Carl Sagan Posted September 30, 2016 Share Posted September 30, 2016 11 hours ago, Ewe Ram said: Yet again space travel or exploration is in the news. When this happens I get quite irritated. I really struggle to see the value in this. Countries invest millions of their money in various missions and I've never ever been convinced as to why they do it. What do they get out of it? What are they hoping to find? If they find something what can they do about it? Is there any of my money being wasted on this kind of activity?? 11 hours ago, StivePesley said: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/sep/26/i-think-the-human-race-has-no-future-if-it-doesnt-go-to-space 11 hours ago, David said: @Carl Sagan this ones for you As it happens I am actually writing a book about the SpaceX Mars colonization plan at the moment. As Steve's link from Stephen Hawking suggests, if you care about the future of the species, then the most persuasive argument is that it's only possibly for humanity to survive by becoming multiplanetary. Otherwise we become extinct, possibly sooner rather than later if you listen to some smart people. If that doesn't bother you, then there's less of a reason for us to go to space but I think it's still a get inspiration that drives us forward to better ourselves as a species and do glorious things. The coolest company in the Western world for the finest engineering minds to work nowadays is SpaceX. You could be at David's favourite Apple and be thinking about how to move from the iPhone6 to 7 and come up with the stunning idea of not having a headphone jack. Or you might be at Google and designing ingenious systems to answer all your questions before you've even asked them. Not bad. Or you could be at SpaceX designing and actually building the systems that will transport humans all around the solar system, doing incredible science and building cities among the stars. It's a bit of a no brainer and where I'd want to be working. Technological progress in society isn't automatic, even though it might feel that way. If we don't keep looking further out, we will stagnate. An example would be shipping that was largely the same around the Mediterranean until the discovery of the Americas which is what drove the technological need to create far more advanced vessels. And by building colonies on other worlds there's the potential for a vast overall increase in wealth and standards of living that benefits everyone. And just imagine watching football in lower Martian gravity. We could have a Solar System Cup and interplanetary tournaments. I love space, me... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inglorius Posted September 30, 2016 Share Posted September 30, 2016 11 hours ago, Ewe Ram said: Yet again space travel or exploration is in the news. When this happens I get quite irritated. I really struggle to see the value in this. Countries invest millions of their money in various missions and I've never ever been convinced as to why they do it. What do they get out of it? What are they hoping to find? If they find something what can they do about it? Is there any of my money being wasted on this kind of activity?? You Luddite have you ran out of frames to break today Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anon Posted September 30, 2016 Share Posted September 30, 2016 1 hour ago, Carl Sagan said: And just imagine watching football in lower Martian gravity. I was with you until this bit. Big Fat Sam would be in his element. The ball would never be on the floor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ewe Ram Posted October 1, 2016 Author Share Posted October 1, 2016 I see the sense in all that you say, but why do countries think the huge amounts of money is better spent on that than on caring for the people who are actually here and now? I think that's where my brain is at. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Day Posted October 1, 2016 Share Posted October 1, 2016 30 minutes ago, Ewe Ram said: I see the sense in all that you say, but why do countries think the huge amounts of money is better spent on that than on caring for the people who are actually here and now? I think that's where my brain is at. Was it India that whilst we were still sending over aid money pumped millions into a space mission? I'm sure that annoyed me at the time, or I was annoyed by something that didn't even happen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadbob Posted October 1, 2016 Share Posted October 1, 2016 9 hours ago, Carl Sagan said: And just imagine watching football in lower Martian gravity. We could have a Solar System Cup and interplanetary tournaments. I love space, me... And just imagine the uproar when sky move the kick off time then. DEL would have booked his space flight months ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jono Posted October 1, 2016 Share Posted October 1, 2016 9 hours ago, Carl Sagan said: And just imagine watching football in lower Martian gravity. We could have a Solar System Cup and interplanetary tournaments. I love space, me... We might lack some ball control in the away leg on Mars .. But we'd run rings round their lead footed players when we got them back to the Ipro from Galasphere 347, Fireball XL5 ( Venus was seriously hot even for me a six year old ... Please please can I have a Hover bike ) Yes Carl .. I'm right with you. Tranquility base the Eagle has landed ... I stayed up as a 10 year old and watched every second. Inspirational. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ewe Ram Posted October 1, 2016 Author Share Posted October 1, 2016 2 hours ago, David said: Was it India that whilst we were still sending over aid money pumped millions into a space mission? I'm sure that annoyed me at the time, or I was annoyed by something that didn't even happen I was annoyed by this too. Is GB sending foreign aid to a country with a space programme or is it an urban myth? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Day Posted October 1, 2016 Share Posted October 1, 2016 4 minutes ago, Ewe Ram said: I was annoyed by this too. Is GB sending foreign aid to a country with a space programme or is it an urban myth? I didn't dream it, we was sending 200m whilst they were funding trips to Mars. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-34398449 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ewe Ram Posted October 1, 2016 Author Share Posted October 1, 2016 4 hours ago, David said: I didn't dream it, we was sending 200m whilst they were funding trips to Mars. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-34398449 Yes I thought so. So our contribution was 'a peanut'. I hope they have stopped it as promised. That makes me more furious! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carl Sagan Posted October 1, 2016 Share Posted October 1, 2016 14 hours ago, Ewe Ram said: I see the sense in all that you say, but why do countries think the huge amounts of money is better spent on that than on caring for the people who are actually here and now? I think that's where my brain is at. No easy solutions to suffering in the here and now but spending money on the science and technology associated with space and the connectivity and efficiency it gives us creates wealth. Which can be spent on improving other aspects of the world. In terms of government, the news this week has all been about Elon Musk and his private company SpaceX. It's not government funded and because it massively undercuts all the governmental launch systems around the world it's making space far cheaper and more efficient than if left to the public sector to run. So if you're worried about countries spending money on space you should be pleased SpaceX is bringing the cost down. One of their techniques is to land the rockets back down to reuse them. Until now the industry has effectively thrown the rocket away every launch - imagine if we did that every time we took an Airbus or Boeing flight... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ewe Ram Posted October 1, 2016 Author Share Posted October 1, 2016 @Carl Sagan I thought they blew that one up this week? The more I listen to you the more I realise I know nothing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carl Sagan Posted October 1, 2016 Share Posted October 1, 2016 26 minutes ago, Ewe Ram said: @Carl Sagan I thought they blew that one up this week? The more I listen to you the more I realise I know nothing That's good knowledge because one did blow up, somewhat mysteriously the other week. No engines were on or anything. And happily nobody was around to be hurt. It does slow the programme down because they had been launching (and landing) rockets every couple of weeks, but now things are on hold (and the launchpad needs rebuilding!). But they have a couple of others around America they can use if the authorities allow them to keep sending stuff up given the explosion. I think it's important to ask questions about it, but because of private enterprise getting into space there's a lot of momentum. I missed the game today (thankfully!) because I was at a 50th anniversary celebration of Star Trek with the original Lieutenant Uhura and she said that all the silicon valley entrepreneurs and billionnaires were inspired by Star Trek's vision of the future and now want to take us to space. Elon Musk said something similar in his Mars presentation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sith Happens Posted October 2, 2016 Share Posted October 2, 2016 Surely space exploration is just the next step in our desire to expand our knowledge and explore what we dont know or havent been before? Havent humans been doing this for ever? Had we not had this desire would we even know about other countries or ever have travelled there? Would we have built boats? Would the wright brothers have took the 1st flight had we not had the desire to travel to places in different ways or faster? We would be taking our annual holidays in annesley woodhouse and going by horse back maybe. Do we ever get to the point where we say enough is enough we know all we need to know? I hope not. As someone who wasnt alive when we landed on the moon, and can only just about remember the launch of the 1st Space shuttle I find it very frustrating we have not continued to explore at the same rate, had we done so I am sure we would have been to Mars or beyond by now. We went from travelling by horseback or horse pulled cart to travelling in cars or international flights to travelling to another planetary body (Even if the moon) in a very short period of time, we are still driving in cars and only just really making electric cars a reality now our international flights have barely improved, infact you could say with the demise of concorde they have gone backwards, and we can just about make it as far as the ISS nowadays. I want to know whats out there, i just hope we cant at least find out some of this in my lifetime. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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