I have a dream.

[15357]

Ok, I have many dreams, including global hegemony and purging the world of the unclean and unjust, and et cetera, but I realized this just now.


I want to see the human race reach the stars before I die. I don't care how it's done. Quantum rockets, Alcubierre Drives, nuclear pulse propulsion, whatever.

I will die a happy man when I, aged over a century, barely kept alive by life support systems, with a frail body that couldn't barely see the stars, let alone reach them, sees on the news that humanity has finally achieved what gamers have been doing since Sins of a Solar Empire or whatever.

An artist's rendition


:dork:


p.s. On second thought, are alcubierre drives even possible?

 

[Sloth]

Hell - I want to have a diplomatic positing on Mars...

I'm right with you.

 

[AJ Rimmer]

p.s. On second thought, are alcubierre drives even possible?

Like all ways of overcoming the speed of light, the answer is a firm "Perhaps."

Also, don't mean to rain on your parade, Numbers but you're shit outta luck. Humans ain't gonna leave this solar system for many centuries. But that's fine, really. We still have things to do in our own backyard.
*glances wishfully towards Jupiter*

 

[15357]

Like all ways of overcoming the speed of light, the answer is a firm "Perhaps."

Also, don't mean to rain on your parade, Numbers but you're shit outta luck. Humans ain't gonna leave this solar system for many centuries. But that's fine, really. We still have things to do in our own backyard.
*glances wishfully towards Jupiter*

No, don't worry. I plan to live forever or have my mind be downloaded onto the internet.


And yeah, I do think we should start with our solar system. Like terraforming mars.... or at least building large sustainable structures on them..

 

[speedbump]

I saw the first manned moon-landing live as-it-happened, saw the Mars' probe's first pix... seen eclipses, zooming meteorites, unexplained lights. -But seeing the Shoemaker-Levy comet bust-apart and pummel Jupiter satisfied something deep inside me. Because seeing stellar 'events' is as intriguing as exploration.

 

[Sledgehammer]

No, don't worry. I plan to live forever or have my mind be downloaded onto the internet.

It will be possible

 

[[Dragoon]]

With the private sector taking a much close interesting in space travel, I could see this happening. Things like the SpaceShipOne and Google's lunar X Prize are showing a lot of progress.

 

[jverne]

putting numbers in charge of a global network would make Skynet look like a pussy.

 

[AJ Rimmer]

With the private sector taking a much close interesting in space travel, I could see this happening. Things like the SpaceShipOne and Google's lunar X Prize are showing a lot of progress.

Skimming across the technical boundary of space is hardly a big step towards super-luminal travel. Commercial space travel is interesting, no doubt, but our biggest hope for space exploration is still the government agencies, and they're all moving at snail's pace.

 

[barbarbarbarbar]

I share the same vision . And it just might come true , with Mars colonies in plan for 2030 , Lunar He3 mines (Russian of course) on the horizon.I expect that i will die sometime between 2080 and 2110 so i just might get a chance to visit space and if i'm lucky , live long enough to witness first contact.

 

[barbarbarbarbar]

It will be possible

I don't get it . Will our memories and information be uploaded , or will our consciousness be uploaded to ?

 

[lefty]

It will be possible

Sweet! I'll get started on the clones.

 

[[Dragoon]]

Skimming across the technical boundary of space is hardly a big step towards super-luminal travel. Commercial space travel is interesting, no doubt, but our biggest hope for space exploration is still the government agencies, and they're all moving at snail's pace.

Not a big step, but a step in the right direction nonetheless. At the rate NASA (and foreign equivalents) are moving, I wouldn't be surprised to see private sector technology overtake them.

 

[jverne]

oh you simple minded people


colonies on mars would render people there unable to return to earth if residing there for a long period of time (years). smaller gravity has an adverse effect on the human body. even more so for the moon. but the moon is closer so traveling will be more frequent. unless we develop propulsion systems that would reach mars in under a month. any kind of serious colonization is out of the question.

interstellar travel...lol...don't make me laugh at you more than i already am. when humans develop this, we probably won't be humans in the sense we understand today. probably some kind of machine.

as for the upload/singularity issue...meh...i'm not sure when, probably not in this century. but it does remain a credible possibility.

want proof of my statements? you'll just have to trust me on that...i've went trough many documentaries and wiki pages. it's more or less in the range. but of course i could be wrong...but then a lot of things would also have to be wrong.


to be honest i've kind of changed my view on technology or am in the process of doing it.
i used to be a zealous teach fan, but i fear it has it's holes.
right now i'm thinking how would a human society function in this scenario:

-there is a drastically reduced global population...let's say 500million tops
-no armies
-extremely advanced medicine
-manual labor is in again (but goals are lower...i.e. no need for heavy constructions)

my thinking goes this way...if people can get cured for almost any illness, disease or dysfunction then they probably wouldn't be so reluctant to do heavy physical work.
broke your spine?...we will clone you a perfectly new one at the end of this month.
loose your fingers? same
got asthma...here are your new lungs.

basically it's a combination between old traditional and futuristic style. i'm sure Star Trek or SG1 had one of these cultures one episode or another.

what made me change my mind...i've been working out in the fields recently and it just feels great compared to sitting behind the desk and studying. the more i'm active, the more physical work i do the less my back hurts and the better i feel.

the human body was made for physical activity.
my professor who's 60 or something used to tell us how under communist rule after WW2, the gov drove a campaign where young people joined together to do reconstruction work (digging, transporting, building). might have been really interesting working with buddies, meeting new people, drinking beer and enjoying local pussy.
sure it might have sucked...if someone got hurt or if they were exploited on a useless project, but let's just dream for a minute.


basically i'd hate a future where we'd loose much of our natural environment and come completely out of touch with nature.
but then again...it might be possible to colonize space, use robots and have a healthy environment. we desperately need to ditch this consumerist system and reduce population.

 

[<RJMC>]

we all will be dead before we launch the next rocket to the moon

 

[Sheepo]

Well hello, Colonel Graff.

 

[Naph]

Yes, I would also like to see sex with Asarians.

 

[Warped]

We're taking baby steps into space but once we learn how to run the shit will hit the fan. I think around 2035-2040 we'll have more out there for us to blast off from. And who knows you can probably make space elevators and not even need rockets to get into space for short trips....which could result in very large orbital platforms. imagine having one massive pump that fills up a massive star ship that will blast off at speeds we haven't even witnessed in just 30 years. the sky is the limit, and the final frontier

 

[15357]

I hope that in 40 years, the world's population reaches 20 billion.




Now that would really get space coloniztion a priority status.

 

[lefty]

Or genocide.

 

[Saturos]

I'll be 77 years old when Halley's comet comes back around. Sucks there's a good chance I won't even get to see that, much less Mars colonization.

 

[Robbo]

Living in a virtual world would be cool.. until the evil computers took over and made us spend eternity stuck in wow.

I think space travel is one of those things that will sneak up on us. Sooner or later someone will write a new physics theory and it will all be obvious. Till then let's sort out our other problems

 

[AJ Rimmer]

colonies on mars would render people there unable to return to earth if residing there for a long period of time (years). smaller gravity has an adverse effect on the human body. even more so for the moon. but the moon is closer so traveling will be more frequent. unless we develop propulsion systems that would reach mars in under a month. any kind of serious colonization is out of the question.

This is true, but if you rotate crews often enough, and make sure that they are in good physical condition to begin with it shouldn't be much of a problem. Mars has about 38% the gravity of Earth, which is quite a bit more than the moon, but we're still not sure whether or not that's enough to prevent serious muscle atrophy. Even so, eventually people will stop coming back. It's the natural progression of having a colony there. Yes, maybe they will be unable to return to Earth (I want to point out that at this stage, we don't know that. We're pretty sure about the moon, but 0.37 gs may be enough to keep your muscles fit). A lot of people would accept that. Colonizing the planets and moons of our solar system will happen, and will probably start within at least this century (I hope). No matter how much you hate technology, jverne

FTL, on the other hand, well... that's another apple.

 

[VirusType2]

I think around 2035-2040 we'll have more out there for us to blast off from. And who knows you can probably make space elevators and not even need rockets to get into space for short trips....

we need to find a way to harness large amounts of energy from space. Auto-mining asteroids or some kind of super solar radiation harvester. Maybe propulsion could be nuclear or dark matter some how. I can't even remember what that is, but we need to develop something powerful, efficient and sustainable for long flights.

Mars has about 38% the gravity of Earth, which is quite a bit more than the moon, but we're still not sure whether or not that's enough to prevent serious muscle atrophy.

Astronauts are required to do muscle training regularly.

 

[AJ Rimmer]

Astronauts are required to do muscle training regularly.

Yes they are, but we've never put anyone in 1/6 or 1/3 of Earth's gravity for an extended period of time. They're required to do exercises when on the ISS and on the space shuttle, but they're only staying up there for a few months at a time. We're not at all sure whether or not exercise in that low a gravity will even be effective, if it will sustain their original muscles or just slow the rate of atrophy. If they're only going to stay there for a few months, fine, but if we're talking serious colonization with people staying there a couple of years at a time, then we're not so sure what will happen to them. jverne is right when he says they may eventually be unable to return to Earth.

