Quote from aphexcoil:
What ever happened to that huge multi-billion dollar Lockheed project called X-33? Did they cut funding for that?
RSQuote from Error 404:
Look at it this way. Why bother with all the costs of developing the mechanics of space travel incrementally?
Right now, the science of space travel is pretty limited to fuel supply and limitations of speed. Jet propulsion hasn't advanced since World War II really.
Presumably, physicists will figure out something beyond...totally different from..what we have now. What that would be, obviously none of us know. But in theory, anything is possible.
Put more simply, what is the sense right now? If we launched a manned mission to the nearest star system, it would take a few generations to get there. Births, funerals, all that would happen on the mission. So forgetting about fuel, how much food and water would need to go along?
But meanwhile, as science advances, some breakthrough could (and likely would) happen. So when the expedition that left hundred of years ago finally arrives at their destination, it is most likely that people who had left hundreds of years later would already have made the trip. Maybe in one day. Or less. Think "Contact".
Peace,
RS
Quote from ARogueTrader:
Given our current budget situation, the cost benefit ratio of space exploration relative to the domestic needs (think rebuilding roads, libraries, public transportation, health care, etc.) doesn't seem to make much sense.
RSQuote from Error 404:
Look at it this way. Why bother with all the costs of developing the mechanics of space travel incrementally?
Right now, the science of space travel is pretty limited to fuel supply and limitations of speed. Jet propulsion hasn't advanced since World War II really.
Presumably, physicists will figure out something beyond...totally different from..what we have now. What that would be, obviously none of us know. But in theory, anything is possible.
Put more simply, what is the sense right now? If we launched a manned mission to the nearest star system, it would take a few generations to get there. Births, funerals, all that would happen on the mission. So forgetting about fuel, how much food and water would need to go along?
But meanwhile, as science advances, some breakthrough could (and likely would) happen. So when the expedition that left hundred of years ago finally arrives at their destination, it is most likely that people who had left hundreds of years later would already have made the trip. Maybe in one day. Or less. Think "Contact".
Peace,
RS
Quote from ARogueTrader:
I responded because I am generally in favor of spending money on space travel, because in the past there have been many benefits by funding the minds who are capable of engineering space flight.
Quote from ARogueTrader:
Now, if Bush thinks we are going to completely fuck up the earth with all the pollution he is supporting, and he is looking for another planet for us to live on because we have wrecked this one, that might make some economic sense.
RS