@bradstevens One way to get to Mars is through the moon. The moon has water in ice at the south pole. That water can be converted to hydrogen and oxygen, meaning not nearly as much needs lifted out of our much larger gravity. This is where the space race comes in, the laws regarding space exploration are nonexistent. That means there is a certain race with China to get to that ice first. Look up the book "A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through?" by Zach Weinersmith. He details the problems getting to Mars and how the moon solves some of them.
This time the moon isn't the final destination.
Besides, without going to the moon, Space 1999 cannot happen... :>).
Was listening to a podcast with I think Neil deGrasse Tyson who said all this talk of putting life on Mars isn't going to work.
He said that we'd all have cancer in a matter of years because of Mars with no real atmosphere that protects us from the rays of the sun. He also said if the movie Martian had really happened, Mark Watney would have been dead from a couple different ways...
1- he would have gotten really no relief from the constant rays up there, which would have given him cancer, which he would have died, but before that, 2- the Mars soil is toxic so he wouldn't have been able to grow anything he could have eaten. If Mar's soil is toxic, that's a pretty big issue if we were to try and grow food up there.
Interesting stuff honestly.
it’s not so much a lack of atmosphere, it’s the lack of a magnetic field since its core has gone cold. But that’s also why the solar wind was able to strip the atmosphere away anyway and we won’t be able to introduce a new atmosphere to Mars.
any habitation on Mars or the moon will end up being indoors only. Whether it’s using lava tubes or by sending machines to use regolith to 3D print giant structures.
then it will take a whole bunch of grow lights and, probably, practical fusion power to make the whole system go.
I've never been, so I can't yet say I'd go back.Looks like a successful launch. Anyone have any grand thoughts about going back to the moon?
“The long-term goal of the Artemis program is to continue with a series of missions to establish a crewed lunar station in preparation for missions to Mars and beyond.”
Anyone have any grand thoughts about going back to the moon?
Im playing devils advocate here. I grew up wanting to be an astronaut then astrophysicist. That’s what I was majoring in for most of my time at IU until I decided to go to law school. I understand the emotional desire to explore and the wonder of the cosmos.@bradstevens One way to get to Mars is through the moon. The moon has water in ice at the south pole. That water can be converted to hydrogen and oxygen, meaning not nearly as much needs lifted out of our much larger gravity. This is where the space race comes in, the laws regarding space exploration are nonexistent. That means there is a certain race with China to get to that ice first. Look up the book "A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through?" by Zach Weinersmith. He details the problems getting to Mars and how the moon solves some of them.
This time the moon isn't the final destination.
Besides, without going to the moon, Space 1999 cannot happen... :>).
BUT. . . The fact is, right now, there is no good economic justification for pouring billions or trillions into space exploration. If the Chinese want to waste their resources on that, let them. We have more pressing issues here on the home front.
Im playing devils advocate here. I grew up wanting to be an astronaut then astrophysicist. That’s what I was majoring in for most of my time at IU until I decided to go to law school. I understand the emotional desire to explore and the wonder of the cosmos.@bradstevens One way to get to Mars is through the moon. The moon has water in ice at the south pole. That water can be converted to hydrogen and oxygen, meaning not nearly as much needs lifted out of our much larger gravity. This is where the space race comes in, the laws regarding space exploration are nonexistent. That means there is a certain race with China to get to that ice first. Look up the book "A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through?" by Zach Weinersmith. He details the problems getting to Mars and how the moon solves some of them.
This time the moon isn't the final destination.
Besides, without going to the moon, Space 1999 cannot happen... :>).
BUT. . . The fact is, right now, there is no good economic justification for pouring billions or trillions into space exploration. If the Chinese want to waste their resources on that, let them. We have more pressing issues here on the home front.
Our government already wastes a ton of money on shit we never hear about or enjoy, so personally, I'm giving them a pass on this one since it's at least something cool for people to get interested in again.
No one wants the actual science to be a downer. It’s all about the feelz.@bradstevens One way to get to Mars is through the moon. The moon has water in ice at the south pole. That water can be converted to hydrogen and oxygen, meaning not nearly as much needs lifted out of our much larger gravity. This is where the space race comes in, the laws regarding space exploration are nonexistent. That means there is a certain race with China to get to that ice first. Look up the book "A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through?" by Zach Weinersmith. He details the problems getting to Mars and how the moon solves some of them.
This time the moon isn't the final destination.
Besides, without going to the moon, Space 1999 cannot happen... :>).