 

[G(ordon)-man]

Stars are very hard to reach. But Moon and Mars colonization will commence about 20-40 years in future I believe. Also Daedalus project tried to build a 7.1% to light speed flying shuttle but it failed thanks to it's monstrous costs.

and it looked like this

 

[Sloth]

That's IMO what most inter-stellar ships will look like, forward thruster - rear thruster to slow down craft half way through the journey.

 

[Eejit]

They should be fine in 1/6 gravity, just wear very heavy jewellery.

 

[nurizeko]

Skimming across the technical boundary of space is hardly a big step towards super-luminal travel. Commercial space travel is interesting, no doubt, but our biggest hope for space exploration is still the government agencies, and they're all moving at snail's pace.

...Because your absolutely wrong and as usual money will be the biggest driver of human advancement and colonization, hence commercial space travel will be our salvation.


Sorry but government agencies are just little clubs for nerds to sit around and dither away with the allocated budget with fun little projects but little substance.


Yeah yeah scientific exploration with robots is important I am sure but thats no excuse to deny the fact that colonization requires human manned flights and technology designed to get humans there, as fast and as soon as possible.

**** exploring Mars or whatever with RC cars, build a moon base, bend every single iota of human space directed effort on that, then move onto the next thing.

Its expand or die, people!.


Have you ever played a space strategy thing and sat in your own homeworld the entire game?, not very interesting or useful is it?, nononono!, you expand, you keep expanding, you expand while building up colonies to help further expansion, you keep sending more and more colony pods/ships out and you build more, and when you come across aliens you ****ing burn their colonies to ashes and then drop yours right ontop of the ruins, and you keep doing it till that race is extinct and you claim all their worlds. You risk countless human lives to push the boundaries of humanity, you lose colony ships and all sorts in the effort just to reach the next glimmering gem in the heavens just so you can eventually send a ship from there to the next furthest, you take risks with human lives, you don't ****ing shut your operations down and sit around in a ****ing mopey miserable inaction just because one ****ing shuttle explodes and kills the greatest humans ever, those who were willing to lose it all for one small tiny little advancement that pushes humanity that one little step closer to our rightful goddamn domination of all creation, no, you praise their sacrifice as an act in the service of the ONLY human endeavour worthy of praise.



Humanity's manifest destiny to dominate the universe mother-****er, do you understand it!?.

 

[Eejit]

And non-government commercial colonisation was just awesome. The East India Company sure were cool guys.

 

[barbarbarbarbar]

we all will be dead before we launch the next rocket to the moon

2019 - ESA Mission to the moon.

 

[Sloth]

Hopefully the EU will gather enough to pull it off - the costs are massive, even considering that they don't have the infrastructure that the US did. At least not all the combined countries in one spot.

 

[Robbo]

Hopefully the EU will gather enough to pull it off - the costs are massive, even considering that they don't have the infrastructure that the US did. At least not all the combined countries in one spot.

People just have to accept that it's going to cost a hell load of money to get anywhere in space. The people who want to explore space with robotics think that this is cheaper but eventually people need to go to the Moon and Mars because we want to 'experience' it in a way robots can't and it's not going to get much cheaper by waiting. You never know it might even be India who provides the push to move into space.

 

[15357]

http://www.thesahara.info/movies/pulp_fiction_duo.jpg[/img]

;(

This post brought tears to my eyes; I am profoundly touched.


Millions upon millions of human beings shall die, and they shall die gladly, they shall die willingly, so that mankind may conquer and expand and live happy happy lives till the end of time where there shall be no aliens but only Man and His colonies. If we have to rain hellfire upon a sentient race to expand, we'll unleash nuclear armageddon on them, just for fun.





I sincerely agree with nurizeko. Humanity shall never falter. Mankind's future will be glorious, and we shall stand upon the broken and shattered remains of those who would make themselves our adversary.

 

[nurizeko]

And non-government commercial colonisation was just awesome. The East India Company sure were cool guys.

They were, they ****ing stepped all over the natives in the name of advancement and help build the greatest most advanced empire at the time. They were expanding the limits of European knowledge, power and control at a time when the British government was sitting on its arse picking its own dingleberries.

Hippy, go hug a tree and a native and die out somewhere like all the other Hominids.

Humanity shall never falter. Mankind's future will be glorious, and we shall stand upon the broken and shattered remains of those who would make themselves our adversary.

We will respect the alien for the shared gift of sapience, but we will not mourn their passing, but rejoice, for in the eternal dominion of mankind their memory shall live on, yet not for them the eternal struggle of interests between two sapient species, no, their memory will be pure and untainted by their continued existence and strife with the children of Earth. There cleansing will not be the product of hate or bigotry like of old against our own but the beautiful manifestation of the pure unadulterated logic of our survival. They will die so we will live, their sacrifice no less important then those of the adventurous people who lead humanity's expansion.

