What century will mankind explore space?

[Razeo]

Personally I don't think it will happen in the next 200-300 years, but I think it will eventually happen once we have the technological means to do so. Not to mention that humans as a whole will stop bickering over our differences. What century do you think our planet will become a RL Star Trek?

[semaphore]

You're have to define explore, because I thought that's what we've been doing since like the 1960s.

Star Trek is unlikely to become reality for a number of separate reasons.

[bals]

20th century.
we're already exploring bro.

you could argue we were exploring earlier but we didn't send anything in to space before then.

[Kalyyn]

Well, America is already doing a good amount of robotic deep-space exploration. In fact, we just had a probe finally reach the edge of the solar system. It has the potential to keep beaming back information for a few more decades, too.

We're in the process of mapping out most of Mars, and intend to send humans there within 1-2 decades. We've got upcoming missions planned to send robots to Titan to drill into it's oceans and see what's down there.

In addition, SpaceX just made a successful mission to the ISS with it's Falcon 9 cargo ship, and is building the Faclon Heavy as we speak, which will be the most powerful cargo ship ever launched. Planetary Resources is in the process of looking for an asteroid that they can mine in the very near future.

We're pretty much there.

[Razeo]

You're have to define explore, because I thought that's what we've been doing since like the 1960s.

Star Trek is unlikely to become reality for a number of separate reasons.

By explore I basically mean humans already having a fleet of space ships and personally going out to space and getting a closer look at the stars, planets, nebulas we already know, searching and studying new ones, searching for new life, colonizing livable planets, building space stations. If you've watched any of the Star Trek series it's basically what they're doing, exploring the final frontier!

[GISP]

You do know that they landed on the freaking moon freaking 50 years ago right?
And the past 5 years, there have been atleast 1 person in orbit above our love planet at all times.

[bals]

By explore I basically mean studying and getting a closer look at the stars, planets, nebulas we already know, searching and studying new ones, searching for new life, colonizing livable planets. If you've watched any of the Star Trek series it's basically what they're doing, exploring the final frontier!

already been doing that bro.
since the 20th century.

you could argue it was earlier though but that was the first time we sent stuff into space.

/broken record

you know we landed robot probes on mars right?

[semaphore]

By explore I basically mean studying and getting a closer look at the stars, planets, nebulas we already know, searching and studying new ones, searching for new life, colonizing livable planets. If you've watched any of the Star Trek series it's basically what they're doing, exploring the final frontier!

I think we're doing all of that now except the colonisation part. I mean, "a closer look" is kind of a relative term.

---------- Post added 2012-06-02 at 07:14 AM ----------

Technology moves faster than you can imagine, and certainly faster than the media can report. We'll get to properly exploring space sometime this century, that i do not doubt. With any luck, i'll still be around to see it, even if it's just the start.

Eh I personally feel that technology is moving slower than people give it credit for.

[bals]

Eh I personally feel that technology is moving slower than people give it credit for.

really?
so for the past ~30sh years the internet existed, compared to multiple thousands of years it didn't exist. in our houses
and then for the past ~5-10sh years that we could access the vast sum of human intelligence in the palm of our hand.
You know any cellphone you pick up today is many, many, many times more sophisticated then the computers that landed people on the moon in 69?

that's not fast enough for you?

[semaphore]

really?
so for the past ~30sh years the internet existed, compared to multiple thousands of years it didn't exist. in our houses
and then for the past ~5-10sh years that we could access the vast sum of human intelligence in the palm of our hand.

that's not fast enough for you?

I don't understand why you think that's a measure of speed.

[Imadraenei]

Assuming the OP means living humans travelling through interstellar space...it could be a while. The logistics of supporting a crew for the time it takes to travel to even the nearest star outside of the solar system are pretty staggering. Mars is going to be pushing it, I doubt seriously it'll happen as fast as people think.

[bals]

I don't understand why you think that's a measure of speed.

I don't see why you think that's a measure of speed (look i can do shit too).
fact is technology is moving at a much greater rate than it was ever before. the fact that you can't accept that is irrelevant.
People were killing each other with sticks for thousands of years.
now we make weapons that can shoot a huge amount more bullets every couple of years.

