You can't travel faster than light after all - phew!

[Ronja]

It said "Yes."

[Audley Strange]

Hmm. It appears to be infectious. We may have to quarantine this thread.

[Rum]

Never happen. I used to think it might one day but its too big an ask.

We may just get to Mars with humans, but even that is tougher than we ever thought it would be.

"too big an ask?" What are you a fucking retarded Australian baby?

Sorry you're getting the brunt of it Rum, but I'm fucking sick of Oz speak proliferating through the Beeb and then fucking public outside using it without thinking. Control your diction!!!
They're putting words in your mouth.

While I'm at it. Sea change does NOT mean a quick change overnight, it means the fucking opposite, a gradual almost un-noticable change.

AAAAAAAAAAAAaAAARGH!!!!!


*Jumps out of window*

I have always admired your moderate quiet tone.

Its not Oz speak actually but it is lazy speak I will grant you that.

[Audley Strange]

Never happen. I used to think it might one day but its too big an ask.

We may just get to Mars with humans, but even that is tougher than we ever thought it would be.

"too big an ask?" What are you a fucking retarded Australian baby?

Sorry you're getting the brunt of it Rum, but I'm fucking sick of Oz speak proliferating through the Beeb and then fucking public outside using it without thinking. Control your diction!!!
They're putting words in your mouth.

While I'm at it. Sea change does NOT mean a quick change overnight, it means the fucking opposite, a gradual almost un-noticable change.

AAAAAAAAAAAAaAAARGH!!!!!


*Jumps out of window*

I have always admired your moderate quiet tone.

Its not Oz speak actually but it is lazy speak I will grant you that.

Rum, I was half joking half venting and as I said you got the brunt of it. This however is not an excuse.

Sincerely, my apologies for insulting you unnecessarily.

[Rum]

No need but thanks anyway.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

l8


http://rationalia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1126221

He's not late... he just got his fibre-optic cables crossed.

[JacksSmirkingRevenge]

Just caught this same story earlier.
I have to admit that I'm a little disappointed.

[Horwood Beer-Master]

Never happen. I used to think it might one day but its too big an ask.

We may just get to Mars with humans, but even that is tougher than we ever thought it would be.

It's tough mostly because we've gone and convinced ourselves it is. How can you say something's tough when you've scarcely really made any effort towards it?

As Neil deGrasse Tyson pointed out, the amount of money spent bailing-out the banks a few years back was far in excess of Nasa's entire budget since it's creation - and that includes within it the cost of the moon-landings.


By far the biggest challenge that faces human exploration of space today is the public perception of how costly and difficult it is. In reality I'm sure that if, say, Nasa, Esa, Roscosmos and maybe a few others got together and made the effort we could plant a colony on Mars within 30 years, for a cost that frankly, even in these times of cuts, would be lost against the general white nose of crap we spend money on.

[Rum]

Never happen. I used to think it might one day but its too big an ask.

We may just get to Mars with humans, but even that is tougher than we ever thought it would be.

It's tough mostly because we've gone and convinced ourselves it is. How can you say something's tough when you've scarcely really made any effort towards it?

As Neil deGrasse Tyson pointed out, the amount of money spent bailing-out the banks a few years back was far in excess of Nasa's entire budget since it's creation - and that includes within it the cost of the moon-landings.


By far the biggest challenge that faces human exploration of space today is the public perception of how costly and difficult it is. In reality I'm sure that if, say, Nasa, Esa, Roscosmos and maybe a few others got together and made the effort we could plant a colony on Mars within 30 years, for a cost that frankly, even in these times of cuts, would be lost against the general white nose of crap we spend money on.

I'm sure you are right about public perception, but political action need a willing population to at least tolerate its adventures. The American public were 100% more or less behind the moon landings because the time was right - and the politics of the Cold War made it a damn good proxy to lobbing missiles about the place.

