Poll: What do you think of space exploration?

[R_Chambers]

Invest more, A LOT more.

 

[Evil Top Hat]

Wouldn't be stretching ourselves a bit thin by investing more in space travel?

The most powerful government on earth is in huge amounts of debt as it is, hoping that space travel might bring us a way of solving all the world's problems seems like wishing on a star somewhat, if you'll pardon the pun.

 

[ExodusFlame]

Honestly i think there are too many space programs in the world it costs too much why is there separate ones for different country's? if they put them into a world unified thing it would be much more effective both in costs and intelligence and would probably allow a greater investment.

But things the way they are just too inefficient and costly.

Although me being from the UK my opinion may differ from that of an American being we in the UK arent so interested in space where as in the USA they have they're own space program and are constantly running missions to explore our galaxy.

 

[Cheery Lunatic]

I don't think people realize what they're saying when they say "invest more".

At least in the US, our budget is already strained as it is. It's not like we have an excess of money or anything. If we invest more, something else is gonna hafta get slashed, and consequently, someone else will suffer.

And, judging by how shit works here, it'll probably be education.

 

[Da Orky Man]

Its way to early to make any big investments in space, space is stupidly expensive in every aspect, incredibly environmentally unfriendly and for the most part has dubious returns (bar satellites).

Sure in the distant future when we have an eco friendly method of getting hardware and people into space, it will be worth investing more in.

Not yet though, much bigger concerns down here on the planet to work on first.

In short, you guys watch way too much sci-fi - that shit aint real you know.

You do know that when I meant "space exploration", I was including technologies to aid space exploration? A single 10-megaton warhead has enough energy to send 280,000 tons into orbit. Use, say, 1% of the world's nuclear stockpile and we cold send entire cities worth of material up there. With current technology.

 

[SuperCombustion]

I want out on this planet
way too many problems here which can probably be solved by some enlightenment from an alien culture.

 

[FFHAuthor]

In short, you guys watch way too much sci-fi - that shit aint real you know.

its goning to be very hard to explain this without sounding like an idiot..
but...
nothing is impossible, mankind broke so many laws-of-physics that I think that laws-of-physics are more like guidlines then accual rules(!).

with that in mind the stars get closer.

we aren't getting anywhere with lines like "that is impossible" and "that ain't real". we should open our minds and banish that nasty word "impossible".

also being environmentally unfriendly is not a good excuse.
all the cows in the Netherlands fart ten times as much greenhouse gasses A DAY then one single shuttle launch.

I can agree with that, 'Impossible' throughout science has been consistently shown to be 'possible' It was thought that the human body couldn't withstand moving at a speed faster than 35mph without dying. It was thought that powered flight was impossible. It was thought that orbiting anything was completely impossible. It was thought that it was impossible to land a man on the moon. The 'Impossible' consistently becomes 'possible'. Remember, NASA engineers are looking at theoretical ways to go faster than light, and many of their solutions are limited only by power output.

 

[David Hebda]

Space exploration needs to be opened up to private investment. Large corporations would probably invest in the hopes of mining asteroids and the moon and whatnot. Unfortunately the government isn't about to just let people start exploring space on their own. Give up control on something they own totally? yah that's not gonna happen

 

[Akytalusia]

those poll results are satisfactory.

 

[IndianaJonny]

Seems a shame when so much of our own planet remains undiscovered. Monitoring and probing space seems fine but it's an awful lot of money to be putting away on larger manned projects when we're not taking all that good a care of old terra firma. Think about it in terms of your own pennies - would you help fund WWF or NASA?

 

[geezah91]

"The year is After-Colony 195"

Keep investing and we may just hear these words for real

 

[rotkiv]

If mankind survive until life can´t survive on earth, we (they) have to escape to another planet, and that will not be easy, so better start training now by sending up spaceships, explore march and stuff like that. Yes the chance of mankind surviving that long are slim, but still existing and if we survive that long would it not be a big failure if we would´t be abel to escape.


And one more thing: space is awesome, therefore it have to be explored.

 

[Loop Stricken]

Think about it in terms of your own pennies - would you help fund WWF or NASA?

