Help save planetary exploration

[greatspaceadventure]

I've noticed some people keep pointing out that we need to focus on what is going on here on earth as opposed to "fancy, future space travel". as an avid cosmonautical fanatic, I have to say that the concept of colonizing space is not mutually exclusive from bettering life on earth. there are many things to discover from terraforming mars, from the fact that remains of water were found there to the fact that it doesn't have an atmosphere, which reflects a possible direction earth may be headed towards in the near future (near, here, used as a relative term).

obviously I'm not saying FORGET EARTH LET'S JUST GO ON SPACE ADVENTURES AND SHIT but, you know, why can't we instigate advancement as a species both through terral and spacial progress?

[Phaze]

A thought came to mind. If people think exploring other planets is a waste since problems on Earth need solving, what about Asteroid mining? There are countless riches in those (relatively nearby) balls of rock and the low/nonexistent gravity would mean that sending these precious metals back to Earth would be easy, once the initial investment of sending the necessary equipment up got satisfied. Heck, operations could potentially be expanded via the mined materials themselves.

That alone would solve countless problems involving mines in poorer countries with terrible working conditions and simultaneously expand useful/life-saving technology for use among larger populations for less.

[Gors]

obviously I'm not saying FORGET EARTH LET'S JUST GO ON SPACE ADVENTURES AND SHIT but, you know, why can't we instigate advancement as a species both through terral and spacial progress?

I said this too in one of my posts, I believe, but if it runs in a second plan, I'm ok with this.

It's just because the way I am, I can't be as enthusiastic than you guys because my priorities are different, just that. I know that good things will come from exploring other planets, but it doesn't sound that exciting to me.

Maybe it's my pace.

[Cshad]

I don't understand how we can't fund projects that get us on mars while also solving the issues we have on Earth at the same time.

You saw the statistics for how much money was spent on the Mars Rover over the course of 8 years. If everyone that could would stop being so selfish we'd have solved most of the issues on this planet while simultaneously funding our technological advancement and it wouldn't cost anyone more than the spare change in their pocket(s).

[Sol]

Putting humans on Mars will almost certainly help us solve issues back on Earth anyway. If we can create habitats on a ball of rock and dust with almost no atmosphere, or terraform it completely, think of what we could do with that information back on Earth, think of the environments we could save or help grow or create outright. Accomplishing pretty much anything in such extreme conditions makes everything in between much easier and more achievable.

[Helmo]

Have you guys actually sent in any letters to help save the project? If not please do~

theres links in the first post

maybe even share the news with friends

[Gors]

I've sent a letter to support it. Let's hope it'll bring us good results c:

[Rai]

I imagine the first caveman to develop a bow and arrow was called an idiot by all his kin who were just fine with spears and handaxes. I can't believe how many people here think space exploration is a waste. The only difference is in scale.

The "let's fix Earth first" argument is bullshit. If we can (eventually) move our species off the planet, or at least the industrialized cultures, you know what that means? Earth will have a chance to recover. The third-world countries, meanwhile, will have an opportunity to grow, and industrialize in tandem with the lessons we've learned from the mistakes we've made, and create a society that can potentially respect nature.

The funding argument is bullshit. How many professional athletes today are making millions a year to play a fucking game? Those dickbags can live with a pay cut, considering they're still getting paid to play a game.

You know what putting a colony on the moon or on Mars will do for us? We'll be forced to develop newer, more efficient tech. From the moon, we'll be in a better, significantly more efficient position to both colonize Mars and observe our universe (not having an atmosphere helps greatly with that stuff). That'll help Earth far more immensely than sitting around and bickering about how to "fix" things. There will always be dissenters, people will always fight and disagree. We need to be moving on in spite of them, not sticking around because of them.

[Mutsukki]

The "let's fix Earth first" argument is bullshit. If we can (eventually) move our species off the planet, or at least the industrialized cultures, you know what that means? Earth will have a chance to recover. The third-world countries, meanwhile, will have an opportunity to grow, and industrialize in tandem with the lessons we've learned from the mistakes we've made, and create a society that can potentially respect nature.

One of the reason's I think this is a bad idea. So, instead of humanity changing it's values, they'll just make the same mistakes elsewhere and stop oppressing their own here, huh.

Like I said on posts before, this is not about being against space exploration, more about priorities in the first place. A simple example would be of a student that's trying to skip his grade, even though he probably knows very little about what he's studying right now.

[Rai]

The "let's fix Earth first" argument is bullshit. If we can (eventually) move our species off the planet, or at least the industrialized cultures, you know what that means? Earth will have a chance to recover. The third-world countries, meanwhile, will have an opportunity to grow, and industrialize in tandem with the lessons we've learned from the mistakes we've made, and create a society that can potentially respect nature.

One of the reason's I think this is a bad idea. So, instead of humanity changing it's values, they'll just make the same mistakes elsewhere and stop oppressing their own here, huh.

Like I said on posts before, this is not about being against space exploration, more about priorities in the first place. A simple example would be of a student that's trying to skip his grade, even though he probably knows very little about what he's studying right now.

The issue is that oppression will always happen in spite of technology. If you want to wait for everyone to get along before we colonize space, well, we won't colonize space at all. We'll go extinct before we all move as a single unit. That doesn't mean we shouldn't aim high and reach as far as we can, because in spite of oppression, we will still always have those precious few enlightened minds. If that student is capable of skipping his grade, why shouldn't he?

[Phaze]

I see space exploration/colonization more as two people simultaneously working on something, sharing notes.

If one of them suffers a catastrophic event that results in the permanent loss of all data - guess what, the other person has this and can restore the other guy's data!

Very simplistic analogy, but still. I might not care much for Humanity but I think it'd be a terrible thing to lose to an event like a meteor