Quote from: TBlocks on November 14, 2016, 11:27:38 AM

If NASA gets more funding because of this I will consider this an upside to Trump being president.

More likely the money from environmental science stuff will just be put into the space program instead.

I don't really think climate change can be stopped by anything other than geoengineering efforts at this point, and Europe will be the one paying for those.

Also, we've got GMOs to protect us for the next 4-8 years.

Quote from: Street Hawk on November 14, 2016, 01:45:44 PM

Quote from: TBlocks on November 14, 2016, 11:51:27 AM

Quote from: BaconShelf on November 14, 2016, 11:37:12 AM

Quote from: TBlocks on November 14, 2016, 11:27:38 AM

If NASA gets more funding because of this I will consider this an upside to Trump being president.

More likely the money from environmental science stuff will just be put into the space program instead.

Fucking fuck

the planet's already fucked beyond saving

space exploration is literally our only hope to survive

I can't think of a situation in the near future where sending people into space would be anywhere near as efficient as toughing it out on Earth.

Overpopulation? You'd have to transport hundreds of thousands offworld every day just to keep even with population growth.

Global Warming? Flooding and the like would be disastrous, sure, but I don't see how going into space would be any easier.

Nukes/ Asteroids/ Supervolcano/ whatever? Living in a bunker would still ultimately be easier. No disaster event would be threatening enough to make living on Mars or something more profitable than living in a similar bunker on Earth, with the added bonus of being able to scavenge and recover existing infrastructure. Even if it came to the worst, Earth still has an atmosphere, radiation shielding, liquid water and livable temperatures which aren't present anywhere else in the solar system.

Going into space is cool and I'm a big advocate for extraterrestrial resource extraction and whatnot, but until we have the technology it's a meme that isn't viable nor practical.

But...

Red Faction needs to happen.

"President Trump, how long will it take us to get to Mars?"

Trump:

I don't exactly know why he's so interested in Europa, though. Great location, no doubt, and a stunning view, but if he's interested in the subsurface ocean (If he even knows it's there, which I doubt he's been informed on), it's through like seven miles of ice that's harder than granite. There isn't a whole lot to gain from a Europa mission until you find some way to drill through several miles of ice with something small enough to load onto a rocket, and I'd suspect that's quite a ways off.

But Mars, hell yeah. Let's get that ball rolling.

There's also the issue that you get your yearly radiation dose in about an hour on Europa, so any facility would have to be incredibly automated. Humans simply cannot go there.


Which, if we're talking about finding life, isn't exactly a terrible thing.

Quote from: Hargbeast on November 14, 2016, 04:37:47 PM

Quote from: BaconShelf on November 14, 2016, 11:37:12 AM

Quote from: TBlocks on November 14, 2016, 11:27:38 AM

If NASA gets more funding because of this I will consider this an upside to Trump being president.

More likely the money from environmental science stuff will just be put into the space program instead.

I don't really think climate change can be stopped by anything other than geoengineering efforts at this point, and Europe will be the one paying for those.

Also, we've got GMOs to protect us for the next 4-8 years.

Praise monsato

This tbh fam

Hmmm, I would've thought Titan would be the most promising extraterrestrial body to potentially support life beyond Earth given its the only other body in the solar system besides Earth with a dense atmosphere and the presence of liquid methane on its surface. Plus its hydrocarbon seas aren't covered by 7 miles of ice like Europa.

Either way both are fascinating to me. I just have an acute interest in Titan over any other moon in our solar system.

So is Trump going to claim Mars and Europa as territory of the US?

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Quote from: Alpha on November 16, 2016, 10:37:35 PM

So is Trump going to claim Mars and Europa as territory of the US?

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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_Space_Treaty

I know about that

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Quote from: BaconShelf on November 17, 2016, 04:43:34 AM

Quote from: Alpha on November 16, 2016, 10:37:35 PM

So is Trump going to claim Mars and Europa as territory of the US?

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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_Space_Treaty

Not going to last, in all likelihood.

I'm counting on it for my scifi to make any sense.

Would it make more sense to start out with a fuel depot in that zone in between Earth and the moon, then work towards asteroid mining for resources, then a moon base which is similar to the International Space Station, then branch out from there?

If we were sensible, we would have established an orbital propellant depot beforr going to the moon. Once you're out of a planet's gravity, you're halfway to anywhere, and building a refuelling station in orbit is a logical choice. Moon base is kind of useless beyond scientific research, though.

From there, stations largely depend on where you're going. A refuelling facility on Deimos requires a lot less fuel to get to than Mars while being onoy a few thousand km away (Gravity is so negligible there you could dock your spacecraft on the moon itself), and also opens up the outer system.

I also recently read a thing talking about far-future colonisation of Mars, and its moons. Of interest is Phobos' 6000km orbit above Mars itself, which combined with Mars' lower gravity and lack of atmosphere, could allow a tether to be constructed going down into the high atmosphere. You could launch fromn your surface base in a supersonic jet, dock with the cable (Phobos makes about 4 transitions around Mars a day so launch windows are common) and then get an elevator ride up to Phobos. Similar cables could be constructed going up out of the gravity well and on Deimos to make the cost of getting to Mars' outer orbit very low.

It's obviously an extreme engineering feat but compared to making an orbital tether going into GEO with our atmosphere and gravity, not as extreme as you may think

Quote from: Winy on November 17, 2016, 06:44:22 PM

Quote from: BaconShelf on November 17, 2016, 04:43:34 AM

Quote from: Alpha on November 16, 2016, 10:37:35 PM

So is Trump going to claim Mars and Europa as territory of the US?

Sent from my LG-H810 using Tapatalk

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_Space_Treaty

Not going to last, in all likelihood.

How so?

I highly doubt that space is going to remain a conflict-free zone over the course of the next several hundred years.

inb4 Charon is actually a frozen Mass Relay

Quote from: Yang on November 14, 2016, 10:39:00 PM

Quote from: Flee on November 14, 2016, 02:32:14 PM

Quote from: TBlocks on November 14, 2016, 11:51:27 AM

Quote from: BaconShelf on November 14, 2016, 11:37:12 AM

Quote from: TBlocks on November 14, 2016, 11:27:38 AM

If NASA gets more funding because of this I will consider this an upside to Trump being president.

More likely the money from environmental science stuff will just be put into the space program instead.

Fucking fuck

Trump's an evil supervillain. He takes all the money from protecting our own planet, puts into space travel and then, a few years down the line, uses his massive wealth to buy himself a ticket to live on Mars while the rest rot down on earth.

Calling it now.

Why is Trump ripping up his cape?

dun queschin it