Colonise Space or Perish

supernova1965 (Warren) · #1 11-08-2010, 06:31 AM

Stephen Hawkins has come out and claimed that we must colonise space or perish about time someone put the truth of our existance out there.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2...10/2979282.htm

OneOfOne (Trevor) · #2 11-08-2010, 07:29 AM

Ultimately, I think we will, but it is not something we need to do for a number of generations, when the technology becomes available. Until then, I think we should continue to explore.

Alchemy (Clive) · #3 11-08-2010, 07:54 AM

Nup won't happen, we can't live in space, our bodies fall apart (read degenerate), it would take lifetimes to reach anywhere, just to find there's not a habitable place.
I like scifi as a film medium, but warp drive doesn't exist, or functional wormholes ( theory suggests as soon as matter is put in they collapse), and they are just theoretical themselves.
Pipe dream, as unfortunately is expecting humans to live together in harmony. I'd give humanity 20 years to start another world war..... Now we've got nukes, its an old technology and despotic governments and states are acquiring them.
Got to get imaging before the nuclear winter begins and I can't see the stars anymore.

multiweb (Marc) · #4 11-08-2010, 08:01 AM

I reckon we will too. Human species is very resilient. We'll find a way and adapt. That's what we do best.

supernova1965 (Warren) · #5 11-08-2010, 10:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OneOfOne

Ultimately, I think we will, but it is not something we need to do for a number of generations, when the technology becomes available. Until then, I think we should continue to explore.

But the technology won't come unless we make it if everyone just waited for the train or the car we wouldn't have them just my thoughts on the matter

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alchemy

Nup won't happen, we can't live in space, our bodies fall apart (read degenerate), it would take lifetimes to reach anywhere, just to find there's not a habitable place.
I like scifi as a film medium, but warp drive doesn't exist, or functional wormholes ( theory suggests as soon as matter is put in they collapse), and they are just theoretical themselves.
Pipe dream, as unfortunately is expecting humans to live together in harmony. I'd give humanity 20 years to start another world war..... Now we've got nukes, its an old technology and despotic governments and states are acquiring them.
Got to get imaging before the nuclear winter begins and I can't see the stars anymore.

When Stephen Hawkins says Space he doesn't just mean we have to live in space stations he means other planets as well I think

Quote:

Originally Posted by multiweb

I reckon we will too. Human species is very resilient. We'll find a way and adapt. That's what we do best.

I agree

renormalised (Carl) · #6 11-08-2010, 11:05 AM

Yes, I believe so too. However there's several things we need to do right here on Earth before we attempt any large scale anything in space. First thing, we need to replace our political systems as they are. It's them that are stuffing us up big time and they're not working. If they were, we'd be in a much better shape than what we are. Secondly, the financial system, for exactly the same reasons. Thirdly, we need to learn to live with one another and actually cooperate to survive on Earth, before we try anything in space. That means none of this "inspired" nonsense that many people go on with. If we can manage to do that, then we'll be half way to being able to get out into space and actually do something with it instead of farting about with robots.

As it stand at present, we will be waiting a very long time before we even start to crawl our way out into the solar system and beyond. If we ever get out there.

mental4astro (Alexander) · #7 11-08-2010, 11:52 AM

I can see a 'locked thread' happening...

multiweb (Marc) · #8 11-08-2010, 12:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by renormalised

As it stand at present, we will be waiting a very long time before we even start to crawl our way out into the solar system and beyond. If we ever get out there.

In a perfect world yes but I feel the future is not a selfless one without any currency where everybody offers a helping hand to his neighbourg. The state we're at now is what we are and we'll bring it all with us whereever we go next and whatever we do. It's based on limited amount of resources and population growth. When space becomes crowded things turn nasty.

Barrykgerdes · #9 11-08-2010, 12:59 PM

We need to get to Alpha Centauri first to see the message that was posted there over 70 years ago regarding the destruction of Earth by the Vogons.

BARRY

supernova1965 (Warren) · #10 11-08-2010, 02:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mental4astro

I can see a 'locked thread' happening...

I hope not as I started this thread to talk about the science of space travel not politics I hoped for an enjoyable talk about the excitement of what is ahead of our people

renormalised (Carl) · #11 11-08-2010, 03:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by supernova1965

I hope not as I started this thread to talk about the science of space travel not politics I hoped for an enjoyable talk about the excitement of what is ahead of our people

Unfortunately Warren, you can't divorce one form the other because the money for all this has to come from somewhere and there are all sorts of vested interests that are going to want to have a say in the matter. If we could take all of the politics and other nonsense out of it, that would be great, but we can't. If things keep going the way they have been for the past 4 decades, we will never get past sending "tin men" out to do no more than a little bit of scouting around for us because it'll be just "all too hard" to do otherwise. Too hard to do, and for all the wrong reasons.

Ric · #12 11-08-2010, 03:32 PM

Carl is right Warren.