NASA without a doubt. The only help the animals really need is for us to mind our own business.

 

[IndianaJonny]

Think about it in terms of your own pennies - would you help fund WWF or NASA?

NASA without a doubt. The only help the animals really need is for us to mind our own business.

Were it so easy to seperate the two. 'Our own business' often involves eating a lot of the critters as well as moving around, building and working in a mutually occupied environment. Environmental impact management is serious business, every item you use came from materials on this planet so it might be something worth investing in, no?

 

[Griffolion]

The key to the human race surviving past our own unsustainability (word?) on earth is to reach out to the stars. We seriously need to get space exploration down, get colonising the moon or Mars or whatever is habitable. Also, I read somewhere that of all the jobs you could possibly ever have on earth, it only makes up 10% of the total amount of jobs available if you include those generated by space exploration (off-world mining, asteroid mining etc).

Just because the results of something likely won't be seen in our lifetimes, doesn't mean we shouldn't invest in it NOW to build the foundation for future generations to build on.

Also, I dream one day of the stuff in EVE Online actually being real. I truly hope those things don't stay as fantasy.

In short, you guys watch way too much sci-fi - that shit aint real you know.

Wasn't it someone like Arthur C Clark who wrote something along the lines of "today's sci-fi is tomorrow's reality"?

So yeah, it isn't real today.

 

[Continuity]

Its way to early to make any big investments in space, space is stupidly expensive in every aspect, incredibly environmentally unfriendly and for the most part has dubious returns (bar satellites).

Sure in the distant future when we have an eco friendly method of getting hardware and people into space, it will be worth investing more in.

Not yet though, much bigger concerns down here on the planet to work on first.

In short, you guys watch way too much sci-fi - that shit aint real you know.

You do know that when I meant "space exploration", I was including technologies to aid space exploration? A single 10-megaton warhead has enough energy to send 280,000 tons into orbit. Use, say, 1% of the world's nuclear stockpile and we cold send entire cities worth of material up there. With current technology.

With current technology huh?

Care to explain to me how nuclear material can be used to create propulsion that will get us into orbit? I don't really think that detonating a warhead is a viable means TBH for a number of reasons, such as blast damage, accelerations way beyond what the human body can withstand, the lack of control involved in an explosion, and last but not least the radioactive fallout.

The only way to get a free-standing craft into orbit at accelerations that wont liquefy an astronaut is with a sustained force producing a steady acceleration, e.g. a rocket.

 

[Scarim Coral]

We will probably regret not investing it more when gobal warming/ natural weathers had become too much for us to handle.

 

[Da Orky Man]

Its way to early to make any big investments in space, space is stupidly expensive in every aspect, incredibly environmentally unfriendly and for the most part has dubious returns (bar satellites).

Sure in the distant future when we have an eco friendly method of getting hardware and people into space, it will be worth investing more in.

Not yet though, much bigger concerns down here on the planet to work on first.

In short, you guys watch way too much sci-fi - that shit aint real you know.

You do know that when I meant "space exploration", I was including technologies to aid space exploration? A single 10-megaton warhead has enough energy to send 280,000 tons into orbit. Use, say, 1% of the world's nuclear stockpile and we cold send entire cities worth of material up there. With current technology.

With current technology huh?

Care to explain to me how nuclear material can be used to create propulsion that will get us into orbit? I don't really think that detonating a warhead is a viable means TBH for a number of reasons, such as blast damage, accelerations way beyond what the human body can withstand, the lack of control involved in an explosion, and last but not least the radioactive fallout.

The only way to get a free-standing craft into orbit at accelerations that wont liquefy an astronaut is with a sustained force producing a steady acceleration, e.g. a rocket.

First, the blast damage to the equipment is negligible, since you would of course use blast shields on the craft. The explosion would be a funnelled force, so it would be controlled. The main blast would be about a kilometer underground, so no fallout damage. And, fair enough, you couldn't get people into space with that.
However, another design could. It uses small pellets of nuclear fuel, ignited through pressure and energy through a bank of lasers, then propels the reaction mass via an extremely strong magnetic field to velocities in excess of 10,600km/s. It's called Project Daedalus.