Question... This things may weigh a ton, but in weightless space, is it a problem? (except the part where you're trying to get it out of our gravitational field.. which I feel can be easily solved with a space elevator)

I beg to differ. For as much as we love our home, it's a galactic question of whether we should put all our eggs in one basket. Yes, we may become more efficient, but what stops us from being more efficient everywhere? Your notion of money is actually irrelevant in the view of humanity, as money is merely our way of putting a value of things. I believe if we somehow encounter aliens, they'd be bamboozled with our concept of money.


This post has been edited by ThanatosSwiftfire: Jun 15 2009, 06:41 PM

Blame me for being a madmen, but honestly, if we actually had a population problem, i'd send these peoples out on space travel anyway regardless of the radiation issues. If they make it, we get a new colony. If they don't, we get rid of some people on our planet.

On a side note.

Also, if we could build a big enough spaceship, whether it's slow or not would be irrelevant, because in a big enough spaceship where we can develop a self-sustaining ecosystem, with corresponding birth rates to meet the death rates in space, mankind will reach where they are meant to reach anyway. Though the people who reach our said potential colony won't be the same as the person we send up, but so long as somebody gets there, humankind gets a point.

hahaha, if they do, i'd be damned as hell interested. Honestly, had we encountered a peaceful alien civilization and initiated trading systems, and IF we ever go as far as integrating our financial systems, I'd think that in itself would be a very interesting problem to solve.

Good point. Maybe we'd crash into it. Or send drop-pods like in C&C.

Perhaps something like the sort of a solar parachute? (i've read about some concepts about using sails to slow down spaceships, as space, whilst gravity-less, has some stray atoms and other stuffs that may provide some 'friction') Space isn't exactly.. a void of nothing. There's something there, just very much less of anything. So a big sail could be used?

Note, so actually, what is the question we are asking about space travel right here?

Erm, I was merely thinking about colonizing as far as erm.. mars. LOL. I actually didn't go as far as other solar systems yet, or maybe, just as far as pluto, and having mining networks across the asteroids to fuel our greed, which I think would be the short term goal, aka -moon-mars-mining colonies across the solar system.

This in itself would probably take 100 years, by which hopefully, travel to further star systems would come into consideration.

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Do any of you think we're racing against the clock?

Each passing day our resources diminish, which I would feel equates to less available for scientific pursuits to colonize say... mars.