You're the one who started this with a Star Trek reference.

I can't tell you what will be invented /discovered in the future due to space exploration. I know we would not be communicating on computers without the space race. I know I would not be watching satellite TV without the space race. I know of many medical devices like CAT & MRI technologies that would not have been developed without the science learned in space. I know right now in zero gravity up in ISS there is experiments being conducted that could be human life changing . How do you know that the answers to human hunger won't be found there ?

Answers, perhaps, solutions No, not in a very long time. We need to get our mind around the fact that we are not going anywhere anytime soon, if ever. Mining the planets is a wonderful idea, we can throw our mulloch heaps all over the universe. The Moon is inhospitable, Mars is inhospitable, we haven't found any planets yet that have more than a fleeting chance of being hospitable, and even the ones we have observed are at incrediable distances when measured by our technology. The changes we need to make to human life is how to lift billions out of poverty without destroying the planet. We have become a virus and the planet will find a cure

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Originally Posted by paraclete

Answers, perhaps, solutions No, not in a very long time. We need to get our mind around the fact that we are not going anywhere anytime soon, if ever. mining the planets is a wonderful idea, we can throw our mulloch heaps all over the universe. The Moon is inhospitable, Mars is inhospitable, we haven't found any planets yet that have more than a fleeting chance of being hospitable, and even the ones we have observed are at incrediable distances when measured by our technology. The changes we need to make to human life is how to lift billions out of poverty without destroying the planet. We have become a virus and the planet will find a cure

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They have already found cures and they are in the works for putting them together. The moon is just the first step along the way. Its already on the table for placing solar panels on vast acerage of the moon and beaming that energy back to earth. An elevator to the skies is in the works as that would reduce the cost per pound for shipping things into low earth orbit. More and more hurddles are being jumped as we speak. The sky has untold possibilities for the human race.

Yes pie in the sky, fantastic cost to produce very little and wait a long time for progress whereas there are places on Earth where vast solar arrays can be built right now and the best part is it provides local employment and cuts off the ability for one person/organisation/state to control the resource completely. You want solar arrays in space we can have them in Earth orbit in the form of mirrors beaming energy back in the form of heat. We need to give up the cult of space travel for the time being, realise we already have an effective model for space travel and move on.

Sky is the limit if we keep it moving in the right direction, and just keep working at it. You have to have a positive attitude.

I have a positive attitude Tal, the only reason we went to the Moon was the US wanted supremacy over USSR, it had nothing to do with progress. Even though we might have found useful minerals there, there is no plan to exploit it because it just isn't practical or cost effective with our level of technology. No doubt you will start a space race again, this time with China. But it is all grand standing. The ISS provides some opportunities for research that can't be done elsewhere but beyond that it is an expensive toy. I recall when I was young and we had great predictions of the exploration of space, essentially what we have done doesn't amount to very much in the light of those predictions. If you look at the model we are using it is the same as it was fifty years ago

Nothing wrong with exploring and competing, and playing with expensive toys. I grew up with the hope and dream of a space station to visit. Not ready to let that go yet Clete!!

Tal neither you or I will see space tourism in the form depicted in the film 2001 and it is highly unlikely the funds will be found to build such a vessel for a very long time. Yes the space station was an early dream, as were different forms of engine which could accelerate a vessel rapidly. Interestingly I watched a report on the space shuttle yesterday and the commentator stated that the shuttle could obtain a speed of 250,000 KMs an hour, Ah! If only, but wishfull thinking. I think that typifies the general public's understanding of progress thus far. Even that vessel designed fifty years ago was progress, but no attempts to continue development have been realised, there just isn't a goal that could drive it and you have to blame small minded politicians for lost opportunity, but as I have said before, we have bigger problems to solve.

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Originally Posted by paraclete

Tal neither you or I will see space tourism in the form depicted in the film 2001 and it is highly unlikely the funds will be found to build such a vessel for a very long time. Yes the space station was an early dream, as were different forms of engine which could accelerate a vessel rapidly. Interestingly I watched a report on the space shuttle yesterday and the commentator stated that the shuttle could obtain a speed of 250,000 KMs an hour, Ah! if only, but wishfull thinking. I think that typifies the general public's understanding of progress thus far. Even that vessel designed fifty years ago was progress, but no attempts to continue development have been realised, there just isn't a goal that could drive it and you have to blame small minded politicians for lost opportunity, but as I have said before, we have bigger problems to solve.

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Didn't one of your countrymen have a thing or two to do with this ?


http://www.virgingalactic.com/overview/spaceport/

It is already being built.

Forgive my ignorance Dad, but which of my countrymen are you referring to? Richard Branson is not one of my countrymen even though his organisation competes very well in the Australian aviation industry as it does in other markets

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Originally Posted by paraclete

Forgive my ignorance Dad, but which of my countrymen are you referring to? Richard Branson is not one of my countrymen even though his organisation competes very well in the Australian aviation industry as it does in other markets

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Sorry, for some reason thought he was an Ausie :)

Must be the entrepreneural spirit, no, it's a long time since we spawned a giant in the aviation industry, but we have had the odd austronaut, there was talk of a space port on Cape York but of course that is all pre GFC & AGW

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Originally Posted by paraclete

Tal neither you or I will see space tourism in the form depicted in the film 2001 and it is highly unlikely the funds will be found to build such a vessel for a very long time. .

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http://www.space.com/7804-private-sp...r-reality.html

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Originally Posted by tomder55

Private Space Stations Edge Closer to Reality | Space.com

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Fantasy at best, it's great to fool the private investors but would you really go up there in one of those

Would I ? Absolutely ! I don't think they are in the business of killing off their customers.

Not intentionally but then nor was NASA

Skydiver breaks sound barrier - Technology & science - Science | NBC News

Where there is a will there is a way.

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Originally Posted by talaniman

Skydiver breaks sound barrier - Technology & science - Science | NBC News

Where there is a will there is a way.

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Yes a an excellent feat, not a big future in this form of travel

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Originally Posted by paraclete

yes a an excellant feat, not a big future in this form of travel

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Actually yes there is. When you consider what the parachute did for airplane travel. This too could provide some protection for space flight. Now in making the jump we know its possible.

I can't recall any time I was told my parachute was under my seat. Air travel would decrease dramatically if travellers made frequent use of parachutes. I doubt space travellers would want to drop from a great height without a great more protection that what is afforded by a pressure suit.

No practicall applications leave a lot to be desired