Space, the Final Frontier: It Gazed Into My Open Refractor

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DrSunshine: Mar 23, 2009; Did I just say that out loud~~?!!!

This infographic is from the Congressional Budget Office of the USA.

You can find an extremely detailed table of how much money each Federal agency gets from the government publishing office.

This site probably uses that to summarize the data here:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/200386/budget-of-the-us-government-for-fiscal-year-2012-by-agencies/

The Departments of Labor and HUD both have twice the budget of NASA. The Department of Transportation has more than 3 times the budget of NASA. The Department of Veterans Affairs has almost one hundred times the budget of NASA. Before demanding that NASA be defunded, one should instead ask - which other agencies of the federal government have even more money than they do, and what could be done about them? It is a wonderful thought that you should take the entire trillions of dollars budget of the US Federal Government and give it all to the EPA to fight the impending climate apocalypse, but the unfortunate reality of government is that it needs to spend money to do other government functions as well.

DrSunshine fucked around with this message at 15:27 on Dec 5, 2018

# ? Dec 5, 2018 15:24

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# ? May 12, 2024 15:09

Paradoxish: Dec 19, 2003; Will you stop going crazy in there?

Kerning Chameleon posted:

I know, I know, the argument for the practical benefits of space research get thrown around a lot. I admit it, GPS is pretty kickin' rad, although I find velcro and Tang of all things rather vapid developments that certainly weren't worth the sheer amount of R&D dollars put into them.

But I must ask, what has space done for us lately? I'm serious, please tell me how space exploration developments in the past decade are going to improve me, my life, personally, going forward? Or the rest of society? Climate change monitoring is the only thing I can thing of, and that's space exploitation, not exploration. Cold hard truth is, we've hit the Law of Diminishing Returns when it comes to getting the bang for our bucks in space.

I'm just gonna say it: we need to defund space research and reallocate the funds toward public works and reparations. Yes, I know, military budget. And I agree, cut that too. But ALSO redirect space funding, because every dollar counts in averting a racially charged nuclear climate apocalypse. As Eisenhower so eloquently put it when he vetoed the Apollo project the first go round: "Every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed." Those words echo with resounding, inescapable truth even today.

Yes, some scientific studies have proven societally important in the past. But personally, I think some sciences, including space research, aren't pulling their practical weight these days in the cause of creating a more equitable and prosperous society as much as they used to. And if a science isn't aiding in the progressive cause, they need to shut up, cut the panhandling and get on board with the folks producing real, tangible benefits for the common people. Because if you're not actively help progress society in a real, applied, tangible manner, you're an active detriment by siphoning off direly needed funds and personnel.

My favorite part of this post is that you're terrified of a climate apocalypse so you want to defund an agency responsible for providing a huge amount of climate data and Earth science in general. Or do you just not actually understand what NASA does?

# ? Dec 5, 2018 15:47

friendbot2000: May 1, 2011

Paradoxish posted:

My favorite part of this post is that you're terrified of a climate apocalypse so you want to defund an agency responsible for providing a huge amount of climate data and Earth science in general. Or do you just not actually understand what NASA does?

Kerning has already established that he pretty much loathes science in general in other threads. His hatred of NASA is especially weird not only because he has this strange view that colonizing uninhabited planets equates to whitey colonizing Africa, but that everything NASA does in the fields of physics, astronomy, astrophysics, and geoscience is somehow useless and not worth the money.

Edit: He also doesn't seem to understand that breakthroughs are often discovered by accident while looking for other poo poo and contribute to scientific understanding as a whole which aids his "progressive science". It is also really telling taht the only accomplishments he can equate to NASA are rockets, GPS, velcro, and Tang....

P.S. Velcro and Tang was not invented by NASA.

Here is what NASA has done for the people Kerning:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_spinoff_technologies

friendbot2000 fucked around with this message at 16:06 on Dec 5, 2018

# ? Dec 5, 2018 15:59

Ashcans: Jan 2, 2006; Let's do the space-time warp again!