No hate, no strife, no long lived bitter memories and conflict. They will rest in the peace that we live.

 

[AJ Rimmer]

...Because your absolutely wrong and as usual money will be the biggest driver of human advancement and colonization, hence commercial space travel will be our salvation.

And until space travel becomes somehow more profitable and gets more safe, private companies will shun it. If it was profitable, NASA wouldn't have to offer prizes to those companies for building a rocket to go to the moon. In other words, until NASA, ESA or the CSA starts mining helium on the moon or something else that entices the private companies to get up there, we should give them more funding, as we give them incredibly little right now. I also think we should keep giving them funding anyway, since commercialization of space scares me as a concept, but fine.

Also, you and Numbers are scary ****ers. Is there any vision of the future you two have where human kind lives in harmony, having transcended war?

 

[<RJMC>]

2019 - ESA Mission to the moon.

2013-nuclear war destroy 60% of planet

2015-giant mutant cockroachs eat the last humans

2017-eart explodes by the sake of it and cockroach go floating on space to conker other planets

 

[barbarbarbarbar]

2013-nuclear war destroy 60% of planet

2015-giant mutant cockroachs eat the last humans

2017-eart explodes by the sake of it and cockroach go floating on space to conker other planets

Don't be so cynical.I hate it when people think stuff like " oh noes its teh 2010s nuclear war is gonna keel uss ! " That's just plain stupid.Okay , there might be few threats , such as Iran or North Korea , but there won't be any WWIII ! The next war that might come is probably a inter-stellar war or something.

 

[jverne]

This is true, but if you rotate crews often enough, and make sure that they are in good physical condition to begin with it shouldn't be much of a problem. Mars has about 38% the gravity of Earth, which is quite a bit more than the moon, but we're still not sure whether or not that's enough to prevent serious muscle atrophy. Even so, eventually people will stop coming back. It's the natural progression of having a colony there. Yes, maybe they will be unable to return to Earth (I want to point out that at this stage, we don't know that. We're pretty sure about the moon, but 0.37 gs may be enough to keep your muscles fit). A lot of people would accept that. Colonizing the planets and moons of our solar system will happen, and will probably start within at least this century (I hope). No matter how much you hate technology, jverne

FTL, on the other hand, well... that's another apple.

i don't hate technology...i hate the current human way of thinking, that ****s up pretty much everything it touches. we're the typical...shoot first ask questions later kind.

;(

This post brought tears to my eyes; I am profoundly touched.


Millions upon millions of human beings shall die, and they shall die gladly, they shall die willingly, so that mankind may conquer and expand and live happy happy lives till the end of time where there shall be no aliens but only Man and His colonies. If we have to rain hellfire upon a sentient race to expand, we'll unleash nuclear armageddon on them, just for fun.

I sincerely agree with nurizeko. Humanity shall never falter. Mankind's future will be glorious, and we shall stand upon the broken and shattered remains of those who would make themselves our adversary.

you truly scare me numbers

Stars are very hard to reach. But Moon and Mars colonization will commence about 20-40 years in future I believe. Also Daedalus project tried to build a 7.1% to light speed flying shuttle but it failed thanks to it's monstrous costs.

and it looked like this

people need to realize that for every acceleration in space you need to have the same amount of deceleration to come to a halt. with mars we used it's atmosphere and additional reverse thrusters.

so decelerating from 7.1% speed of light you'd need to spend the same amount of energy "braking" unless you just want to zip by. and besides... 7.1% that's nothing. it would still take you 60 years to reach our nearest star, only to find more emptiness.


face it people, earth will be our only true home for a very long time.
people who say we should colonize space to end our overpopulation problems are like the religious loonies that believe only God will save or end the world and not mortal humans... failing to realize our deep internal problems by focusing attention to other seemingly important problems. that's what the media normally does.



as for space agencies...if we want to do some serious space exploration in the near future we need a unification of all the space agencies. as for private endeavors...bound to **** it up.
i know exactly who it will end up...first we'll make a mining operation on the moon we'll totally ****ing pollute the ass out of her. when our descendants will manage to establish a more permanent presence on the moon...they'll realize that there's a ****ing toxic dump just around the corner where they live and history will repeat itself.

Don't be so cynical.I hate it when people think stuff like " oh noes its teh 2010s nuclear war is gonna keel uss ! " That's just plain stupid.Okay , there might be few threats , such as Iran or North Korea , but there won't be any WWIII ! The next war that might come is probably a inter-stellar war or something.

lol...you just owned yourself by your own standards

 

[AJ Rimmer]

i know exactly who it will end up...first we'll make a mining operation on the moon we'll totally ****ing pollute the ass out of her.

How? There's nothing to pollute on the moon.