Was listening to a podcast with I think Neil deGrasse Tyson who said all this talk of putting life on Mars isn't going to work.
He said that we'd all have cancer in a matter of years because of Mars with no real atmosphere that protects us from the rays of the sun. He also said if the movie Martian had really happened, Mark Watney would have been dead from a couple different ways...
1- he would have gotten really no relief from the constant rays up there, which would have given him cancer, which he would have died, but before that, 2- the Mars soil is toxic so he wouldn't have been able to grow anything he could have eaten. If Mar's soil is toxic, that's a pretty big issue if we were to try and grow food up there.
Interesting stuff honestly.
Our bodies evolved to operate in an environment under a set of very restricted parameters (temperature, pressure, force of gravity, oxygen and other gases in the air, etc.). For Mars it probably makes more sense to evolve a body operational in space rather than trying to create an earthlike environment in space.
BUT. . . The fact is, right now, there is no good economic justification for pouring billions or trillions into space exploration. If the Chinese want to waste their resources on that, let them. We have more pressing issues here on the home front.
Sometimes it's about more than the money.
@bradstevens NASA's budget is .5% of the federal budget and some of that is actually military spending going through NASA because at some point, NASA and the military overlap. A good book on that is by Neil deGrasse Tyson, "Accessory to War". He pulls no punches, astrophysics is military spending and many astrophysicists are very uncomfortable with that.
But .5% isn't much. The factor neither of us can account for, what comes from it. I cannot tell you that there will be great discoveries but I can tell you Apollo led to great discoveries. So did explorations by people like Columbus or Erickson.
Plus, it excites kids, making them more interested in science. Something we can use as a nation.
BUT. . . The fact is, right now, there is no good economic justification for pouring billions or trillions into space exploration. If the Chinese want to waste their resources on that, let them. We have more pressing issues here on the home front.
Asteroid mining. It's still WAAAAAAAAY off, but eventually there is going to be a very large amount of iron, water, rare metals, and hydrogen from bodies in our solar system that nobody has a claim to.
Looks like a successful launch. Anyone have any grand thoughts about going back to the moon?
This is how informed I am on moon missions. I thought this was the new name you chose for your d#ck, which would have been an awesome choice, by the way. I'm stealing it.
What the cost actually turns out to be is important. But I've seen estimates as high as $2 trillion.@bradstevens NASA's budget is .5% of the federal budget and some of that is actually military spending going through NASA because at some point, NASA and the military overlap. A good book on that is by Neil deGrasse Tyson, "Accessory to War". He pulls no punches, astrophysics is military spending and many astrophysicists are very uncomfortable with that.
But .5% isn't much. The factor neither of us can account for, what comes from it. I cannot tell you that there will be great discoveries but I can tell you Apollo led to great discoveries. So did explorations by people like Columbus or Erickson.
Plus, it excites kids, making them more interested in science. Something we can use as a nation.
Comparing space exploration to past exploration of other parts of Earth is apples to oranges.
When it becomes economically advantageous, free enterprise will drive that.
BUT. . . The fact is, right now, there is no good economic justification for pouring billions or trillions into space exploration. If the Chinese want to waste their resources on that, let them. We have more pressing issues here on the home front.
Asteroid mining. It's still WAAAAAAAAY off, but eventually there is going to be a very large amount of iron, water, rare metals, and hydrogen from bodies in our solar system that nobody has a claim to.
Im playing devils advocate here. I grew up wanting to be an astronaut then astrophysicist. That’s what I was majoring in for most of my time at IU until I decided to go to law school. I understand the emotional desire to explore and the wonder of the cosmos.@bradstevens One way to get to Mars is through the moon. The moon has water in ice at the south pole. That water can be converted to hydrogen and oxygen, meaning not nearly as much needs lifted out of our much larger gravity. This is where the space race comes in, the laws regarding space exploration are nonexistent. That means there is a certain race with China to get to that ice first. Look up the book "A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through?" by Zach Weinersmith. He details the problems getting to Mars and how the moon solves some of them.
This time the moon isn't the final destination.
Besides, without going to the moon, Space 1999 cannot happen... :>).
BUT. . . The fact is, right now, there is no good economic justification for pouring billions or trillions into space exploration. If the Chinese want to waste their resources on that, let them. We have more pressing issues here on the home front.
You could do with some more of that childlike wonder. AI pessimist, space travel pessimist.
I heard you were in a dry cleaner the other day destroying sewing machines.