However the size of the task and its sheer cost remain a massive barrier. A manned mission to Mars would cost a minimum of half a trillion US dollars according to stuff I have read. It isn't actually a massive proportion of the USA budget (or a few other big countries) but I simply don't see any politician brave enough to try to get his/her population behind that sort of semi-speculative spending when there are so many issues here.

How about half a trillion going into fusion power research for example?

[Horwood Beer-Master]

Never happen. I used to think it might one day but its too big an ask.

We may just get to Mars with humans, but even that is tougher than we ever thought it would be.

It's tough mostly because we've gone and convinced ourselves it is. How can you say something's tough when you've scarcely really made any effort towards it?

As Neil deGrasse Tyson pointed out, the amount of money spent bailing-out the banks a few years back was far in excess of Nasa's entire budget since it's creation - and that includes within it the cost of the moon-landings.


By far the biggest challenge that faces human exploration of space today is the public perception of how costly and difficult it is. In reality I'm sure that if, say, Nasa, Esa, Roscosmos and maybe a few others got together and made the effort we could plant a colony on Mars within 30 years, for a cost that frankly, even in these times of cuts, would be lost against the general white nose of crap we spend money on.

I'm sure you are right about public perception, but political action need a willing population to at least tolerate its adventures. The American public were 100% more or less behind the moon landings because the time was right - and the politics of the Cold War made it a damn good proxy to lobbing missiles about the place.

However the size of the task and its sheer cost remain a massive barrier. A manned mission to Mars would cost a minimum of half a trillion US dollars according to stuff I have read. It isn't actually a massive proportion of the USA budget (or a few other big countries) but I simply don't see any politician brave enough to try to get his/her population behind that sort of semi-speculative spending when there are so many issues here.

How about half a trillion going into fusion power research for example?

Makes me wonder if there's ways of 'hiding' parts of the cost for such an enterprise, so that the apparent government spend is far lower than the actual government spend.
Politicians are normally so good at this kind of thing when it comes to the funding of useless genuinely wasteful projects designed to line their mate's pockets, so why not apply those skills to something actually important for once?

Maybe what we need are more politicians with mates working in/on space exploration. Of course to do that we first need to free up some vacancies...


...anyone happen to have a sniper rifle handy?

[mistermack]

....... we could plant a colony on Mars within 30 years, for a cost that frankly, even in these times of cuts, would be lost against the general white nose of crap we spend money on.

We could certainly do that, and would, if there was a point to it. But what would be the point?
Apart from curiosity, Mars has little to give.
The Moon is much closer, and far easier to travel to.
Mars projects now would just be a silly waste of money.

[Hermit]

Never happen. I used to think it might one day but its too big an ask.

Yes, and heavier than air flying machines will never happen.

We are notoriously unreliable when we try to predict what can happen and what can't. Even geniuses get it spectacularly wrong. Look at Tesla. We are constantly surprised by developments we simply did not anticipate. The Great Horse Manure Crisis of 1894 was a delicious example of that.

[klr]

We're currently living through one of the greatest social upheavals in history, all caused by computing, communication and related technologies. I certainly didn't see it coming twenty years ago, and I work in IT.

But all the same, I'm not holding my breath about us going to Mars any time soon, even though I've been waiting for it almost my entire life.

[PsychoSerenity]

The Great Horse Manure Crisis of 1894

That was a real thing?!

But yeah, I certainly wouldn't rule out faster than light becoming a possibility eventually. It's just well out of our grasp to conceive how at the moment. Maybe that is just my inner-sci-fi-fan talking, but science and technology, knowledge and understanding, seem to be changing pretty much exponentially - it's sometimes hard not to be optimistic.

[Hermit]

The Great Horse Manure Crisis of 1894

That was a real thing?!

Yes, it was. When I first heard of this, I thought it was a cute fable serving as a vehicle for right-wing, free market sermonisers, but it was dealt with at length as part of a 600 or 900 page book about the history of New York. If it turned out to be bogus, someone would have comprehensively and decisively debunked it by now. Unfortunately I never bookmarked the link to the book, but the sermon can be found here.