When you are hand-wringing about NASA's budget, please keep in mind that the Joint Strike Fighter program is going to cost over $400 billion (so far!), with an endpoint that it produces a murder machine plagued by failures and problems that no one seems to have particularly needed in the first place. That is just one dumb program in the entire massive sprawling defense industry. If the options were spending $18 billion on NASA or using it to serve the most needy, I would 100% choose the latter even though I loving love space programs. But there is no political path for that to happen - removing NASA funding would just funnel that money back into other, less useful, projects for dumber poo poo, or just write it off in tax breaks for corporations, the wealthy, etc. More than likely it would just vanish in the shuffle because the federal budget is $4.4 trillion, so you're talking about a fraction of a percent.

Plus the money spent on NASA isn't actually fired into space, it's spent on labor and products and provides employment to 80,000 people. There are numerous worse ways we could spend that money, and all of them are more likely than using it to actually help people.

# ? Dec 5, 2018 16:05

friendbot2000: May 1, 2011

Some quotes regarding inventions that wouldn't exist without NASA for the dumb people who think NASA's budget should be cut:

quote:

Water purification
NASA engineers are collaborating with qualified companies to develop systems intended to sustain the astronauts living on the International Space Station and future Moon and space missions. This system turns wastewater from respiration, sweat, and urine into drinkable water. By combining the benefits of chemical adsorption, ion exchange, and ultra-filtration processes, this technology can yield safe, drinkable water from the most challenging sources, such as in underdeveloped regions where well water may be heavily contaminated.[10][33]

Solar Cells
Single-crystal silicon solar cells are now widely available at low cost. The technology behind these solar devices�which provide up to 50% more power than conventional solar cells�originated with the efforts of a NASA-sponsored 28-member coalition forming the Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology (ERAST) Alliance. ERAST�s goal was to develop remotely piloted aircraft, intended to fly unmanned at high altitudes for days at a time and requiring advanced solar power sources that did not add weight. As a result, SunPower Corporation created advanced silicon-based cells for terrestrial or airborne applications.[11]:66�67

Pollution remediation
NASA�s microencapsulating technology enabled the creation of a "Petroleum Remediation Product," which safely cleans petroleum-based pollutants from water. The PRP uses thousands of microcapsules�tiny balls of beeswax with hollow centers. Water cannot penetrate the microcapsule�s cell, but oil is absorbed into the beeswax spheres as they float on the water�s surface. Contaminating chemical compounds that originally come from crude oil (such as fuels, motor oils, or petroleum hydrocarbons) are caught before they settle, limiting damage to ocean beds.[19][29]

Landmine Removal
Thiokol has used surplus rocket fuel through an agreement with NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center used the fuel to produce a flare that can safely destroy landmines. The fuel that is left unused from a launch will become a solid, which cannot be reused but can be used as an ingredient needed to create the Demining Device flare. The Demining Device flare uses a battery-triggered electric match to ignite and neutralize land mines in the field without detonation. The flare uses the solid rocket fuel to burn a hole in a mine's case and burns away the explosive contents so the mine can be disarmed without hazard.[18]

Fire-resistant reinforcement
Built and designed by Avco Corporation, the Apollo heat shield was coated with a material whose purpose was to burn and thus dissipate energy during reentry while charring, to form a protective coating to block heat penetration. NASA subsequently funded Avco�s development of other applications of the heat shield, such as fire-retardant paints and foams for aircraft, which led to an intumescent epoxy material, which expands in volume when exposed to heat or flames, acting as an insulating barrier and dissipating heat through burn-off. Further innovations include steel coatings devised to make high-rise buildings and public structures safer by swelling to provide a tough and stable insulating layer over the steel for up to 4 hours of fire protection, ultimately to slow building collapse and provide more time for escape.[19]

Firefighting equipment
Firefighting equipment in the United States is based on lightweight materials developed for the U.S. Space Program. NASA and the National Bureau of Standards created a lightweight breathing system including face mask, frame, harness, and air bottle, using an aluminum composite material developed by NASA for use on rocket casings. The broadest fire-related technology transfer is the breathing apparatus for protection from smoke inhalation injury.

Additionally, NASA�s inductorless electronic circuit technology led to lower-cost, more rugged, short-range two-way radio now used by firefighters. NASA also helped develop a specialized mask weighing less than 3 ounces (85 g) to protect the physically impaired from injuries to the face and head, as well as flexible, heat-resistant materials�developed to protect the space shuttle on reentry�which are being used both by the military and commercially in suits for municipal and aircraft-rescue firefighters.[20][21][22][18]

Shock Absorbers for buildings
With NASA funding, Taylor Devices Inc. developed shock absorbers that could safely remove the fuel and electrical connectors from the space shuttles during launch. These absorbers are being used as seismic shock absorbers to protect buildings from earthquakes in places like Tokyo and San Francisco.[23]

They also pioneered the tech to be used in MRIs and CAT Scan machines, a third of all cellphone cameras use NASA tech, and so, so much more. But please Kerning, tell us more about how NASA is part of the Bougie oppression to exploit the proletariot and is not serious about science that helps everyone.

