Moon Base!

POSTED BY: Calhoun
UPDATED: Thursday, February 19, 2004 05:44
VIEWED: 10570
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TRAVELINGTHEBLACK

Wednesday, February 11, 2004 4:42 AM

I know THAT'S a browncoat, but in a our globalized society, you really think one person could build a working spaceship, or buy one, and find his or her own colony? Heh, yeah, right. As of now, it's either the corperations or the UN.

Mercy is the mark of a great man... *stab*

WULFHAWK

Wednesday, February 11, 2004 5:36 AM

Before you occupy your final dirt apartment, we will see kit-built spacecraft, built by amateurs, launched by amateurs, orbited by amateurs. If you happen to be rated for multi-engine jets, you may soon be in demand for piggyback in-flight launch platform pilot jobs.

I don't say this because I have a crystal ball...no, historically speaking, just find a guy saying something is impossible, can't be done, never happen, then contradict him. The odds are HUGELY in my favor.

Super-efficient detonation thrusters are on the way soon, able to breathe air or vacuum, enabling a single stage to orbit vehicle. Ultra-hot plasma rockets may become feasible before Bush's moonbase is finished, allowing long-burn, high-thrust craft to appear.

See you fellas at Luna City...the first round is on me, browncoats.

Take my love
Take my land

HERO

Wednesday, February 11, 2004 4:45 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by TravelingTheBlack:
I know THAT'S a browncoat, but in a our globalized society, you really think one person could build a working spaceship, or buy one, and find his or her own colony? Heh, yeah, right. As of now, it's either the corperations or the UN.

Mercy is the mark of a great man... *stab*

A man finding his own way to do things. Why thats impossible. I was just telling my good friends Wilbur and Orville that man can't fly. They seem to think that bicycle makers can change the laws of physics.

Seriously, you seem to think the corporations are a bad thing. Why? Corporations are merely entities that facilitate the combination of capital, technology, and labor in a reflection of modern economic realities. Goverment serves the same role. A fundamental American idea, however, is that the individual lies at the center of it all. Corporations and govts jealously guard against the power of individuals, but it is always human failings that drive govt or corporate tyranny.

So tell you what. I'll go home tonight and invent a safe and reliable means of space travel. Tomorrow I'll patent it. The next day I'll form my own corporation to bring in capital and labor. Then I'll build me that spaceship you say I can't build. The only difficult thing about this scenario is the invention part, and if I can't do it somebody else will.

Unless some stupid goverment regulation stops them.

H

WERESPAZ

Wednesday, February 11, 2004 7:01 PM

Before I start my rant, I'd like to say that I think it's great that so many people seem to support more space exploration. I think it's way cool. I'd be one of the first people to sign up for a one-way ticket to a colony on the moon or Mars or even some space-station type place. I think one of the largest obstacles are the shuttles themselves. It seems to me like the first order of business is to make something that does what the shuttles were meant to: cheap, easy and frequents trips to orbit. If we find that, anything we want to do from there would be so much easier.

Okay, in response to Hero:

Quote:

Seriously, you seem to think the corporations are a bad thing. Why? Corporations are merely entities that facilitate the combination of capital, technology, and labor in a reflection of modern economic realities. Goverment serves the same role.

I understand how lots of people can think of corparations as a bad thing, I sorta feel that way myself, but the real problem with corporations are when they either choose to completely screw their employees/environment/locals/ect. over for a few percentage drops in thier bottom line. Corporations, like people (and even government) still need to have some kind of a conscience. The other problem is when their lobby monies mean they get a much louder voice than the voters, and I believe campaign finance reform is the first step in a healthier goverment/populace/corporate world.

I think that if we're gonna get to space, it's going to be the corporations who put us there, once they understand that people are willing to spend money to get there. There's no motivator like profit. However, if it is indeed corps that get us there, I would really like to see it be a corporation that does the right way, as in: not using slave/child/cheap-foreign labor. I think that a space corp program thingy could do wonders for our current economy and create a ton of jobs both blue and white collar. And regulation is not neccessarily the problem, the problem is not regulation but incentives for corps to move their HQ somewhere outside the US to dodge paying taxes, or when Wal-Mart dictates prices to manufacturers forcing them to move their jobs to foreign locations causing more unemployment in the US. That's also long-term badness for Wal-Mart, how are jobless people supposed to spend money there? I'm just using Wal-Mart as an example (although they are the evil empire) here. My point is, if done right by either government or private industry, exploring space could be great for the US if it's done right, and there's no reason why we all can't win (except Bush, I don't like him, his eyes are too close together).

-The SpAz

(edit to add: Steven Notley (apparently a friend or something of Joss) summed up so common feelings on his webpage angryflower.com. About halfway down, look for the title "BUSH ON MARS". There's also some funny comic strips there too).

SAMURAIX47

Thursday, February 19, 2004 1:57 AM

If you're interested in future space exploration to the moon you should check out the X-Prize and the competitors involved. Burt Rutan has been testing his SpaceShipOne out in California.

Also the Artemis Project, www.asi.org, a private venture to put man back on the moon.

Space-Frontier.org has a Return-to-the-Moon project and a conference in Las Vegas this summer.

Read Gerald K. O'Neill's The High Frontier. you can read about this also at www.space-frontier.org/HighFrontier/

Try reading Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy for what colonizing Mars could be like.

James

JASONZZZ

Thursday, February 19, 2004 4:51 AM

KSR also has another fantastic book named "The years of Rice and Salt". It's a SciFi alternative history on what would have happened if Europe was wiped out during the plague and the world had an Asian spin to it where Buddhism and Islamism ruled. Would there still be technology? How would philosophy and critical thinking be? Questions whether eurocentrism and amerocentrism is in the right place...
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0553580078/qid=107716632
5

Quote:
Originally posted by SamuraiX47:
If you're interested in future space exploration to the moon you should check out the X-Prize and the competitors involved. Burt Rutan has been testing his SpaceShipOne out in California.

Also the Artemis Project, www.asi.org, a private venture to put man back on the moon.

Space-Frontier.org has a Return-to-the-Moon project and a conference in Las Vegas this summer.

Read Gerald K. O'Neill's The High Frontier. you can read about this also at www.space-frontier.org/HighFrontier/

Try reading Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy for what colonizing Mars could be like.

James

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CUDA

Thursday, February 19, 2004 5:44 AM

Obviously NASA will be extremely wasteful however they decide to get to the moon, but I'd rather see them be wasteful than not to do anything at all. It all lays the groundwork for further space travel and discovery, and I'd like to see that now rather than later.

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