[Alixie]

I dont think we'll ever get to Star Trek levels of exploration. Shit is so far apart in space, it will take 4 years for people just to reach the nearest star if we ever achieve the speed of light on our own. People cant live long enough to space travel to anything remotely interesting.

I vaguely remember watching some documentary on space travel, that we'd need rockets about the size of the moon to safely travel or something. Pretty much physically impossible things to build in order to space travel and live normally on other worlds.

Here's a fun page on the the size of our solar system. I love these kinda space mind fucks. http://sizeofworldse.ytmnd.com/

[Kalyyn]

By explore I basically mean humans already having a fleet of space ships and personally going out to space and getting a closer look at the stars, planets, nebulas we already know, searching and studying new ones, searching for new life, colonizing livable planets, building space stations. If you've watched any of the Star Trek series it's basically what they're doing, exploring the final frontier!

But why? I mean, I love the romantic aspect of just setting out and seeing what you can find as much as you do, but it's more practical to just have robots do it. I mean, say we send some random dude to Alpha Centuri. What can he do there that a robot couldn't do faster and cheaper? I mean yeah, we need to put humans on other habitable planets. But we have to find those planets first. Until we do, it's just better to do it remotely from here.

[theunit187]

I think humans will fly around solar system freely in this century. We already got commercial spacecraft DragonX, add to that James Cameron's project to drill asteroids and we get solid foundation for space exploration. It is just matter of time, 10-20 years probably, and we will have space stations on Mars and maybe even farther away.

[semaphore]

I don't see why you don't think that's a measure of speed (look i can do shit too).

Or maybe you could answer my question instead of evading it by copying my words? Why is it a measure of speed? Take one look at any formula for rates of change. Lack of something for a long time, as you continuously rely on to "prove" your point, is irrelevant.

fact is technology is moving at a much greater rate than it was ever before. the fact that you can't accept that is irrelevant.
People were killing each other with sticks for thousands of years.
now we make weapons that can shoot a huge amount more bullets every couple of years.

Again, not an indicator of speed. Other people could well make a case for technology improving faster than ever, but you have done no such thing. Simply asserting that your claims are facts doesn't actually make them factual.

[Deleted]

if we ever explore space in the means of flying to far far away planets, it will happen with generation ships (or whatever they are called^^).

there are some laws in physics that are (most likely) impossible to bend, thus the maximum speed of a ship is rather limited.

a colony on the moon might happen in the upcoming 100-200 years, but then again it would more or less just be a show-off as there is rarely anything valuable enough to make up for the cost of it.

if the stars align (metaphorical speaking) it MIGHT be possible, in 200-300 years, to "hijack" some greater comet that is passing by i guess.


long story short: it will take hundreds of years, and communication and exploration will still be limited because the universe is .... incredibly large

[bals]

Or maybe you could answer my question instead of evading it by copying my words? Why is it a measure of speed? Take one look at any formula of velocity. Lack of something for a long time, as you continuously rely on to "prove" your point, is irrelevant.

herp you said it was moving slower
prove your metric that it is moving slower first. (-speed)

[This name sucks]

I think we're doing all of that now except the colonisation part. I mean, "a closer look" is kind of a relative term.

---------- Post added 2012-06-02 at 07:14 AM ----------



Eh I personally feel that technology is moving slower than people give it credit for.

Go take a look at any kind of time line and you will see it is STILL growing exponentially.

Even from this time in 2011 there have been great advancements.

[Imadraenei]

I don't see why you think that's a measure of speed (look i can do shit too).
fact is technology is moving at a much greater rate than it was ever before. the fact that you can't accept that is irrelevant.
People were killing each other with sticks for thousands of years.
now we make weapons that can shoot a huge amount more bullets every couple of years.

The problem with exploring space is that it's really fucking big, and technological speed isn't really useful when you have to consider things like the time it takes to travel 4 light-years. Just because we have the Internet and bullets doesn't mean we're going to overcome simple problems like "it takes a shit-ton of energy to get a ship with full crew, food for decades, entertainment to sustain morale for decades, waste treatment, fuel, etc". Guns are "trigger exothermic reaction in a tube under an object", I've seen it done with hair spray, PVC pipes, and a potato.