Edit: And before someone Kramers in and decries the military application of landmine removal, that technology is used heavily in Laos and other former warzones to prevent civilians and children from being blown up by landmines that litter the landscape.

friendbot2000 fucked around with this message at 16:20 on Dec 5, 2018

# ? Dec 5, 2018 16:13

DrSunshine: Mar 23, 2009; Did I just say that out loud~~?!!!

friendbot2000 posted:

Kerning has already established that he pretty much loathes science in general in other threads. His hatred of NASA is especially weird not only because he has this strange view that colonizing uninhabited planets equates to whitey colonizing Africa, but that everything NASA does in the fields of physics, astronomy, astrophysics, and geoscience is somehow useless and not worth the money.

I have the complete 180 degree opposite view. I think that to resign ourselves to eventual extinction in 400-500 million years would make it all pointless and terribly sad. What the Fermi Paradox says to me is that we are, as far as we know right now, quite alone in the universe, which makes Earthly life very very precious. We are one gamma ray burst away from a cold, dead, lifeless, thoughtless universe that will have no meaning or purpose whatsoever after we are gone. The evolution of sentient life on Earth brought into being a new layer of existence, superimposed onto the physical reality -- the sphere of the experienced world. Qualia, the ineffable units of experienced life, came into being as soon as there were beings complex enough to have experiences. And to me, the fact of experiences existing, justifies itself.

In that respect, and assuming based on our present knowledge of the world, it is our moral duty to ensure that terrestrial life continues, and to establish as many habitats for terrestrial life as possible, as backups. As long as thermodynamic potential gradients exist in the universe, we civilization-building life forms should ensure that they are taken advantage of to foster habitats for life forms. I think that we should make every effort to convert every single speck of matter in the universe into places for Earthly life to exist.

# ? Dec 5, 2018 16:24

Paradoxish: Dec 19, 2003; Will you stop going crazy in there?

friendbot2000 posted:

Some quotes regarding inventions that wouldn't exist without NASA for the dumb people who think NASA's budget should be cut:

I've never really been a fan of touting all of the peripheral inventions that have come out of space travel because it isn't really an argument in favor of NASA or space research in general. Lots of research goes in unexpected directions and lots of inventions end up having uses other than what they were intended for, so really you're just making a kind of vague "science good!" argument. I don't think anyone who is seriously opposed to funding space travel is going to be swayed by this kind of thing.

A much, much better point in my opinion is that satellites are basically the best tool we have for just about anything that involves studying the Earth. Do you care about the climate? Do you care about food scarcity and famine? How about water management? Biodiversity? Earth science is a core part of NASA's mission and the number one reason why you can be sure that anyone who says that they want to defund NASA to "solve problems on Earth" has no idea what they're talking about.

# ? Dec 5, 2018 16:31

friendbot2000: May 1, 2011

Paradoxish posted:

I've never really been a fan of touting all of the peripheral inventions that have come out of space travel because it isn't really an argument in favor of NASA or space research in general. Lots of research goes in unexpected directions and lots of inventions end up having uses other than what they were intended for, so really you're just making a kind of vague "science good!" argument. I don't think anyone who is seriously opposed to funding space travel is going to be swayed by this kind of thing.

A much, much better point in my opinion is that satellites are basically the best tool we have for just about anything that involves studying the Earth. Do you care about the climate? Do you care about food scarcity and famine? How about water management? Biodiversity? Earth science is a core part of NASA's mission and the number one reason why you can be sure that anyone who says that they want to defund NASA to "solve problems on Earth" has no idea what they're talking about.

It was mostly a rebuke of Kernings claim of NASA only achieving vapid vanity projects.

