• jay2@beehaw.org
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    11 days ago

    I really don’t think the moon is going to be in our long term future nor Mars or any other body in our solar system. Robots and computers, maybe, but not humans. Too hostile of an environment.

    We are too fragile for space. We are not meant to travel the stars, as cool as that would be. We should have used that money to undo the damage we’ve done down here. Maybe explore the oceans even. It was neat, but i’m totally unimpressed by the mission itself. Good will come from it, but I’m not sure it’s worth the risk or money while things on Earth are the way they are.

    • Chris Remington@beehaw.orgOPM
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      11 days ago

      NASA is planning, through the Artemis program, to build a base on the moon. Astronauts will work and live on the moon for months at a time.

    • Baggins@beehaw.org
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      11 days ago

      Maybe not while they are but we do need a Plan B. And that means off of Earth.

      It’s so sad we’ve wasted so much time, lives and money on pointless wars and strife, the majority of it driven by religion (as per the current situation) as we could be living in a garden and with outposts on the planets and extra solar missions on the go by now.

    • HumanPenguin@feddit.uk
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      7 days ago

      Agreed. We will go. But the effort in building a colony on another planet. When that planet is not habitable. Is equal to that of building habits in centrifugal space stations. Using astroidbelt resources. Minus 1/2 the planatry landing and lift of costs.

      It gives us all the plan b advantages of civilizations outside of one planet. At much lower costs.

      • jay2@beehaw.org
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        4 days ago

        I think our technology is primitive at a level that we can’t comprehend. Like an ant that has wandered into a steel mill. We see things, but can’t possibly understand them. In fact, what we see is in the past. The further away it is, the more distant a time it is. Even your own vision is not suited for space observation.

        Humans are creatures of mind, body and spirit. Neglect even one of them and you suffer. We will require food, water, heat, cooling, oxygen, light and other creature comforts required to maintain. Obtaining them, lugging them about the cosmos, storing them and preserving them. Quite a tall task.

        One day, locomotion about the solar system might be a thing. It will be nowhere near like we imagine it though. I suspect it will be practically instantaneous travel similar to what we think of a wormhole. There is no possible other way to do it with a finite lifespan and mortality. Speed kills. Gravity kills. Toxic gas kills. Radiation kills. Cold kills. Dust kills. Any major problem with the ship kills. Any major problem with you kills. Anything we just didn’t think of will probably kill too. What if lunar screw worms awaken only once every 500 years, and we just don’t know about them yet. What if they like to molest their dinner before eating it?

        We get no plan B. We should focus our efforts in the here and now. Failure to do so is extinction.