Space Travel

[madscientist]

Soooo just out of curiosity, what do you people think about space travel? Is it a waste of money? Is it worth it to colonise Mars? Should we spend money on research and development of things like ion drives to take us to other star systems where there might be other Earths?

[Wargaming_nut]

Waste of time and money. We’d be much better using that money on projects that might actually benefit people within the next hundred years, or, better yet, giving it back to the taxpayers.

[Imperious Leader]

IF i was in charge I would expand NASA’s money 15 times and really expand space technology. The faster we can secure minerals from the Moon and mars then we can complete our first interstellar spacecraft ( call it Galactica) only to watch it get destroyed by the cylon task force followed by the total destruction of the Earth!

on a serious note: if we could terraform the moon ( no atmosphere so not possible) that would be the first step. Mars takes 6 months with current tech. Yes we need faster speeds ( e.g. propulsion system) before we can begin exploitation of our solar backyard.

[Guest]

I have always been pro space.

This is one tiny little world.  And one very minor cosmic incident could be the end of us.  Maybe that might not be a bad thing, but I would rather see us moving out and away… the odds of total global destruction in more than one solar system at a time are phenomenal.

I would encourage private space flight in any way possible, and boost government funding to somethign like it was in the 60’s… about 1% of the federal budget.  Just take it out of Social Insecurity when that is repealed…

[The Hydra]

Its too expensive and dangerous to send people. Send robots like scientists suggest.It isnt as expensive as sending humans plus we wont mourn a destroyed robot or robots. Its possible that in a few dozen decades,we could create robots that are capable of reproducing themselves and they can be sent out to different star systems to explore. Of course,with the effects of relativity, the people who launch these robots would hardly reap any reward because of the vast distances the robots would need to travel plus the time it would take to send any information back. They would be doing it for future generations to come.

[AgentOrange]

Be careful with the whole “robots that can reproduce themselves” angle.  That approach can lead to some Matrix/Terminator style bad news.

But seriously, space exploration is a big deal if you ask me.  This little rock is getting overpopulated, not to mention stripped of all it’s resources. (mainly oil)  I just think it’s about time we settled somewhere else.  And personally, I’m enough of a space cadet that if I were given a choice like Gary Sinise was at the end of Mission to Mars, I would gladly take it, and hope that my family/friends would understand.

[balungaloaf]

Everything man sees he tries to dominate and more aptly control.  We control our surroudings to the best of our abiltiy, at some time we will learn to control the weather, we will then learn to control space, then time, i believe this is inevitable so i say go for it and any aliens we meet in the way….WATCH OUT for you will have no idea the terrible fate that has befallen you ever sense we know that you exist for we fight things we dont know and we dont stop till its f u c ! ing dead.

[Imperious Leader]

Yea those pesky Cylons will not be fun fellas….