Space: The Final Frontier

[Crabb90]

Humanity's future in space has been captured by countless science-fiction writers (including me). However, what really will happen when humans finally break the boundaries of Earth and explore new worlds beyond our imagination? How will we adapt to life in space? What new life forms will we discover, intelligent and non-intelligent? What alien civilizations will we encounter and will they be friendly? What alliances will we forge and who will they be against? Will we wage intergalactic wars against one another and other species? (Most likely.)

These are but a few of the question tackled by sci-fi legends George Lucas, J.J. Abrams, Timothy Zahn, William C. Dietz, and many more.

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[Insane_Zang]

Are these the voyages of the Starship, Enterprise?

But in all seriousness, I doubt it. I highly doubt that there are even other forms of life outside our solar system, but that's just me.

[noobsensei]

Eventually, yes. But there's no reason we need to start working on it right now. Our technology is still primitive, and we still have people in poverty.

In 50 years, we'll have mature nanotechnology and much more efficient sources of energy, which will make space exploration much cheaper. THEN we'll talk about colonizing the cosmos. But for now, let's help the people in need.

[bombmaniac]

actually the main problem right now is probably fuel as it is now we cant store enough fuel in a craft to get us that far fast enough, and we just dont have the PROPER fuel either.

[ifyouwantblood]

We already have alot of problems, and at the moment i think doing that would give us more problems. But maybe in a while, we will venture in to the far reaches of space. Maybe it will be OUR mission to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.

[uselessTies]

We know more about space than we do about our Oceans. I think we should start there first.

[MattGilb3rt]

I think its great that we want to explore.

[ElfLady]

Once we have our planet down, then we should start worrying about others. ^_^ But after that, I saw we go for it! I mean, haven't you seen Star Trek. It's a work out great!

[naturalselector]

Its like we put one step in the forest, took our foot out. And haven't gone anywhere else.

[naturalselector]

Mar 3, 2010 16:17:14 GMT -5 ElfLady said:

Once we have our planet down, then we should start worrying about others. ^_^ But after that, I saw we go for it! I mean, haven't you seen Star Trek. It's a work out great!

Startrek clearly isn't realistic. Also answers to our earths problems could be in the cosmos. Why ignore the opportunity?

[americanarchon]

So far, I think the most realistic mainstream science fiction is the Mass Effect universe, which takes into account the limits of FTL travel and natural selection on different worlds.

yes, as mr. bombmaniac said, we'd have a fuel problem, but the real limit is the lack of motivation. If we found a source of motivation (resources, wealth, an alien race we could use to stoke xeno-phobically enhanced superachievement, etc.) then corporations, interest groups, and especially governments would pour vast amounts of manpower, research, and funding to overcome problems with fuel, gravity, physics, weapon systems, speed, etc.

Same thing with oceans, no motive, no exploration. Once you get enough people (or at least, important people with ulterior motivations) to care, you'll see progress.

[thekmatheory]

I agree with the above post. We don't have a good enough reason to actually invest our time and money into such a venture, other than the knowledge of knowing what's out there. To some, that may be good enough motivation, but for the people who are going to be PAYING for the research, probably not.

I, for one, am really incredibly interested to see what's out there. I do believe that more life exists out there, even if they exist under different conditions than us. The Universe is HUGE. It almost seems unlikely that there ISN'T any life out there other than ourselves.

[Crabb90]

I think the idea that humans are the only life in the known universe is absurd. The universe is so immense and, to this day, continues to expand. How can we be the only life form out of the hundreds of trillions of other galaxies and stars and solar systems?

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[mrpickles]

Mar 3, 2010 21:05:05 GMT -5 Crabb90 said:

I think the idea that humans are the only life in the known universe is absurd. The universe is so immense and, to this day, continues to expand. How can we be the only life form out of the hundreds of trillions of other galaxies and stars and solar systems?

Agreed. There are thousands of other earth-like planets in the Universe. To suggest we're the only life is, as you put it (perfectly) absurd.

A big problem with sending things into space is cost. Basically anything we put into space is worth its weight in gold. (eventually) Setting up a moon base of some kind (suggesting for probes, rather than having a colony of humans there) would make exploration a lot easier, cost effective and constant.

Discoveries in space is help explain things on earth as well. Astrophysics is very interesting once you read into it.

[intothemoooon]

I feel like EVER SINGLE ONE of our "major problems" that we need to deal with here on earth is caused by overpopulation. Complex problem, SIMPLE solution. Colonize space. The End.

[ElfLady]

Mar 4, 2010 4:50:17 GMT -5 intothemoooon said:

I feel like EVER SINGLE ONE of our "major problems" that we need to deal with here on earth is caused by overpopulation. Complex problem, SIMPLE solution. Colonize space. The End.

XD Agreed.
But, we should wait until it's economically and technologically reasonable before we set out on this endeavor. ^_^

[sarimia]

I'm thinking mostly of Firefly and Serenity right now, rather than Star Trek, and I feel that most people won't attempt such things as long-term space travel or colonization until we're seriously pushed to-- as in, it's a threat to the entirety of human existance to stay on earth.
By then, we'd likely have some sort of station on the moon with a large oxygen supply.

[Crabb90]

I was just thinking...what if scientists found a way to clone oxygen atoms similar to cloning animals? That way, we could have all the oxygen we needed.

[americanarchon]

Well, they could artificially alter existing atoms into oxygen molecules, but the challenge would lie in replicating O2 and keeping it in plentiful supply

[Crabb90]

We have a majority vote for yes. Your turn, NASA.