# ? Dec 5, 2018 16:32

Kerning Chameleon: Apr 8, 2015; by Cyrano4747

DrSunshine posted:

In that respect, and assuming based on our present knowledge of the world, it is our moral duty to ensure that terrestrial life continues, and to establish as many habitats for terrestrial life as possible, as backups. As long as thermodynamic potential gradients exist in the universe, we civilization-building life forms should ensure that they are taken advantage of to foster habitats for life forms. I think that we should make every effort to convert every single speck of matter in the universe into places for Earthly life to exist.

See, when I rail against space colonialism, this is the exact sort of poo poo I'm talking about. This is unbelievably narrow-minded, selfish, and geocentric thinking, believing our variety of life is the only valid kind and thus inherently special and deserving of expansion beyond its natural boundries.

but no, tell me again how introducing cane toads to australia was actually cool and good

# ? Dec 5, 2018 17:17

Flowers For Algeria: Dec 3, 2005; I humbly offer my services as forum inquisitor. There is absolutely no way I would abuse this power in any way.

Can�t speak for technological breakthroughs because it�s pretty likely that they would have occurred anyway, but space exploration with probes is very cool because it provided us with a very nice documentary called Death Dive to Saturn that is a delight to watch while blazed out of your mind.

# ? Dec 5, 2018 17:20

DrSunshine: Mar 23, 2009; Did I just say that out loud~~?!!!

Kerning Chameleon posted:

See, when I rail against space colonialism, this is the exact sort of poo poo I'm talking about. This is unbelievably narrow-minded, selfish, and geocentric thinking, believing our variety of life is the only valid kind and thus inherently special and deserving of expansion beyond its natural boundries.

but no, tell me again how introducing cane toads to australia was actually cool and good

B-But we don't know that any other life out there exists right now. :psyduck:

EDIT: Until proven otherwise, we should act as though there's nothing out there. If we do find some microbes or whatever living on Europa then of course we should protect it and not damage the conditions under which it grew. Why are you trying to put words into my mouth?

v- Oh my god. :sigh:

-v

DrSunshine fucked around with this message at 17:26 on Dec 5, 2018

# ? Dec 5, 2018 17:22

Kerning Chameleon: Apr 8, 2015; by Cyrano4747

DrSunshine posted:

B-But we don't know that any other life out there exists right now.

So that gives us the right to just blast bacteria out blindly, and assume nobody on some distant world will be harmed?

Privilege. Privilege never changes.

# ? Dec 5, 2018 17:24

AGGGGH BEES: Apr 28, 2018; by LITERALLY AN ADMIN

Kerning Chameleon posted:

See, when I rail against space colonialism, this is the exact sort of poo poo I'm talking about. This is unbelievably narrow-minded, selfish, and geocentric thinking, believing our variety of life is the only valid kind and thus inherently special and deserving of expansion beyond its natural boundries.

but no, tell me again how introducing cane toads to australia was actually cool and good

Considering the natural boundaries of humanity before tools and fire involved living to age 30 and then being eaten by a jaguar or dying to a tiny cut that got infected I think I can safely say that you're full of poo poo.

The second part of your post is also garbage because oher than Earth, no object in the solar system has an ecosystem, much less life of any kind. Neither do any other solar systems with planets that anyone has ever managed to find. So our variety of life is special by definition, because no one's found any other kind.

# ? Dec 5, 2018 17:28

Kerning Chameleon: Apr 8, 2015; by Cyrano4747

AGGGGH BEES posted:

Considering the natural boundaries of humanity before tools and fire involved living to age 30 and then being eaten by a jaguar or dying to a tiny cut that got infected I think I can safely say that you're full of poo poo.

Yes, and look how well that turned out for the greater biosphere a few dozen thousand years later.

# ? Dec 5, 2018 17:31

Nail Rat: Dec 29, 2000; You maniacs! You blew it up! God damn you! God damn you all to hell!!

AGGGGH BEES posted:

Considering the natural boundaries of humanity before tools and fire involved living to age 30 and then being eaten by a jaguar or dying to a tiny cut that got infected I think I can safely say that you're full of poo poo.

The second part of your post is also garbage because oher than Earth, no object in the solar system has an ecosystem, much less life of any kind.

That we know of, to be fair. It's highly unlikely any other object in the solar system has life, but it's possible with some of Jupiter and Saturn's moons.

# ? Dec 5, 2018 17:47

my dad: Oct 17, 2012; this shall be humorous

silence_kit posted:

He/she received the following responses in this thread:

silence_kit, you're not speaking on The Butcher's behalf, they can loving post, you are trying to stir poo poo.

