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[agrajag]

terraforming is where it's at, if we could do that, we wouldn't need to travel millions of light years to find an earth-like planet.

 

[ianp622]

The "let's fix problems here on Earth before we explore space" argument doesn't really hold water, considering space research pays back 8 times what you put in to it. Also, space research encourages students to enter science and engineering, which will get you your cure for cancer sooner.

Finally, overpopulation is going to be a problem sooner than you think - remember it's an exponential curve, not a linear one. We can't just wait until its a problem and start thinking about it then, we need to keep pushing the boundary now, and we can then have something ready for when we need it.

 

[Apoc29]

How do we know that scientists aren't already doing everything they possibly can to further their research into this area? Just because we don't have results yet? I'm sure this stuff takes time. It'll take money for sure; I'm not sure how much since I don't know what kind of wacky experiments are required.

 

[DjangoReinhardt]

I don't think I ever believed that there would be entertaining space hijinks in my lifetime, so I'm not too invested in the romantic notion of space travel.

 

[teruterubozu]

Finally, overpopulation is going to be a problem sooner than you think - remember it's an exponential curve, not a linear one. We can't just wait until its a problem and start thinking about it then, we need to keep pushing the boundary now, and we can then have something ready for when we need it.

But overpopulation is not a real estate problem, it's resources.

 

[Bitmap Frogs]

It's really a bitch neither Mars nor Venus have working dinamos.

Otherwise we could eventually turn them into nice places.

 

[Scrow]

Only into the future.

we're travelling into the future all the time. you're doing it right now.

we're all time travellers.

 

[Carlisle]

The only reason I wish I could live forever... or cryogenically freeze myself for a thousand years. I wanna live to see a world where laying out on a beach on the other side of the galaxy or a different galaxy entirely... where things we can't even imagine are as commonplace as trees are here... is no more difficult than flying from DC to NY. And imagine gaming. Holodeck baby.

It's really a bitch neither Mars nor Venus have working dinamos.

Otherwise we could eventually turn them into nice places.

As a kid I was always obsessed with Venus. It's the closest planet to Earth, so I was excited about the prospects of going there. Then I learned that it's pretty much the least-inhabitable solid planet. I was heart-broken.

 

[Nexus Zero]

Finally, overpopulation is going to be a problem sooner than you think - remember it's an exponential curve, not a linear one. We can't just wait until its a problem and start thinking about it then, we need to keep pushing the boundary now, and we can then have something ready for when we need it.

I totally agree with most of what you're saying but the world population will level off somewhere around 9 billion (still brings massive issues). It's more of an S-curve than one that just blows off into infinity. There's a great YouTube video that explains this better than I do, but I can't find it. It was on Reddit recently.

I was never of the impression that we'd see intersteller space travel within my lifetime, I always thought the Star Trek timeline was a pretty good projection. Recently though I've gone the other way, and when you think of lifetime extension and space propulsion in terms of exponentially-growing technologies, we may get to see some of this stuff.

 

[YoungHav]

I sure do miss time travel and flashing sideways. Those were the good old days.

 

[Forceatowulf]

I never believed it would happen in my lifetime, so no.

Now hoverboards...

Seriously. That's definitely been more disappointing for me.

I definitely believed we'd have that shit on lock down by now when I was younger. ugh

 

[HK-47]

But overpopulation is not a real estate problem, it's resources.

Guess what is on Mars and in the asteroid belt!

 

[ElectricBlue187]

Guess what is on Mars and in the asteroid belt!

Resources that currently cost more to get to than they are worth unfortunately

 

[thoughthorizon]

Resources that currently cost more to get to than they are worth unfortunately

Granted in the short term, but long term...

It's incredibly shortsighted of us that we aren't already established on Mars with a semi-permanent presence. Interstellar flight - meh: the future can wait, but I'm seriously pissed that Mars still won't be meaningfully explored in any way in my lifetime.

This is particularly the case when you consider that it wouldn't be so expensive to get there if you adopted the right method and means (now where's my old copy of "The Case for Mars").

 

[MetalAlien]

How about we just populate the solar system? A hotel on one of the moons of Saturn would be awesome. Think of the view!

 

[JDSN]

Hahaha I sure hope the people saying that we should place a bigger piece of the pie on thespace program for terraforming are seriously kidding, if you wanna go trekking just visit another continent or go the town next to yours.

 

[Sibylus]

We're alive, the world hasn't ended yet, and we're living better than any human beings in history. Not half bad.

 

[wolfmat]

How about we just populate the solar system? A hotel on one of the moons of Saturn would be awesome. Think of the view!

Pretty dark out there.