Human Spaceflight: No Single Rationale Justifies it, NRC Report
- Thread starter Yminale
- Start date
You know, if human beings destroy or cripple our ability to live here on Earth there is no reason - none at all - to believe that we'll do better wherever we're transplanted.
Yeah, we'll have, uh, learned our lesson - just like bad hangovers cause alcoholics to not drink.
You're assuming that some man made disaster does us in. Yep, if some asteroid slams into the planet and wipes us out what lesson will we have learned by not having a colony some where?
Oh, yeah. that whole "eggs in one basket" thing.
My young friend, that's not a prediction. That's what's happening.
The nations of the world are facing and will face for the foreseeable future rising economic costs in dealing with the catastrophe we've made of modern civilization. Suggesting that we'll be spending megabucks to try to create a livable environment somewhere less suitable when we can't maintain the one we've been given here is a goofy fantasy and nothing more.
Over the long term, humanity will die just as other species have come and gone on this planet - species have beginnings and ends just like individuals, just like planets, just like universes. We're not on the verge of changing any of those things.
In any event that damned famous asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs, not life. The death of the Sun will wipe away all trace that life ever existed here, but not probably not elsewhere.
Ah, well, if we're going with the fatalistic view, yeah. There's not much point talking about the future of space flight. I tend to agree that if we don't get our shit together a bit we'll do ourselves in, but I do hold out hope that somehow some of us will escape the death spiral by making it off planet.
To do what?
Um, what ever you want?
Is there really a right or wrong answer to your question?
Yep, and everyone's born at some point too.
Circle of life and all that.
Anything wrong with hoping there will be future generations?
One may hope for whatever one likes. Of course there will be future generations. There were future generations of dinosaurs for millions of years.
Where hope meets tax money, though...there are real public needs; since space colonization is not one of them, monies shouldn't be collected by law for it. If private businesses can find a way to turn a dollar exploiting space, more power to them.
Where hope meets tax money, though...there are real public needs; since space colonization is not one of them, monies shouldn't be collected by law for it. If private businesses can find a way to turn a dollar exploiting space, more power to them.
What if we solved the border crisis by launching all the illegals into space!
The necessary systems are still experimental and may not be entirely safe - we'll test on conservatives first.
Yeah, let's drop that snarky sidebar, pronto. Thanks.
If I'm reading that right, the report is arguing that the main benefits of spaceflight are the practical side-benefits to humanity on earth from the quest to colonize space. Which strikes me as probably true. Most of the technologies needed to implement space colonization and spaceflight will probably first be handy in helping us survive what we've done to our own planet.
But Dennis is IMO correct to say that we might as well forget fantasies of "getting off the planet pronto" as if there's somewhere to go. Spaceflight is already advancing in ways the pessimists didn't predict [we've got a thread about that, yes?], and there will be lots of interesting stuff to do in space and get from space, but there isn't going to be anywhere out in space for significant numbers of humans to live anytime soon. The key to human survival is Earth for the forseeable future and it's best not to confuse science fiction with fact when deciding if we need to get used tot hat.
Last edited:
That's what my "to do what?" was about. What purpose would a group of people have to leave the planet? There's nowhere to go they can survive without massive investment of resources and time and even then they would be limited drastically compared to living on Earth.
While also dealing with the possibility that if something goes wrong its going to become a tiny non-pressurized coffin.
Similar threads