Paradoxish posted:

I've never really been a fan of touting all of the peripheral inventions that have come out of space travel because it isn't really an argument in favor of NASA or space research in general. Lots of research goes in unexpected directions and lots of inventions end up having uses other than what they were intended for, so really you're just making a kind of vague "science good!" argument. I don't think anyone who is seriously opposed to funding space travel is going to be swayed by this kind of thing.

A much, much better point in my opinion is that satellites are basically the best tool we have for just about anything that involves studying the Earth. Do you care about the climate? Do you care about food scarcity and famine? How about water management? Biodiversity? Earth science is a core part of NASA's mission and the number one reason why you can be sure that anyone who says that they want to defund NASA to "solve problems on Earth" has no idea what they're talking about.

Yeah, the invention list reminds me a bit of how people use inventions resulting from a war to talk about a war as justified. But it's hard to overstate how useful sattelites have been. Although that is a bit beyond just NASA, and is a project involving every space agency on Earth.

# ? Dec 5, 2018 18:05

Nail Rat: Dec 29, 2000; You maniacs! You blew it up! God damn you! God damn you all to hell!!

One of the best things about advancements in reusable rockets is actually the increase in possibilities for earth science i.e. using satellites to study the climate of earth itself. As launching them gets cheaper, more possibilities open up. But the current administration is seeking to crush earth science in NASA's budgets so this may be a moot point.

edit: beaten on this page really

Nail Rat fucked around with this message at 18:52 on Dec 5, 2018

# ? Dec 5, 2018 18:35

suck my woke dick: Oct 10, 2012; I CANNOT EJACULATE WITHOUT SEEING NATIVE AMERICANS BRUTALISED!

Put this cum-loving slave on ignore immediately!

Kerning Chameleon posted:

Privilege. Privilege never changes.

please go back to tumblr while the rest of the world manages to successfully distinguish between processing natives in colonies and oppressing rocks on mars

# ? Dec 5, 2018 19:50

suck my woke dick: Oct 10, 2012; I CANNOT EJACULATE WITHOUT SEEING NATIVE AMERICANS BRUTALISED!

Put this cum-loving slave on ignore immediately!

the complete absence of any awareness of the actual steps already being taken to avoid dumping bacteria all over landing sites plus the general stupidity of �check your orbital privilege :smuggo:

� as a serious argument makes me want to fund a nuclear pulse propelled space battleship which never does anything but putter around cislunar space as a giant middle finger to keming chameleon

# ? Dec 5, 2018 19:57

friendbot2000: May 1, 2011

suck my woke dick posted:

the complete absence of any awareness of the actual steps already being taken to avoid dumping bacteria all over landing sites plus the general stupidity of �check your orbital privilege � as a serious argument makes me want to fund a nuclear pulse propelled space battleship which never does anything but putter around cislunar space as a giant middle finger to keming chameleon

Words cannot express how much I love this burn. Language doesn't cover it.

# ? Dec 5, 2018 20:01

The Butcher: Apr 20, 2005; Well, at least we tried.; Nap Ghost

Tegmark's book is a very good read, thanks for the recommend thread. I'm learning a lot of poo poo!

He's got a good writing style, it's quite approachable so far.

Not into the really complex brain melting poo poo yet, but hopefully I'll still be able to keep up with him.

Cosmology is a trip mannnn.

# ? Dec 5, 2018 22:02

BardoTheConsumer: Apr 6, 2017; I posted my food for USPOL Thanksgiving!

I for one think that, once we can be reasonablly sure there isnt anything alive on Mars, we ought to be exporting extremophiles.

Actually, if Universe Sandbox II has taught me anything, it's that diverting a few pluto-sized kuiper belt objects into Mars would make it pretty habitable within a (geologically speaking) pretty short timescale.

I see no downsides to this plan.

BardoTheConsumer fucked around with this message at 23:03 on Dec 5, 2018

# ? Dec 5, 2018 22:12

Lightning Knight: Feb 24, 2012; Pray for Answer

BardoTheConsumer posted:

I for one think that, once we can be reasonablly sure there isnt anything alive on Mars, we ought to be exporting extremophiles.

Didn't we find some space microbes on Mars? I seem to recall headlines about this a few years back.

