41 replies to this topic

[d3bruts1d]

Where do you feel your country's space agency should focus on exploring? Our solar system or elsewhere?

[suchuwato]

We've only had one for less than a year, and it only really exists to help build private sector space industry in the country, however I reckon there should be two main focuses; Mars (with the moon as staging) and Deep Space, however what with all the cuts to NASA and all the wastage, it probably won't happen anytime soon

[danieljury3]

New Zealand doesn't have much of a space agency. If it did though I'd want it to explore around Pluto to try and find a mass relay.
Outside the solar system seems rather futile though since the Voyager 1 space probe is only about 0.0018 light-years from the Sun (Source:Wikipedia) and it was launched in 1977.
Inside the solar system however I think the moon is the best option for exploration as its closer and easier to explore and would more quickly benefit mankind as a staging post/Mineral resource than any other object in the solar system

Edited by danieljury3, 19 July 2010 - 02:57 AM.

[fire_storm]

I think Deep Space is what should be focused on the most.

[SenitaL]

hehe i voted Uranus - well its not like we'll be able to explore Deeper any time soon!

Edited by SenitaL, 19 July 2010 - 04:02 AM.

[Psywar]

Did we not Lose NASA this year?

I thought We (USA) cut all funding to NASA recently? I heard something like we were now going to have Russia fly us to the Space Station now for like 2 Million Dollars.
I found it funny because lets say you or I wanted to go to the Moon. Russia would charge us 1million but they are going to charge the USA 2million to go. (Maybe it was Billion. I forget I heard this a while ago.)

If we still have funding to be honest I think we should start looking at Mars.

Maybe see if it will ever be possible to inhabit or anything of that sort. I would really like to see someone on Mars in my Life Time.

[PruritusAni]

The Saturn satellite system is what got my vote, as it needs some thorough exploration, but that's not to say it should be our only focus. As a cheap/useful supplement to our efforts we could do some interesting work here on Earth:

1. work on terraforming: tame the ever expanding deserts of our planet as practice for desert planets
2. work on colony infrastructure: think modular environments that could be tested at the bottom of the ocean, to withstand ridiculous pressure, and also give us more room to live here on earth while we work on becoming a multi-planetary species.
3. work on propulsion: rockets are so ineffective, there really must be a better way, we are long due for a new drive.
4. work on orbital production: while we're figuring out phase/slip space jumping we can start with a space elevator, and then orbital assembly of larger ships.

All of this could get accomplished fairly soon if we focused all of our species' efforts on it, but that's unlikely at this time. A national space agency is unlikely to do too much, think planetary space agency and then you might get somewhere. We have yet so much growing up to do

[Crazy_Nate]

Did we not Lose NASA this year?

I thought We (USA) cut all funding to NASA recently? I heard something like we were now going to have Russia fly us to the Space Station now for like 2 Million Dollars.
I found it funny because lets say you or I wanted to go to the Moon. Russia would charge us 1million but they are going to charge the USA 2million to go. (Maybe it was Billion. I forget I heard this a while ago.)

If we still have funding to be honest I think we should start looking at Mars.

Maybe see if it will ever be possible to inhabit or anything of that sort. I would really like to see someone on Mars in my Life Time.

Given that I am a government contractor for NASA...let me tell you...they certainly didn't...

NASA has different directorates that do related, but VERY different types of work

The ARES / Constellation programs got cut. They'll run until the end of the fiscal year before officially being done.


I don't think space exploration should be the primary objective. We have to get our technology up to par before we can fully consider 'true' exploration. I think probably a space elevator or lunar base should be a stepping stone to increasing our tech level...

[wevsspot]

I voted for Mars. To me it is the next logical step beyond the moon. But the moon may have to serve as a launch station/depot for that mission. Mars is interesting because of evidence of surface water sometime in it's distant past. I hope that space exploration would lead to greater cooperation and peace between the nations on our mother earth.

Plus - this might be far fetched - but we (humans) may actually need to find another inhabitable planet someday.

I know that in my life time I won't see manned deep space exploration - but believe that someday when we have the technology to travel faster than the speed of light it will become a reality.

[McGrimm]

I guess I'm the only one that wants to go to the moon. The way I see it is that all that was done on the moon was a little site seeing and picking up some rocks. I would like to see a full on out post on the moon with a space ship construction site and mining site. Who knows what horrible aliens are waiting us in the moon and I for one want to find out.

[Guest_Jim_*]

Given that I am a government contractor for NASA...let me tell you...they certainly didn't...

NASA has different directorates that do related, but VERY different types of work

The ARES / Constellation programs got cut. They'll run until the end of the fiscal year before officially being done.


I don't think space exploration should be the primary objective. We have to get our technology up to par before we can fully consider 'true' exploration. I think probably a space elevator or lunar base should be a stepping stone to increasing our tech level...

I'm trying to figure out what you mean by "get our technology up to par." I thought we were the leaders in this technology?
Regardless, I think we can't give up on the physical exploration, because while you can say you can figure out all this stuff on paper, you never get the experience nor the awareness of other things you need. For example, the space pen. Normal pens need gravity to work, so they don't work in micro-gravity. This wasn't realized until we were up there. Then we spent how much money on R&D, for what is now a great souvenir (probably have made back the original costs ten times over). True, we could have gone the Russian route of using pencils, but that's not as much fun. We could design the Death Star on paper, but and everything we'd need to build it, but I would bet that weeks into the project we'd hit a snag somewhere.
Considering how much technology that was developed and improved upon specifically because of the space race, I am personally in favor of exploration. The space elevator right now is something that people can get behind, think about, and throw money at, but I doubt it will ever be made, or if it is, with how NASA is currently viewed (or not viewed), it would lose American funding.
If I remember what one of my friends at NASA said, their budget is under either 2 or 3 billion (a few years ago), and the government is spending almost a trillion dollars, at a time, on the stimulus bills. I want NASA to get out there, somehow, to go far, but at times it seems like I'm in the minority.
If I had to lay out a plan I would want NASA to take it would be, keep the shuttles while working on space elevator. Once the elevator works, get rid of the shuttles and work on something more powerful. Go back to the Moon first, unmanned first to build something for men to inhabit. After that, hit the asteroid belt, followed by Mars. That's as far as would be worth it, I think, without having developed something that doesn't exist now, because Jupiter and Saturn are too far away to reasonably send men now, and expect to get them back. Venus isn't worth it, because of how uninhabitable it is, and Mercury wouldn't give us much in the way of resources. Great for observing the Sun, but that's what probes are for (Ulysses for example). That's my thinking from right now. Ask me again tomorrow, maybe it'll be different.

[ClayMeow]

I voted Mars because its our best bet for colonization. I think more thorough exploration of other planets and deep space is more alluring, but we just don't have the technology to do so to any worthwhile extent, and it's rather costly to do so. Even if we found life and/or a planet with the same atmosphere as the Earth, what would be the point if we lacked the technology to transport humans to it?