Our Fate Is in the Stars
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Our Fate Is in the Stars
1–10 of 37 posts
Re: Our Fate Is in the Stars
#2There are currently four living people who have walked on the moon, the youngest of which is 83: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_who_have_walked...
It is probable that we will return to there being no living humans who have walked on the moon - something which must have been unimaginable at the end of the Apollo Project.
Re: Our Fate Is in the Stars
#3There are currently four living people who have walked on the moon, the youngest of which is 83: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_who_have_walked... It is probable that we will return to there being no living humans who have walked on the moon - something which must have been unimaginable at the end of the Apollo Project.
The incredible thing is that nobody born after 1935 has ever walked on the moon!
Re: Our Fate Is in the Stars
#4There's no "fate" and no contract we've signed that guaranteers we're an interplanetary species.
It's just that we wish we could be in the stars, but wishing doesn't always make it so. And in some cases, wishing never makes it so.
Especially without installed bases, big haul ability, etc, it takes trillions and has zero to no returns (except the glory, curiosity, and scientific value) for companies to go to the planets, even more so to the nearest stars (which also can take decades).
So while satellites lunches can make a profit, there's not much financial incentive to go beyond (real, tangible, the kind somebody will invest in, not future prospects which might take 2-3 generations to even pan out), absent state funding them (Space-X style, paid by NASA/the government).
And contrary to popular belief, climate change problems will make it even more difficult to secure such space spending, not less (e.g. people will demand urgent Earth supports, states will go each to fight on its own survival, there will resource and trade wars, and so on).
Re: Our Fate Is in the Stars
#5There's no "fate" and no contract we've signed that guaranteers we're an interplanetary species. It's just that we wish we could be in the stars, but wishing doesn't always make it so. And in some cases, wishing never makes it so. Especially without installed bases, big haul ability, etc, it takes trillions and has zero to no returns (except the glory, curiosity, and scientific value) for companies to go to the plane…
If we die out here on our home (as far as we know) planet, then we didn’t “deserve” to colonize other planets anyway.
Isn’t that the point of natural selection after all?
Re: Our Fate Is in the Stars
#6There's no "fate" and no contract we've signed that guaranteers we're an interplanetary species. It's just that we wish we could be in the stars, but wishing doesn't always make it so. And in some cases, wishing never makes it so. Especially without installed bases, big haul ability, etc, it takes trillions and has zero to no returns (except the glory, curiosity, and scientific value) for companies to go to the plane…
Wishes make profit. What is the use of an iPhone beyond satisfying people's wishes? Yet Apple is a $1bn company.
Re: Our Fate Is in the Stars
#7There's no "fate" and no contract we've signed that guaranteers we're an interplanetary species. It's just that we wish we could be in the stars, but wishing doesn't always make it so. And in some cases, wishing never makes it so. Especially without installed bases, big haul ability, etc, it takes trillions and has zero to no returns (except the glory, curiosity, and scientific value) for companies to go to the plane…
I think certain things feel pre-ordained for some, and like an unfolding of human destiny for others, because they are a tangible expression of common, shared human desires.
You’re right that economic and other concerns influence the specific timing, but I think the core human drives of growth and exploration are enough to drive us to the stars again in time, even without direct economic incentives.
Re: Our Fate Is in the Stars
#8There are currently four living people who have walked on the moon, the youngest of which is 83: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_who_have_walked... It is probable that we will return to there being no living humans who have walked on the moon - something which must have been unimaginable at the end of the Apollo Project.
The incredible thing is that nobody born after 1935 has ever walked on the moon!
And they were all Americans, which underlines what a rarity moonwalking has been in the history of humanity.
Re: Our Fate Is in the Stars
#9There's no "fate" and no contract we've signed that guaranteers we're an interplanetary species. It's just that we wish we could be in the stars, but wishing doesn't always make it so. And in some cases, wishing never makes it so. Especially without installed bases, big haul ability, etc, it takes trillions and has zero to no returns (except the glory, curiosity, and scientific value) for companies to go to the plane…
I think certain things feel pre-ordained for some, and like an unfolding of human destiny for others, because they are a tangible expression of common, shared human desires. You’re right that economic and other concerns influence the specific timing, but I think the core human drives of growth and exploration are enough to drive us to the stars again in time, even without direct economic incentives.
I think it's just people projecting their personal desires into some kind of imagined property of humanity in general. It's a way to make those personal desires seem less selfish and frivolous.
Re: Our Fate Is in the Stars
#10This is an odd piece of nostalgia, unfortunately representative of a genre. The Apollo program grew directly out of a panic about nuclear weapons, and the technological race to build rockets that could rain those weapons down on an adversary on the other side of the planet. No nuclear bomb, no Apollo.
The same geopolitical conflict that produced the space race also gave us the war in Vietnam, which in turn made the expense of ongoing lunar exploration unappealing (the war cost about 4x as much as the Apollo program) after the prestige milestone of landing on the moon was completed.
The space program was a fluke of history. We had a frightening new weapon that gave an overwhelming advantage to the side that could develop orbital rockets, a rough balance of power, and a natural satellite just close enough to get to without having to learn to assemble stuff in orbit.
Unfortunately, all the other destinations in space are far away (it's called space for a reason!) and sending primates to those places is expensive and hard. There's also no reason to do it (given advances in robotics and autonomous systems) unless you subscribe to a kind of cultish belief in humanity's manifest destiny to become an interplanetary civilization.
If there had been an intermediate destination between the Moon and Mars for us to work towards after Apollo, things might have gone differently, but you work with the Solar System you're dealt.