# ? Dec 5, 2018 22:51

BardoTheConsumer: Apr 6, 2017; I posted my food for USPOL Thanksgiving!

Lightning Knight posted:

Didn't we find some space microbes on Mars? I seem to recall headlines about this a few years back.

Iirc we found something that might have been fossilized microbial life, but also could have been something else. It was never totally clear. If we found living organisms on Mars it would be A Pretty Big Deal

# ? Dec 5, 2018 23:04

Owlofcreamcheese: May 22, 2005; Can't post for 9 years!; Buglord

Lightning Knight posted:

Didn't we find some space microbes on Mars? I seem to recall headlines about this a few years back.

Do you think the discovery of LIFE ON OTHER PLANETS would be some minor footnote you couldn't remember? That would be nearly one of the largest discoveries in all of human history.

# ? Dec 5, 2018 23:09

MSDOS KAPITAL: Jun 25, 2018

Don't any of you idiots read the paper jfc :doh:

yes we found aliens on Mars OP. They're like us except they got weirdo foreheads and poo poo.

# ? Dec 5, 2018 23:18

Lightning Knight: Feb 24, 2012; Pray for Answer

Owlofcreamcheese posted:

Do you think the discovery of LIFE ON OTHER PLANETS would be some minor footnote you couldn't remember? That would be nearly one of the largest discoveries in all of human history.

I think if that life was in the form of microscopic organisms people would probably dismiss it as not flashy enough to be worth the effort.

# ? Dec 5, 2018 23:22

The Butcher: Apr 20, 2005; Well, at least we tried.; Nap Ghost

Well yeah, you can't get freaky with microscopic organisms.

Aliens gotta be at least big enough for us to have sex with to be a real game changer.

# ? Dec 5, 2018 23:28

DrSunshine: Mar 23, 2009; Did I just say that out loud~~?!!!

Man, but what if we sent an interstellar probe to the closest exoplanetary system and like 900 years later it gets back to us and it turns out anime is real there? What then???

# ? Dec 5, 2018 23:40

The Butcher: Apr 20, 2005; Well, at least we tried.; Nap Ghost

DrSunshine posted:

Man, but what if we sent an interstellar probe to the closest exoplanetary system and like 900 years later it gets back to us and it turns out anime is real there? What then???

Humanity would finally face an external threat great enough to overcome our differences, and unite us as one people, to figure out how to blow up their star.

# ? Dec 5, 2018 23:45

Owlofcreamcheese: May 22, 2005; Can't post for 9 years!; Buglord

Lightning Knight posted:

I think if that life was in the form of microscopic organisms people would probably dismiss it as not flashy enough to be worth the effort.

I'm sure someone would? But that would be an ongoing science news story as each and every single detail came out for decades. And would like, dominate all study in whole branches of biology and direct the entire future of the space program.

# ? Dec 5, 2018 23:52

Lightning Knight: Feb 24, 2012; Pray for Answer

I think this is what I was remembering.

https://www.amnh.org/learn-teach/curriculum-collections/cosmic-horizons/case-study-fossil-microbes-on-mars

# ? Dec 5, 2018 23:55

WAR CRIME GIGOLO: Oct 3, 2012; The Hague
tryna get me
for these glutes

Lightning Knight posted:

I think if that life was in the form of microscopic organisms people would probably dismiss it as not flashy enough to be worth the effort.

Hasnt this alredy happened with numerous micro life discoveries or "high propabilities of life "?never flashy enough for anyone to care about

---

The main thing with reusable rockets is automated supply chains. We can automate a car. A train a bus a plane to carry cargo from x to z. The less human interaction with getting poo poo from x to z means more focus spent on production of things. if we could have robotic mining facilities that shoot rockets full of materials back to earth autonomously we can eliminate scarcity much quicker. Even getting a semi truck to run 24/7 semi autonomously would bolster our flow. We rely on car and trains for transport of goods,but even then there is a ton of idle time. Your car sits in a lot for 95% of its life. Semi trucks arent quite 95% but 40 or 50 roughly? I mean methed up humans can run trucks for 24 hrs + but there is obviously a diminishing return.

