It was fifty years ago today...

Sassafras

We wanna sort out our own world out before we go fucking up another one.
The universe is big but I'm not sure it's infinite.

VimFuego

Sassafras said:

We wanna sort out our own world out before we go fucking up another one.
The universe is big but I'm not sure it's infinite.

fuck that hippy shit, I wanna make ET choke on my garbage.

Jalapeno

darthed1981 said:

stickyfiddle said:

I don't buy the "no advances in space travel" thing. 

The original comment from jalepeno was "no giant leaps, i.e. nothing equivalent to putting Neil and Buzz on the moon, I think that's fair.

Nobody would argue nothing has been achieved or progressed in space travel period.

I think manned space flight, partly because it is so difficult, has been put on the back burner exactly for all the advances we have had.

Exactly what I meant, thanks. 

I'm a total Space nerd, Sky at Night, StarGazing etc I wasn't being sniffy at the unmanned probes, Voyagers have been miracles of 1970s engineering !

Kilgore

Nitefly said:

Kilgore said:

ICBM said:

The simplest alternative is not to have a return mission... that's already been proposed. The first explorers would have to be prepared to establish a sustainable colony - although re-supply from Earth is possible - and probably not ever come back. That sounds extreme, but that's essentially what colonists on Earth expected in the seafaring age - I'm certain there would be people willing to do it, too.

In such a scenario the technology wouldn't be the problem, it would be the people. How would you establish a healthy functioning community in what would essentially be a prison? 

What would happen without the legal, social and cultural norms that keep people in check on earth. Arguments, sex and relationships, boredom, possibility of mental illness, all potential powder kegs. It could possibly end up as a grown up Lord of the Flies.

@Kilgore - Kim Stanley Robinson addresses exactly these issues in his "Red Mars" and the following books in his trilogy. They're probably 30 years old now, but still worth a read.

@Nitefly - thanks for that. I'll take a look.

Jalapeno

Kilgore said:

Nitefly said:

Kilgore said:

ICBM said:

The simplest alternative is not to have a return mission... that's already been proposed. The first explorers would have to be prepared to establish a sustainable colony - although re-supply from Earth is possible - and probably not ever come back. That sounds extreme, but that's essentially what colonists on Earth expected in the seafaring age - I'm certain there would be people willing to do it, too.

In such a scenario the technology wouldn't be the problem, it would be the people. How would you establish a healthy functioning community in what would essentially be a prison? 

What would happen without the legal, social and cultural norms that keep people in check on earth. Arguments, sex and relationships, boredom, possibility of mental illness, all potential powder kegs. It could possibly end up as a grown up Lord of the Flies.

@Kilgore - Kim Stanley Robinson addresses exactly these issues in his "Red Mars" and the following books in his trilogy. They're probably 30 years old now, but still worth a read.

@Nitefly - thanks for that. I'll take a look.

I found the KSR books, pretty turgid soap opera rather than space opera (after the initial habitat back-story)