skarm
I HAVE HOTEL ROOMS
One of my favorite topics being a huge science fiction nerd in the past (okay maybe in present too!) is Space Exploration. However, it seems like the whole concept is going down the drain these coming years. Anyone who follows the topic will likely be familiar with, in 2009-2010, the NASA review panel's recommendation (later implemented) to abandon the Constellation Program which was to be the successor to the present day Space Shuttle program.
While the mission, thanks mainly due to the international community, to extend the life and research aboard the International Space Station was continued, the Space Shuttle program is quickly approaching its last flight.
We (I'm using this term loosely in this post) are still hesitant to take a few risks and send a crew to an asteroid, or to Mars, or let alone back to the Moon.
However, it is not all doom and gloom. There are bright spots in the future: The Ad Astra Rocket Company's VASIMR engine could, at extremely low cost, make a one way trip from Earth to Mars in as little as 39 days. All of their tests of this technology have been extremely successful and they are attaching a test model to help keep the ISS in orbit for a fraction of the cost. This makes a manned mission to an asteroid or Mars much more feasible: instead of 6 months one way we can do the entire round trip in a little over 2 months.
And yet despite this and all the research taking place it seems we as a species are incapable of actually wanting to fund these missions. Why is that? Is it because we feel there is very little pay off in respect to the amount of money put in? Because we don't want to take the (political or otherwise) risks associated with longer space missions?
Unfortunately the way I see it is that we won't get space exploration in earnest until our resources are dwindling and energy corporations need to start mining He3 gases or metals from our solar system. That is when I believe we'll see companies pouring large amounts of money into technologies for space habitats and mining operations. Granted, by the time we get here, technology will be advanced a fair share so it won't be as daunting as we see it today in 2011.
What are your thoughts? Feasible? Why aren't we doing it? Will we ever do it? Why or why not?
While the mission, thanks mainly due to the international community, to extend the life and research aboard the International Space Station was continued, the Space Shuttle program is quickly approaching its last flight.
We (I'm using this term loosely in this post) are still hesitant to take a few risks and send a crew to an asteroid, or to Mars, or let alone back to the Moon.
However, it is not all doom and gloom. There are bright spots in the future: The Ad Astra Rocket Company's VASIMR engine could, at extremely low cost, make a one way trip from Earth to Mars in as little as 39 days. All of their tests of this technology have been extremely successful and they are attaching a test model to help keep the ISS in orbit for a fraction of the cost. This makes a manned mission to an asteroid or Mars much more feasible: instead of 6 months one way we can do the entire round trip in a little over 2 months.
And yet despite this and all the research taking place it seems we as a species are incapable of actually wanting to fund these missions. Why is that? Is it because we feel there is very little pay off in respect to the amount of money put in? Because we don't want to take the (political or otherwise) risks associated with longer space missions?
Unfortunately the way I see it is that we won't get space exploration in earnest until our resources are dwindling and energy corporations need to start mining He3 gases or metals from our solar system. That is when I believe we'll see companies pouring large amounts of money into technologies for space habitats and mining operations. Granted, by the time we get here, technology will be advanced a fair share so it won't be as daunting as we see it today in 2011.
What are your thoughts? Feasible? Why aren't we doing it? Will we ever do it? Why or why not?