The Space Race

tl,dr; the majority of Americans are assholes, which I agree with. Nobody in this entire country has any kind of forward thinking.

Our planet has finite resources. Additionally, keeping the entire human race on one small rock in space makes it easy for us to all be wiped out by one single major disaster. Additionally, with the advent of manned space flight, we are closer than ever to actually expanding "human territory" beyond our Earth. If our species manages to survive another hundred years, population growth and a demand for natural resources and land will reach a head. As time continues, we will have fewer and fewer options until eventually the only one left is to colonize other planets.

Space exploration and colonization is the next step for humanity. But if we don't begin preparing for it now by 1) settling the differences between us internationally, 2) uniting under the common goal of our species' survival, and 3) conserving natural resources that will allow us to build the things that will get us off planet, then we will be stuck here forever. That means our species will ultimately go extinct.

Additionally, the very nature of our economic system will have to change as we get closer and closer to a point where automation will take control of manufacturing and labor-intensive jobs. Eventually, the only jobs that would be practical for humans to have over machines and robots would be space exploration and colonization, government, and entertainment. The economy will have to gradually shift over time to reflect this. Capitalism forces us to remain in a constant social, political, and economic stasis as we're too busy arguing about wealth and government to get anything meaningful done. Meanwhile communism stifles the creativity and inventiveness of its population by oppressing it. Only a socialist democracy can sustain itself in a future where the human race expands out into space.

A group of people is never going to comprehend the... ahem... gravity of the situation. Especially not career politicians like the ones in America. We need one single, strong-minded, powerful, non-corrupt, and moral individual to rebuild not only our government but the world's and its outlook and goals for the future.

no offense or anything but America is not the center of the world you know, just because Donald became president doesn't mean the whole world will collapse, and even if all of the countries in the world had Donald as president I don't think that space colonization would get delayed

 

no offense or anything but America is not the center of the world you know, just because Donald became president doesn't mean the whole world will collapse, and even if all of the countries in the world had Donald as president I don't think that space colonization would get delayed

America isn't the center of the world. It's just one of the few countries in a (theoretically) good position to start preparing for the future I outlined.

 

Sub-orbital space flights will cost less than a new car in the next 15 years. Given that there is commercial interest in such a technology both the US and Russia could both shut down their space programs and progress will still be made.

Not to mention this stupid race to be the first human corpse on mars.

We are past the point of space travel being financed only by governments.

 

Sub-orbital space flights will cost less than a new car in the next 15 years. Given that there is commercial interest in such a technology both the US and Russia could both shut down their space programs and progress will still be made.

Not to mention this stupid race to be the first human corpse on mars.

We are past the point of space travel being financed only by governments.

I'm interested in space travel but there's no point of it in it's current state. All planets in the solar system except earth are uninhabitable, we need to be able to travel faster than light speed in order to get anywhere where life might reside and there's a strong chance that going that fast is completely impossible in our reality.

Traveling to mars takes 6 months anyway, and waiting for the stars to realign for your return journey takes a few years. Like what are you gonna do on Mars, stare at the miles of dust all around you? It's a pretty boring planet.

 

Traveling to mars takes 6 months anyway, and waiting for the stars to realign for your return journey takes a few years. Like what are you gonna do on Mars, stare at the miles of dust all around you? It's a pretty boring planet.

This is the Mars endgame:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terraforming_of_Mars

 

That's the beauty of watching tons of terraforming-Mars-documentaries, they're full of creative and sometimes potentially good solutions to colonizing Mars. We got about a billion years before the sun grows big enough to make the inner planets inhabitable, might as well make the most of it while it lasts here. (This is a great topic, let's talk about this over politics!)

 

The beauty of Mars is that it was once in a state where it could have supported life and then it regressed. Unlike many other planets Mars has serious potential for terraforming because 90% of what you need is right there.

 

This is the Mars endgame:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terraforming_of_Mars

dammit was just about to say that :/
but yeah as said earth governments will in the future have nothing to do with space exploration because I bet new countries will form on terraformed planets.

 

get ready for the intense Martian racism

 

get ready for the intense Martian racism

I expect that a number of existing countries will establish territories on Mars, and then Mars will swiftly become tired of being governed by 225 million kilometres of distance and guesswork and begin a push for independence, which will create resentment for everyone involved. So while I wouldn't go as far as racism, I expect things to go sour for a while.

