Space travel

[Osmeric]

Em you know...you dont need shields for that. You can just use lead.

Its the best anti-radiation element.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation_shield

High atomic number materials are good for stopping gamma rays, but there are better shielding materials for nuclear particles. For those, particularly neutrons, materials containing hydrogen are very good.

[Yarathir]

You can't force breakthroughs by throwing money at it - I agree - but our current strategy of devoting three grad students, the spare time of a couple NASA employees, some used Popsicle sticks, elastic bands, and some bendy pipecleaners - is probably going a little over the deep end on the 'light touch' strategy. As a planet, we have practically stopped all major scientific research since the 90's - a few projects not withstanding (LHC, for example).

Agencies like NASA (it's not just America's fault here) are all massively underfunded in their research divisions. Politicians want the showy stuff, they want repeats of what already works - so they can show off. The Pentagon gets more on-the-books (to exclude black budgets) funding in a single year now, than NASA has gotten since it began (including the entire space race, and every launch ever since).

Maybe we need to declare a War on Space to get something done here - but the idea that we can't get things done by trying is a pretty dangerous one. If we had an actual FTL division, building actual prototypes - we could have FTL in a decade - or we could wait a hundred years until some whiz kid builds an FTL drive in their garage - out of ping pong balls and curly straws.

The only scientific research that gets done during a time of war, is Applied Science - we build off what we already know, to make things we already knew we could. We need more emphasis on invention, on redefining the boundaries of the real: because in the grand scheme of things we still know next to nothing. There is so much more to learn, and we barely even try anymore.

#WarOnSpace

That's what we need

Not so sure about 'FTL drives in a decade' claims, but with more than the funding we have now, it would undoubtedly go a lot faster than now - development, that is. Then again, what we need is Warp Drive, not Faster-than-light. We need something that can fold up space-time and shorten the distances between star systems if we want to get anywhere past the local clusters. Even with FTL, crossing into different systems will still take decades and centuries.


Faster-than-light travel claims are nice and all, but first of all, we're not even sure if it can be achieved, and if it can be achieved, it holds so many dangers. Now, mind you -- I am top optimist #1 (so to say) and I doubt it can't be achieved. But we wouldn't even need it if we are capable (and so far, many authorities on the subject have been surprisingly positive about it) of warping space-time. Presumably, this would be with the Alcubierre Drive, or an evolved concept based on that. Again, this too has its dangers, and it would really require solving those - not in hindsight, but before we make use of it.


Or wormholes. If we can learn to harness and utilize those to traverse the galaxy, or even the universe -- that would be golden. But there is so much we don't yet know about wormholes, so we can't really comment on that yet.


Aside from that, I wholeheartedly agree with your post. The "current strategy of devoting three grad students, the spare time of a couple NASA employees, some used Popsicle sticks, elastic bands, and some bendy pipecleaners" part really speaks volumes, and I could almost literally envision it going like that. I'm also fairly disappointed with humanity as it is. Too much time wasted on attacking each other, rather than working together and overcoming major hurdles. If we did work together, imagine how much more progress there would be.


Oh, and too much time wasted going "well, things are okay as they are" and giving into supposed inevitabilities. "If we go extinct because we don't leave Earth, so what..?".


Therefore, I propose a new social movement. It is aptly named: "Getyourshittogetherism". Who's with me?


No, that was a joke. But really, humanity? Get your shit together.