Should we use the promise of going into space to bring out the best in people?

[CmdrShep2154]

And also inspire a new generation to get into science and engineering. That would be useful in the fight against climate change.



I am no fan of these billionaires but I like the concept of Inspiration4. Perhaps the wealthy should pay vastly more in taxes and some of those taxes would go to NASA to fund one Inspiration4 mission each year.

Can we use that type of space mission to inspire ordinary people to become more physically fit and knowledgeable in science?

Last year the show "For All Mankind" inspired me to become more knowledgeable about space exploration.

[Shadowferal]

O for fucks sake we already do.

[Stormcall]

What if we don't give a fuck about going into space?

[JohnBrown1917]

Space wont solve shit when it comes to climate change.

[PC2]

Sure, why not. It's good for scientists and engineers to test these ideas. They can always hide more and more complexity behind the scenes so that people don't have to be experts(ie astronauts) in order to do great things like this. We want the non-experts to be focusing on their own goals and not need to get bogged down with the technical minutiae of operating a spacecraft.

[TwistedSkull]

Every time OP makes a space thread i always get the "In space noone can hear you scream" Quote in my head.

[KOUNTERPARTS]

"Ok Tommy and Susie, be good little boys and girls so you can become smart get to go to space!"


Should definitely work. 10/10

[Yunru]

Space wont solve shit when it comes to climate change.

Well exept:


But as it stands right now. Till we can re-use 99% of materials on earth, there is no reason to fly there as the building material to make space stations and ships may be problematic to obtain.

[Endus]

Space is shit. Earth is where the real promise is.

I'm gonna disagree, but it's in the sense that "shifting a lot of industry off Earth and into space will pretty much eliminate the potential issues with pollutant byproducts". Without an atmosphere/ecosphere to dissolve off into, they're easily captured, and if you really don't want them, it'd be fairly trivial to pack them up and give them a shove that'll lead to them falling into the Sun eventually.

We're not going to move the human species off this planet in any meaningful sense, but in the short term, industrializing space is a big step. And in the medium term, that industrialization sets the stage for vastly increasing construction rates in space; if you've got an asteroid you can mine for steel or other metals, that's thousands of tons of product you don't have to lift out of Earth's gravity well at insane expense. At that point, you don't design in space for minimal lift mass and sized to fit in current launch vehicles (which is how all satellites and the few space stations we've built were designed), but for safety, resilience, and function. Building a truly massive thousand-ton space habitat becomes eminently feasible at that point, and it won't be until we industrialize space, just because of the cost of lifting mass.

We won't get to the habitat in our lifetimes, but we've got the technology to get started on industrialization. It's a matter of funding and long-term planning. It's gonna cost a lot more than the Mars missions, but likely only by a factor of 10 or so, maybe less. You'd want a several-module system launched as one unit to some choice asteroid, likely a near-Earth object. 1986 DA is a good option at a quick glance. You could also use the Sentry list to identify rocks with a chance of impacting Earth, and prioritizing them to clear our space pre-emptively. 1986 DA is mostly iron, with about 8% nickel, and trace amounts of other metals. It's about 3km across, so that may be too large to be feasible early on, but to make the point; that's so much iron that it's not worth considering how much iron. The "trace metals" of platinum and gold in that rock would amount to about 10,000 tons of gold and 100,000 tons of platinum. Even on the Earth marketplace, that platinum alone would be worth trillions.

So you identify the target, and send the module system. That system consists of at least one (ideally 2-3 for redundancy) control units to receive instructions and control the booster modules, and those booster modules. As many as you can pack in. All these modules would want to screw themselves into place, but we've already been doing that with sampling probes on things like comets, so in terms of technical requirements, we're already there. The booster modules would be attaching themselves in multiple locations, with multiple directions of boost, with the goal that you use some for attitude control and others for actual vector change. You're basically turning the rock into a massive spaceship.

To make the boosters feasible, there's low-thrust options like the EMDrive. You don't want big, heavy boosters for this kind of project, you want something that has low thrust but can maintain thrust; anything that can convert electricity into thrust is perfect, as we can beam energy there with lasers. That low thrust, maintained for years, will continue to build over time, so it'll do the trick. It'll take decades to get that rock in place, but once you get it there and set up mining and refining systems, construction limits are a thing of the past.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/near-e...oid-discovered

[Draco-Onis]

OP why are you using an infomercial for that douchebag Elon Musk as aspirational?

[Shadowferal]

Hmf.. FAA grounded Branson and his "Virgin Atlantic" pending an investigation. So OP is probably in need of an emotional boost or something.

[Sunseeker]

I thought the promise of space was to turn everyone into Newtypes and advance human evolution, that's why we need to destroy the Earth.

.....maybe I took the wrong message from all the Gundam I watched.

[zorkuus]

Sure, we'll send the bad people into space but we don't tell them it's a one way trip.

[Shadowferal]

Toss all libertarians in space? Sounds like a good lesson for them.

[Phuongvi]

Just make a survey on a planetary level and people still think the sun is orbiting around the Earth and the Earth is the center of the universe.
In other word, people don't give a shit about space

[kamuimac]

And also inspire a new generation to get into science and engineering. That would be useful in the fight against climate change.



I am no fan of these billionaires but I like the concept of Inspiration4. Perhaps the wealthy should pay vastly more in taxes and some of those taxes would go to NASA to fund one Inspiration4 mission each year.

Can we use that type of space mission to inspire ordinary people to become more physically fit and knowledgeable in science?

Last year the show "For All Mankind" inspired me to become more knowledgeable about space exploration.

but you already do - Space X exist only because of funding it gets from your goverment

[GreenJesus]

I don't give a shit about what some astronauts did in space. Who cares? Unless the mission develops new technology that I can use in daily life. That's all that really matters.

Watching some boomers float in space doesn't "bring the best" out of me and not many people actually care.

[Shadowferal]

The samples "Perseverance" collected on Mars might come to Earth...best estimate is 2030 assuming no setbacks.

......I'm so excited...and I just can't hide it...

[Myradin]

I thought the promise of space was to turn everyone into Newtypes and advance human evolution, that's why we need to destroy the Earth.

.....maybe I took the wrong message from all the Gundam I watched.

I was kind of curious when someone was going to make a gundam reference.

Oddly enough colonization in gundam actually originates from the same idea of saving the earth's environment. All the newtype mumbo jumbo just evolved out of the colonists trying to find a solution to the colonial governance issue and probably a degree of wanting to feel special.

[Afrospinach]

To make the boosters feasible, there's low-thrust options like the EMDrive.

Last I checked this concept was junked. Produces thrust because of earth's own magnetic field, not because of anything the experiment actually claimed. Very unfortunate.