# ? Dec 6, 2018 00:16

Owlofcreamcheese: May 22, 2005; Can't post for 9 years!; Buglord

LeoMarr posted:

Hasnt this alredy happened with numerous micro life discoveries or "high propabilities of life "?never flashy enough for anyone to care about

Aliens have never been discovered. how can multiple people in this thread be cloudy on "wait, do aliens exist or not, I forget"?

# ? Dec 6, 2018 00:27

Kerning Chameleon: Apr 8, 2015; by Cyrano4747

LeoMarr posted:

Hasnt this alredy happened with numerous micro life discoveries or "high propabilities of life "?never flashy enough for anyone to care about

---

The main thing with reusable rockets is automated supply chains. We can automate a car. A train a bus a plane to carry cargo from x to z. The less human interaction with getting poo poo from x to z means more focus spent on production of things. if we could have robotic mining facilities that shoot rockets full of materials back to earth autonomously we can eliminate scarcity much quicker. Even getting a semi truck to run 24/7 semi autonomously would bolster our flow. We rely on car and trains for transport of goods,but even then there is a ton of idle time. Your car sits in a lot for 95% of its life. Semi trucks arent quite 95% but 40 or 50 roughly? I mean methed up humans can run trucks for 24 hrs + but there is obviously a diminishing return.

if you think the exorbitant cost will ever allow asteroid mining with back-to-earth export to actually happen

Even in the extremely unlikely event we start mining asteroids, that poo poo would just stay up there for further space poo poo development. Easier to just keep strip mining Eden, and render unto Luna that which is Luna's.

# ? Dec 6, 2018 00:30

friendbot2000: May 1, 2011

Kerning Chameleon posted:

if you think the exorbitant cost will ever allow asteroid mining with back-to-earth export to actually happen

Even in the extremely unlikely event we start mining asteroids, that poo poo would just stay up there for further space poo poo development. Easier to just keep strip mining Eden, and render unto Luna that which is Luna's.

You are like one of those people who said the personal computer would never catch on because of the exorbitant cost except infinitely more wrong and annoying

# ? Dec 6, 2018 00:40

Hungry: Jul 14, 2006

DrSunshine posted:

Until proven otherwise, we should act as though there's nothing out there.

I'm only half-joking when I say that's an incredibly bad idea but not for the reasons you're arguing.

Hello thread! I am the one crazy person who thinks that Active-SETI/METI is incredibly dangerous and stupid because if we're wrong about the answer to the Fermi paradox we'll be dead before we know it.

# ? Dec 6, 2018 01:24

Nail Rat: Dec 29, 2000; You maniacs! You blew it up! God damn you! God damn you all to hell!!

Lightning Knight posted:

Didn't we find some space microbes on Mars? I seem to recall headlines about this a few years back.

No they found organic compounds ie compounds that could be the building blocks for life like that on Earth. Not actually any life or direct evidence of it yet.

# ? Dec 6, 2018 01:29

DrSunshine: Mar 23, 2009; Did I just say that out loud~~?!!!

Hungry posted:

I'm only half-joking when I say that's an incredibly bad idea but not for the reasons you're arguing.

Hello thread! I am the one crazy person who thinks that Active-SETI/METI is incredibly dangerous and stupid because if we're wrong about the answer to the Fermi paradox we'll be dead before we know it.

Hmm, could you explain why you think so?

# ? Dec 6, 2018 01:31

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# ? May 12, 2024 15:09

suck my woke dick: Oct 10, 2012; I CANNOT EJACULATE WITHOUT SEEING NATIVE AMERICANS BRUTALISED!

Put this cum-loving slave on ignore immediately!

In the foreseeable future assteroid mining is primarily attractive to make economy space stations (i.e. submarines IN SPACE) and too-cheap-to-meter (well, relatively) hydrolox fuel, after spending like three hundred gigabux on the orbital processing station and complimentary fleet of space tugboats. I'm sure the occasional lump of gold will be deorbited to make some money off the side products.

Also:

Hungry posted:

I'm only half-joking when I say that's an incredibly bad idea but not for the reasons you're arguing.

Hello thread! I am the one crazy person who thinks that Active-SETI/METI is incredibly dangerous and stupid because if we're wrong about the answer to the Fermi paradox we'll be dead before we know it.

Sorry about the asteroid belt which formerly comprised your planet. Nothing personal :bsdsnype:

# ? Dec 6, 2018 01:32

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > Space, the Final Frontier: It Gazed Into My Open Refractor

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