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I've heard Carl Sagan and other science-types say that humans have a natural urge to explore. Yet the state of human space exploration is getting worse and worse. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that SOME humans have a natural urge to explore. Most humans seems to prefer to stay in one place.
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Michigan
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Re: The natural urge to explore: Is that for real?
Mon, December 18, 2006 - 10:49 AMThe urge to explore as so often the case is motivated by the urge to make a economic gain for the explorers.
Currently, most people ask what is in it for me? Rather than what is the long term benifit?
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Re: The natural urge to explore: Is that for real?
Wed, December 20, 2006 - 8:04 AMI don't agree that "the state of human space exploration is getting worse and worse." We now have three countries (America, Russia, and China) launching manned spaceships, and a private corporation (Virgin Galactic) tooling-up to do so, with explicit plans being put forth for manned Lunar and Martian expeditions. -
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Re: The natural urge to explore: Is that for real?
Wed, December 20, 2006 - 8:10 AMPerhaps the state of human space exploration is not getting worse. But if history is any indication, it is very likely to get worse in the near future. For example, the national aerospace plane project, a space shuttle replacement craft, got canceled in the early 1990s. Then the VentureStar project, another shuttle replacement, got canceled around 2001. Now we're supposed to believe all these new space projects are going to happen when history shows that new space projects almost always get canceled? I'll believe there'll be a future for human space exploration after it happens.
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Re: The natural urge to explore: Is that for real?
Sat, December 23, 2006 - 10:38 PMI think that the increasing involvement of (1) more countries, and (2) for the first time, private industry, in space exploration is going to ensure that the human expansion into space starts again and never stops. Remember that during the late 20th century there were, in general, only two contestants (America and Russia) in the space race. This meant that if one lost interest, so did the other. That's what aborted the drive back into space that began with the launch of the space shuttle in 1980.
But now we have three current manned players (America, China, and Russia), three players (Europe, India, and Japan) launching or preparing to launch unmanned probes, one _big_ commercial player (Virgin Galactic) and several smaller commercial players. The race is now robust; it would take a major global recession to kill interest right now.
If this goes on just a few more years, Mankind will be heading out back toward the Moon and this time to colonize.
*crosses fingers* -
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Re: back toward the Moon
Sun, December 31, 2006 - 8:26 AMHere comes your "major global recession"....Is that the rumble of War I hear? Are Oil prices about to rocket? How about Global Warming? Or a flu Pandemic?
You are all going to be staying here on Earth for a few more years yet! -
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Re: back toward the Moon
Sun, December 31, 2006 - 1:57 PMBy a "major global recession" I mean something a bit bigger than the Tokyo Stock Market crash or the Dot Com Bust. I mean something more on the order of the Great Depression of the 1930's, which _did_ in fact manage to set the deployment of new technology back about five to ten years (study the history of television, for example).
War would temporarily derail Lunar ventures, but the aftermath (in which lots of new military technology was unveiled and surplus equipment available to sell) would probably accelerate it. It was World War II which resulted in the development of large liquid-fuelled rocket technology; it was the Cold War which resulted in the development of the ICBM which made orbital flight possible.
Oil price fluctuations and flus would have little effect on the further development of space technology. A major fear of global warming would probably _accelerate_ the space program, since the obvious technological means of climate control is through the orbiting of mirrors and shades.
- Jordan -
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Re: back toward the Moon
Tue, January 9, 2007 - 4:17 PMwhats getting worse and worse is american western civilization.
our civilization is decaying just like our shuttle fleet.
don't confuse the usa with the sum total of humanity, etc.
Yul, you often seem to be banging your head against walls and nearly tilting at windmills. understand the nature of the beast
and try not to take it personally. The usa space program is slowly decaying because our society is slowly decaying.
revitalize our whole civilization, and things could look up. -
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Re: back toward the Moon
Wed, January 10, 2007 - 7:24 AMThe decay of so-called "civilization" is something I've been aware of for many years. It's just that I don't think those of us who prefer civilized living should be dragged down with the technophobes and Unabomber groupies who reject civilized living. I know that sounds naive, but that's how I feel.
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Re: back toward the Moon
Fri, January 12, 2007 - 9:21 AMwell, "Should" doesn't seem to have much pull on cause and effect yul.
if it did, things would be a lot different.
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Re: back toward the Moon
Mon, February 5, 2007 - 1:29 PMPrometheus said:
> don't confuse the usa with the sum total of humanity, etc.
For instance, note that India has just succeeded in launching and retrieving an (unmanned test version of a) crewable space capsule from orbit. They have the explicit plan to land an unmanned probe on the Moon by 2008, and implicit plans to establish a manned presence in Earth orbit and engage in Lunar colonization.
While I don't agree with you that America is as decadent as you imagine (though I think that if you substitued "NASA" for "America" in your statements you'd be more nearly right), one of the important and hopeful developments of the early 21st century is that a LOT of other Powers, governmental and private, are getting into the space race. This practically assures that, this time, we (as a species) will colonize other worlds.
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Re: The natural urge to explore: Is that for real?
Tue, January 16, 2007 - 6:11 AMI believe that our urge to explore still exists, but that the trend in our educational system is not encouraging our upcoming generations to feel inclined towards the "new frontier". The Utah Space Association has set up a petition to instantiate July 20th (anniversary of the first moon landing) as a national Space Exploration Day holiday equivalent with Flag Day. I personally support this cause in the hope that it will help re-ignite the excitement for what lies beyond our own atmosphere. I hope that this petition can go through. I think it can do a lot of good for science and technology within our country. You can view the petition at www.spaceexplorationday.us
