Why Manned Spaceflight wont happen...

[Silversmok3]

...on a wide scale, anyways.

Part of the appeal of Star Trek is that we can imagine exploring a whole new and exciting realm of space.Sadly, we cant even fly from one planet to another yet.

I figured its time we put to posts what the obstacles are to explorative manned spaceflight,because in order to solve a problem one must know what it is first.

Problem #1-Money.

Spaceflight aint cheap.Materials costs, test flights, R&D time,building the ship/exploration vehicle itself, and the actual mission cost itself.Lets face it,until society and technology advances to the point that we can 'afford' to spend billions on spaceflight,any ship that we can build will forever be a blueprint.

Problem #2-Space itself.

Its huge.And the fastest speed that we know we we can go today is just under lightspeed,which realistically is too slow for exploration on the level depicted in Star Trek.Sadly we cant even fly half of lightspeed due to the next issue, which is...

Problem #3-Technology

Artificial Gravity. Transporters.Energy Shielding. Antimatter Reactors.Some of this stuff we know how to make in theory, but we dont have the tech to build it.We know how to make an antimatter reactor with todays physics, but, ahem, we cant make the antimatter in enough quantities. And so on.

What do you guys have?

 

[Alpha_Geek]

What do I got? Umm... willpower, desire, and dreams?

Hopefully, that's enough.


Seriously though, an amazing amount of the trappings of sci-fi in the last 200 years have come into being in our modern world. It'd be interesting to take a peek ahead another century or so to see what we've managed to accomplish.

If we don't kill ourselves in the meantime, I suspect we'll get out there eventually.

 

[MANT!]

Actually, the first steps are being taken now..

I remember the same points being made about widespread air travel.how only the rich would be able to afford it and the like..

It took a few decades..and we are now in an era of very widespread air travel..

so I beg to differ on your points..

 

[ZeNd]

Profit.

Make it profitable to go to space and I will guarantee you that's when all of the technological breakthroughs relating to space travel will happen.

 

[sojourner]

I can answer all 3 with one short sentence:

Give it time.


Don't confuse what we can't do today with what we can't do tomorrow.

 

[SilentP]

I can answer all 3 with one short sentence:

Give it time.


Don't confuse what we can't do today with what we can't do tomorrow.

QFT.

Wasn't there that guy who used to work for the US Patent Office in the 19th Century who retired saying that everything had been invented. Bet he would have a major egg on his face if he saw what we had these days

 

[Broccoli]

Also, we need a big, popular public figure today to challenge us as a people to do those sort of things.

In 1961(?), when Kennedy said that we need to put a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s, the idea was loony. People on the moon? Impossible! However, Kennedy's statement (regardless of it was in response to Russia's space program) got people motivated to reach that goal.

I think of someone made a bold statement like that again, progression towards "Star Trek-like Space Exploration" can happen.

 

[Peter the Younger]

Well there are plenty of levels of space travel that are viable without raising to the level of Star Trek's world, but yes, the obstacles are formidable. One of the ones that makes me sad is the lack of progress in making it cheaper to get things into orbit. It's really hard to make space accessible or profitable when it costs $10,000 to get one pound into orbit. This isn't just about technology, either - a lot of it has to do with the ugly business of no-bid government contracts and inefficiency.

If I were given dictatorial powers over NASA and the space budget right now, I would put the whole Mars mission on hold, and instead sink the money into the following:

1) Quadruple the money earmarked for alternate access to space projects, with particular attention given to Space X. Those guys are building rockets for a fraction of the cost of the bloated old defense contractors.

2) Start an advanced chemical propulsion competition to develop next-gen engines and fuels (look at using red oxygen as an improved oxidizer, for instance).

3) Increase funding for the precursor technologies for space elevators. The giggle factor is still fairly high on this idea, but it seems to get more plausible year after year. Long chains of carbon nanotubes could have many uses besides making really tough space ribbons, and spinoffs have long been one of the great selling points of the space program.

It may not be sexy in the short term, but increasing access to space will pay huge dividends over the long haul.

 

[Mr. B]

No manned flight because we can't do it yesterday? Rather short-sighted IMO.

 

[SeerSGB]

Problem #2-Space itself.

Its huge.And the fastest speed that we know we we can go today is just under lightspeed,which realistically is too slow for exploration on the level depicted in Star Trek.Sadly we cant even fly half of lightspeed due to the next issue, which is...

Which is why I think generational ships, maybe cryoships will be the way to go...assuming we find anywhere worthing going.