We are also going to have to face facts. We are alone in this universe and we have to keep this rock we're living on healthy so we can go on living.
Yeah, that's great for all the possible disasters that we can avert. But sometimes, disaster strikes like a bolt from the blue, from causes over which we have no control -- an asteroid impact, a supervolcano eruption, some shutdown of the geodynamo. Life is extinguishable. It's happened before, it will happen again.
The only way to mitigate the fate of extinction is to NOT have all of your eggs (literally) in one basket. That's the real motivation for human space flight. It's not a question of "if" -- it's simply a question of "when."
Good points. The ISS will be around $100 Billion, and when it's finished, they're going to crash it cause the funds aren't there to continue operating it. In Apollo 13, while capturing the pioneering spirit of the astronauts, they never put forth a compelling reason to go, other than the intense drive by the astronauts to stand on the moon. What will we find on Mars? Most likely more rocks. Few other bodies in the solar system would even allow a person to stand on them in a space suit, and the nearest solar system would be 200 years out, and holds no more promise of life than the other planets in our solar system. While I would love to explore, when Columbus sailed for the new world, there was at least the promise of solid land and air and food when he got there.
Despite what Star Trek says, we don't see that on the horizon.
The United States today could not get to the moon.
Why?
Have you seen the photos of the Apollo missions controls room? Full of white guys with crew cuts.
Todays mission would mandate that a certain percentage of the engineers, etc had to be classified as minority or female.
“We are also going to have to face facts. We are alone in this universe...”
By what reasoning do you come to this conclusion?
If by “alone” you mean we have to take care of ourselves, fine. But if you mean it in some other way, I doubt our loneliness is a “fact”
State the "facts" which prove this.
Until our species has traveled far and wide exploring (at least) our own home galaxy, that can't be stated with any authority.
“The second reason is there just isn’t anything up there worth the time and money.”
I’ve read that Helium-3, rare on earth, may be plentiful on the moon. Helium-3 could be our best chance for making a commercially viable fusion reactors for energy production on earth.
Re: “We are alone in the universe.......”
Astronomers estimate that there are 70 sextillion stars (that we can see with present equipment — real number may be millions of times that.)
I admit I have a hard time getting my mind around that number. Heck I have a hard time visualizing the 23 trillion Obama is committing my grandkids to live their lives as serfs in a hopeless effort to pay for.
But the number printed out is 7,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (suns).
If only one in 10 (8 or 9 in ten is more likely) has planets and average only 5 planets each, then that makes 3.5 sextillion planets.
And you believe that the out of that many planets, ours alone has life.
With reasoning powers like that, I bet you believe that Keynesian economics really work and Obamanomics is really intended to make us richer!
Wow!
...an unprovable and VERY unlikely assertion.