I believe we have the brains, the technology (or at least the ability to develop it) and most definitely the money to pay for it.

But at the moment we just can't past the red tape and intercontinental bickering to make the most of what we have.

psyche101 · #13 11-08-2010, 05:31 PM

We were about to head of for the stars in the 60's - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project...ar_propulsion)) But the Nuclear test ban treaty killed the project before it got started, as we all know, we cannot breach light speed, so anywhere at all will be a long and resource hungry effort. Lets hope one takes this sort of thing seriously again some day.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...figuration.png

ManOnTheMoon (Matt) · #14 11-08-2010, 06:15 PM

It would take too long to get anywhere. Alpha Centuri is the closest star to earth at just 4 light years or 23.2 trillion miles!. In the fastest spacecraft nasa has that travels at 17,500 mph it would take about 153000 earth years to go just 4 light years to reach our nearest star system! If we could travel at lightspeed it would be much quicker but only for those onboard. If you would be inside the spacecraft traveling at the speed of light, it would take you 4 years to reach Alpha Centuri. If you were on the earth waiting for that spaceship to get there and back to earth, something like 800 years would pass for you. This is because time slows down when traveling at very high speeds compared to a stationary object !!

Baddad (Marty) · #15 11-08-2010, 06:19 PM

Hi All,

We don't have a lot of time on our hands. Only a few million years or if all goes well 4 billion years. Average asteroid strike rate is one every 100 million years. (the ones big enough to snuff 90% of life)

We go back 3,000 years Average man did not venture more than 12klms from home in a lifetime.
Back 300 years, 20klms
Back 100 yrs, 50klms No one more than 30,000klms (Space travel)
Back 50yrs, 500klms No one more than 100,000klms.
Back 10yrs, Could this be just the start. Moon landings.

There are so many things that are not understood. In this universe.
It was said many times. "Man would never fly"
A cannon ball will fall faster than a musket ball.
The sun is made of burning coal.
Planes can not fly faster than sound because of the "barrier"

Cheers Marty

Do we now have negative thoughts that man will never reach the stars?

renormalised (Carl) · #16 11-08-2010, 06:46 PM

It's not the technology that's the problem, Marty. It's the people.

renormalised (Carl) · #17 11-08-2010, 06:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ManOnTheMoon

It would take too long to get anywhere. Alpha Centuri is the closest star to earth at just 4 light years or 23.2 trillion miles!. In the fastest spacecraft nasa has that travels at 17,500 mph it would take about 153000 earth years to go just 4 light years to reach our nearest star system! If we could travel at lightspeed it would be much quicker but only for those onboard. If you would be inside the spacecraft traveling at the speed of light, it would take you 4 years to reach Alpha Centuri. If you were on the earth waiting for that spaceship to get there and back to earth, something like 800 years would pass for you. This is because time slows down when traveling at very high speeds compared to a stationary object !!

Ah, no. Right idea, wrong maths.

Traveling at the speed of light, c, your clock relative to a clock back home would experience no passage of time at all. Effectively, you would get there instantaneously (in your frame of reference) relative to the Earthbound clock. You'd experience no travel time at all even though it actually took 4.4 years for you to get there (by the Earth clock). However, if 4.4 years did actually pass by for you, the time back on Earth would've stretched out for many thousands of years. Actually, at precisely the speed of light, an eternity would've passed on Earth whilst you never aged at all.

Traveling at 0.9c, the trip to Alpha would seem like a 1.9 year trip for you onboard the ship, but 4.84 years would be experienced by an Earthbound observer.

If you traveled at 0.9999999998c, the trip to Alpha would take you (in your frame of reference) 48 seconds.

TrevorW · #18 11-08-2010, 07:02 PM

Scenario

a) an advance scout party from some distant planet locate earth and say that looks like a nice place to call home and the locals don't have anything that looks remotely like causing us a problem

b) we intercept and decypher communications that a fleet can get here in 10 years

Guarantee within 10 years we'd have advance robotic weapons platforms stationed beyond Jupiter, high speed intercept ships and battleships patrolling the space lanes

Through common cause man will come togethor to go beyond existing limitations

renormalised (Carl) · #19 11-08-2010, 07:14 PM

It'd be a lot more complicated than that, Trevor, and given the way this planet is run, I'd doubt we'd still have anything effective to ward them off. Plus there'd be people here who would sell us out at the drop of a hat for the right price. There's always a quisling somewhere.

rcheshire (Rowland) · #20 11-08-2010, 07:15 PM

Once the baby-boomers pass on, and given the general decline in reproduction worldwide, increased numbers of singles etc etc, the demands on resources may decline, at least until the next boom.

At this stage space travel and colonisation is an exciting prospect, none-the-less technologically impractical. Stephen Hawking may be brilliant, but I think it's a mistake to assume that prominence validates opinion.

Sorry if that offends, but there are more important issues than finding ways to escape mortality. If one was to expire tomorrow, Stephen Hawking's assertion would be completely irrelevant.