qualms about using such weapons (to quote Dylan, "when you ain't got nothing, you got nothing to lose").

Whereas interstellar or even interplanetary war would be relatively difficult. Particularly interstellar, if relativity holds true at least for awhile--lots can change in the time it takes to traverse to other suns on a warship, at near-light-speed.

2) A chance to "start again". Imagine if earth were settled by us KNOWING WHAT WE KNOW NOW--i.e. about environment, social stability, etc. We wouldn't botch up other planets necessarily, because we'd know a few things NOT to do, or habits NOT to get into. It may already be too late to erase much of the damage we've done on earth--but if we can get a second chance, wouldn't you take it?

And knowledge of space is, I think, key to knowledge of environmental problems. At the very least, it helps us see "the big picture" better. Studying Mars may prove very useful here too--some believe that this planet was once earth-like and full of water, and probably bore life, billions of years ago. If so, what happened? Getting this story can surely give us insight into any climactic changes here on earth.

As a libertarian, I am generally loath to huge government spending--but I make an exception for space (unlike some other libertarians). I wouldn't mind more private participation in this though--and in the coming years we may see this too. But if we have ANY survival instinct at all as a species, we need to get out there, look around, and find some more lebensraum, so to speak.