space!

[rtil]

so a few days ago SpaceX successfully launched Falcon 9 to the ISS, with more trips planned. it's the first commercial rocket to travel to the ISS. Virgin Galactic has run over a dozen test flights and hopes to someday offer commercial space trips with "spaceports" in several cities around the world. NASA is working with SpaceX to begin work on a mission to mars as well.

i'd like to visit space someday, even if i can't visit another planet or go even orbit that high above the earth. i think someday it will be affordable for an average person to visit at least once in their lifetime. maybe not as a practical thing but just to experience it. i even think in our lifetimes there will be a permanent base on the moon, or at least one being constructed, in order to service and refuel vehicles traveling to other planets - the low gravity there would help assist a 2nd, more efficient launch.

do you think you'll be able to visit space someday? why or why not?

[sev]

let's all go to space together all us tba dudes

it'll be fun

[shmeckelbutt]

moon-con 2k12

[ZennyPLUS]

Sadly I don't think I'll be going to space any time soon. I think the idea of commercial space flight is great, but it may only be open to those who have the money to spend on--I'm sure it'll be a very very expensive trip.

[naturally]

i kind of feel like i'd die before i get the chance

it's a cool idea though to think i might have the option someday

[cipher]

I certainly hope to get the chance in my lifetime, but I personally do not expect to. I do believe however that major progress will have been made by the time I die (assuming I do not die young of course).

I'd give it around 200 years or so until we have moon colonies and [easily available] commercial space travel, but I'm basing that on pretty much nothing. That is also assuming we do not all kill each other by then.

[dinky-dau]

The idea of going into space terrifies me. It's just a opportunity to be the victim of a critical engineering mishap and dying horribly.

[Sinitron]

Sadly I don't think I'll be going to space any time soon. I think the idea of commercial space flight is great, but it may only be open to those who have the money to spend on--I'm sure it'll be a very very expensive trip.

look he said something that makes perfect sense

it's incredibly dubious that such a thing will kick off because of the resource investment in some stupid leisure crap

plus it can never be too safe and space is still far more dangerous than taking to the skies with plains - there was a bunch of whining a while ago about the dangers of all the space junk that's starting to clutter up in orbit

basically it makes it a lot harder to successfully launch and maintain satellites as well as being able to smash the iss to pieces even though the chances are minimal

[rtil]

while space junk is an issue, nearly every piece of space junk orbiting the earth is being tracked and is already being planned to be destroyed properly. if there was no commercial interest in space travel, spaceX wouldn't exist. with all the junk orbiting the earth, the ISS has only been hit once afaik.

safety concerns never stopped anyone from taking risks - there are plenty of reasons why we should look to the stars. mining resources from asteroids and other planets is already a point of interest for many commercial space ventures. another thing to consider is that humanity cannot survive on the earth forever - while the earth's inevitable demise is still around 3 and a half billion years away, it's still coming - and our population has also exponentially exploded. if we can't find a way to maintain that while still keeping the earth habitable and not tapping out all of its finite resources, we will have to learn how to colonize space.

governments are still also helping with this - spacex didn't make it to the ISS alone. NASA has helped fund all their projects with grants.

[Sinitron]

yeah but mining colonies and other sci-fi dreams are a necessity, not leisure, and anyone involved with such a project would probably receive years worth of training instead of just throwing money in spacex's general direction to tag along

[cipher]

This talk of space junk makes me want to watch Planetes again

[Sheepy]

We should colonize the moon and mine for moon gold!

[rtil]

yeah but mining colonies and other sci-fi dreams are a necessity, not leisure, and anyone involved with such a project would probably receive years worth of training instead of just throwing money in spacex's general direction to tag along

at first yes, but just like with any mode of transportation, we'll get better at it the more we do it, and at some point it will become affordable

[Sinitron]

We should colonize the moon and mine for moon gold!

the only gold you're gonna mine, is from your fuckin NOSE

[BluPhoenix]

didnt cave johnson get sick and die from the moon rocks aperture used to make conversion gel

[Necronomitr0n]

didnt cave johnson get sick and die from the moon rocks aperture used to make conversion gel

yes

and it probably means chell is dead too

[Sinitron]

cave johnson inhaled the dust though

chell just pranced around on it

[Kött]

the earth's inevitable demise is still around 3 and a half billion years away

What you're talking about is the end of our solar system which is a goddamn dead end, even for other planets that we moght be able to reach.
If mankind should ever survive till that day, we're all fucked. -end
Fortunately, the chances for that condidion are slim.

However, maintaining colonies on other planets could save mankind from extinction by itself... at least to a certain degree... I mean epidemics could also spread through space travellers and I'm pretty sure there would be intergalactic nukes at some point and a new kind of nationalism based on the planet you were born. Can't wait until they come up with the first insult for someone born on earth...
I just hope they don't find our secret underground-Nazi-moonbases in the progress.

[ZennyPLUS]

And now all we need are some space fascists.

[Sheepy]

Like Newt Gingrich?