Sync182 Posted February 17, 2012 Share Posted February 17, 2012 (edited) A giant firecracker won't help us explore the universe. We need to be reaching researching a better method to get us into space before anything else. As I said before, Columbus did not go to the new world in a log raft. A steel tube will be of no use when roving the ocean floor 2 miles down, either. You'll be a pile of jelly in no time. We need to be researching a better method to withstand the pressures of water before anything else. The Titanic wasn't explored by men in SCUBA gear. Edited February 17, 2012 by Sync182 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marharth Posted February 17, 2012 Share Posted February 17, 2012 It costs less to send drones to the ocean then to send drones to mars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ita Posted February 17, 2012 Share Posted February 17, 2012 Given that a manned vehicle reached the deepest know part of Earth's oceans as early as 1960, I'd say it's much more feasible to explore the unknown parts of the ocean rather than keep sending a few rockets into space. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sync182 Posted February 19, 2012 Share Posted February 19, 2012 Given that a manned vehicle reached the deepest know part of Earth's oceans as early as 1960, I'd say it's much more feasible to explore the unknown parts of the ocean rather than keep sending a few rockets into space. I'm not aruging that. What I'm saying is that you still haven't told me at what point we should start exploring the vastness of space: do we start now, when we still have the resources to get somewhere; or do we wait until Earth's resources have been all but consumed and it's really too late to start because we have nothing to explore them with and by golly we should have done this two hundred years ago? Earth's resources are finite - they will not last forever. If you wait too long, there will be no resources to explore space with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ita Posted February 19, 2012 Share Posted February 19, 2012 If you want an exact time frame on when we should be exploiting outer space (note the difference between exploration and finding means to actually bring home and make use of the resources that are floating around in space), I'm going to have to speculate and say that's decades, if not a hundred years away in the future. There are massive obstacles to overcome, among them constructing vessels that are not only fast enough to not make the trip into space last several years but also large enough to bring home a usable quantity of whatever resources are out there. The oceans are much more immediately accessible and while we shouldn't rely too much on fossil/non-renewable fuels they're pretty much the only option available at the moment. The oceans floors are vast and unexamined and might hold enough oil to keep civilisation going long enough for us to research other more viable energy sources, extra-terrestrial or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hoofhearted4 Posted February 19, 2012 Share Posted February 19, 2012 or, or....we do both Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marharth Posted February 19, 2012 Share Posted February 19, 2012 (edited) Given that a manned vehicle reached the deepest know part of Earth's oceans as early as 1960, I'd say it's much more feasible to explore the unknown parts of the ocean rather than keep sending a few rockets into space. I'm not aruging that. What I'm saying is that you still haven't told me at what point we should start exploring the vastness of space: do we start now, when we still have the resources to get somewhere; or do we wait until Earth's resources have been all but consumed and it's really too late to start because we have nothing to explore them with and by golly we should have done this two hundred years ago? Earth's resources are finite - they will not last forever. If you wait too long, there will be no resources to explore space with.We need to use our resources for things that seriously matter. Such as researching the things we actually need to explore the universe. Or using them for everyday life. To explore the entire universe we need multiple things. 1. We need a renewable energy source for long distance travel. Nuclear power is the best we have, but a manned craft won't be able to travel the universe powered with that.2. We need a craft that can help us travel long distances at a lower cost then now.3. We need enough people that can be trained for these kinds of things.4. We need to be in a time were a space race or going to space in general won't cause political issues. Edited February 19, 2012 by marharth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeyYou Posted February 19, 2012 Share Posted February 19, 2012 Given that a manned vehicle reached the deepest know part of Earth's oceans as early as 1960, I'd say it's much more feasible to explore the unknown parts of the ocean rather than keep sending a few rockets into space. I'm not aruging that. What I'm saying is that you still haven't told me at what point we should start exploring the vastness of space: do we start now, when we still have the resources to get somewhere; or do we wait until Earth's resources have been all but consumed and it's really too late to start because we have nothing to explore them with and by golly we should have done this two hundred years ago? Earth's resources are finite - they will not last forever. If you wait too long, there will be no resources to explore space with.We need to use our resources for things that seriously matter. Such as researching the things we actually need to explore the universe. Or using them for everyday life. To explore the entire universe we need multiple things. 1. We need a renewable energy source for long distance travel. Nuclear power is the best we have, but a manned craft won't be able to travel the universe powered with that.2. We need a craft that can help us travel long distances at a lower cost then now.3. We need enough people that can be trained for these kinds of things.4. We need to be in a time were a space race won't cause politic issues. Not to mention a drive system that would allow us to cover the vast interstellar distances in something less than several lifetimes..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marharth Posted February 19, 2012 Share Posted February 19, 2012 Given that a manned vehicle reached the deepest know part of Earth's oceans as early as 1960, I'd say it's much more feasible to explore the unknown parts of the ocean rather than keep sending a few rockets into space. I'm not aruging that. What I'm saying is that you still haven't told me at what point we should start exploring the vastness of space: do we start now, when we still have the resources to get somewhere; or do we wait until Earth's resources have been all but consumed and it's really too late to start because we have nothing to explore them with and by golly we should have done this two hundred years ago? Earth's resources are finite - they will not last forever. If you wait too long, there will be no resources to explore space with.We need to use our resources for things that seriously matter. Such as researching the things we actually need to explore the universe. Or using them for everyday life. To explore the entire universe we need multiple things. 1. We need a renewable energy source for long distance travel. Nuclear power is the best we have, but a manned craft won't be able to travel the universe powered with that.2. We need a craft that can help us travel long distances at a lower cost then now.3. We need enough people that can be trained for these kinds of things.4. We need to be in a time were a space race won't cause politic issues. Not to mention a drive system that would allow us to cover the vast interstellar distances in something less than several lifetimes.....True, but it is still possible to explore the universe with other methods. If you could sustain a entire city inside of a spacecraft we could just travel long distances throughout generations. Of course this might not work very well in the long run, so we probably would require some method of traveling insanely fast without having to do what I just mentioned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeyYou Posted February 19, 2012 Share Posted February 19, 2012 Generation ships are an intriguing idea..... but, wouldn't really serve the purpose all that well. You would end up with a population that has never seen the 'outside', never lived on a planet surface, never had to compete with other life forms for survival.... etc. By the time they got to any habitable planet, they would have lost any skills required to survive as a colony. Nah, we need some flavor of FTL drive. Be it warp drive, worm holes, whathaveyou. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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