 

I expect that a number of existing countries will establish territories on Mars, and then Mars will swiftly become tired of being governed by 225 million kilometres of distance and guesswork and begin a push for independence, which will create resentment for everyone involved. So while I wouldn't go as far as racism, I expect things to go sour for a while.

By this point we can expect a space war similar to star wars but probably summed up with less sound and more explosions.

 

By this point we can expect a space war similar to star wars but probably summed up with less sound and more explosions.

That's kinda doubtful. Space travel would still be slow and longwinded. There may be some Earth countries that refuse to recognise the independent status of their associated Mars colonies, but given that they can't do anything about it they whole issue would simply be a source of geopolitical tension and naught more. Sealand being an example of this. A civil war may be possible if the ruling class of a colony refuse independence, but their people overwhelmingly do, though such outcomes would be rare unless the colony was undemocratic. Of course these issues wouldn't apply to every colony, certain Earth countries have historically shown a willingness to grant external territories their right to independence.

And explosions don't happen in space.

 

ayy our posts are in a new thread now ;o
yeah it would still be slow, but I'm thinking that in 50 years time it'll be like 5 times faster than now. It would probably take some weeks to get to Mars by that time. Hopefully one day we'll be able to enlarge worm holes, but that kind of technology is very, very, very far away from what we have now.

 

ayy our posts are in a new thread now ;o
yeah it would still be slow, but I'm thinking that in 50 years time it'll be like 5 times faster than now. It would probably take some weeks to get to Mars by that time. Hopefully one day we'll be able to enlarge worm holes, but that kind of technology is very, very, very far away from what we have now.

It's in the spectrum of plausibility, but yet it'd take a brilliant mind to achieve so. And that's if we don't blow ourselves up by then.

 

It's in the spectrum of plausibility, but yet it'd take a brilliant mind to achieve so. And that's if we don't blow ourselves up by then.

by the time we ruin Earth, we'll all be living on Mars.

 

by the time we ruin Earth, we'll all be living on Mars.

we won't be able to get people off of florida by the time it's underwater, much less the whole planet

 

we won't be able to get people off of florida by the time it's underwater, much less the whole planet

http://www.amnh.org/ology/features/askascientist/question18.php

At most we can expect the loss of beaches and heavy impact to coastal areas during storms, but it will be a slow, gradual thing.

Hopefully one day we'll be able to enlarge worm holes, but that kind of technology is very, very, very far away from what we have now.

There is no way to test wormhole technology. Either you are crushed to death by a gravitational singularity or you are deposited somewhere far away where your success cannot be relayed back (or hey, maybe both). Effectively no-one will ever know which outcome was true. Not to mention that if something went really wrong it has the real risk of killing us all.

 

we won't be able to get people off of florida by the time it's underwater, much less the whole planet

Welp i'm screwed then....

http://www.amnh.org/ology/features/askascientist/question18.php

At most we can expect the loss of beaches and heavy impact to coastal areas during storms, but it will be a slow, gradual thing.


There is no way to test wormhole technology. Either you are crushed to death by a gravitational singularity or you are deposited somewhere far away where your success cannot be relayed back (or hey, maybe both). Effectively no-one will ever know which outcome was true. Not to mention that if something went really wrong it has the real risk of killing us all.

And aren't wormholes only theoretical regardless?

 

And aren't wormholes only theoretical regardless?

And I just described the reason why that will always be the case.

 

we won't be able to get people off of florida by the time it's underwater, much less the whole planet

it'll happen slowly though, I don't think we'll need to rush our escape from Earth.

There is no way to test wormhole technology. Either you are crushed to death by a gravitational singularity or you are deposited somewhere far away where your success cannot be relayed back (or hey, maybe both). Effectively no-one will ever know which outcome was true. Not to mention that if something went really wrong it has the real risk of killing us all.

wormholes are theoretical, but if they exist, and if we are able to enlarge a wormhole at one place and then one somewhere else then we should set the destination to somewhere close. So it is possible to test it. But of course, setting the destination of a wormhole is probably even harder than enlarging them.