I find it amusing that the space migration crowd is all into whiz-bang feel good tech like rockets, but not into the incredibly prosaic concept of terraforming. Where's the clamoring for more money spent there? Why aren't the sharp young minds migrating into that field? Why isn't anyone funding it? How many sharp young minds want to spend their life toiling on a project that won't finish until long after their great grandchildren are dead?
Its almost like the space migration crowd knows this is all a crock of shit. They just want rockets and other toys that have no where to go. Sure, we'll have an asteroid and possibly a Mars landing one day, but we can't stay. The same way we put men on the moon and had them drive around a bit, but at the end of the day, there was no reason to go back and certainly no possibility of staying.
I find it amusing that people speak of terraforming - making planets more habitable for humans - when making humans more durable is actually a lot more feasible by comparison, not to mention solves a lot of other problems at the same time.
A lot of hard problems in human space travel get much easier when you remove the constraint that human physiology must be immutable.
The point is the whole frame of the debate has changed. It used to be that exploring Mars would have required massive investment in single-use rockets for a vanity mission. Now we are on the cusp of realising an order of magnitude drop in the cost of access to space. Recovering F9 first stages is only phase 1. The next step would be a redesigned SpaceX rocket allowing for a recoverable 2nd stage as well.
It's no longer about massively costly media shows, but inexpensive, sustainable projects that may be achievable within our lifetime.
Comments
I find it amusing that the space migration crowd is all into whiz-bang feel good tech like rockets, but not into the incredibly prosaic concept of terraforming. Where's the clamoring for more money spent there? Why aren't the sharp young minds migrating into that field? Why isn't anyone funding it? How many sharp young minds want to spend their life toiling on a project that won't finish until long after their great grandchildren are dead?
Its almost like the space migration crowd knows this is all a crock of shit. They just want rockets and other toys that have no where to go. Sure, we'll have an asteroid and possibly a Mars landing one day, but we can't stay. The same way we put men on the moon and had them drive around a bit, but at the end of the day, there was no reason to go back and certainly no possibility of staying.
I find it amusing that people speak of terraforming - making planets more habitable for humans - when making humans more durable is actually a lot more feasible by comparison, not to mention solves a lot of other problems at the same time.
A lot of hard problems in human space travel get much easier when you remove the constraint that human physiology must be immutable.
The point is the whole frame of the debate has changed. It used to be that exploring Mars would have required massive investment in single-use rockets for a vanity mission. Now we are on the cusp of realising an order of magnitude drop in the cost of access to space. Recovering F9 first stages is only phase 1. The next step would be a redesigned SpaceX rocket allowing for a recoverable 2nd stage as well.
It's no longer about massively costly media shows, but inexpensive, sustainable projects that may be achievable within our lifetime.