“The Earth is the cradle of humanity, but one cannot live in the cradle forever.”
-Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (the father of modern rocketry)
This statement is a simple one, but the implications of it are broad, beneficial, and exciting.
Space exploration does many things for us. It gives us context for our own planet, by allowing us to compare it to others. Not to mention that the technology to explore can also lead to the technology to defend our home planet from an asteroid. As of now, all it takes is one of decent size and we're all dead. We are only on this one planet after all.
There are simple technological reasons for space exploration as well. Some estimates say that for every dollar invested in the Apollo program, more than 20 have been returned. Computer tech, communications, rocketry, and many other fields have benefited hugely from space exploration and that's where that return on investment really comes from.
Then here's possibly the biggest reason. Humans unite under causes, whether its an enemy, and disaster, or a goal. What greater cause can we have as a species than to strive to learn, to explore, to push boundaries, to see what's around the corner. This is in many ways a fundamental need of humanity, and space exploration is a fantastic manifestation of that. The universe is huge, beautiful, mysterious, and, [u]ultimately knowable.[/u] Even if the other reasons were not there, this alone should be enough for us pursue our exploration.
We are still in our cradle, and just beginning to look outside of our safe little bubble.
Thoughts?
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Space exploration will be led by corporations because, unfortunately, "knowledge" isn't as pressing as other, more uniting causes, like war. Is that a bad thing? Not necessarily. Money has driven many great benefits. Knowledge will inevitably follow.
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Who are you, Carl Sagan?
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Edited by MildSquirrel: 10/19/2015 3:47:31 AMOnly if we send midgets painted green to Mars
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No.We don't need humans corrupting other planets.
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Yes. Absolutely.
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Not in our lifetime... Sigh
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This is complete and absolute truth
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With time space travel will be cheaper. We just need to stop worrying about children in schools pointing finger guns at each other..
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We should explore other planets, but I don't think the universe is ultimately knowable. It is so large. Like REALLY large. And interstellar travel and communication would be very difficult. The speed of light is kind of the universal speed limit for things. Even if we were able to build a spacecraft that could go the speed of light, a big if, it would still take YEARS to get anywhere habitable outside our solar system. And it would be difficult to communicate with other settlements because even to communicate with mars it takes minutes to to send a message and receive a response.
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[b][/b]
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Cool, but I sort of disagree with the "ultimately knowable" bit
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Only if the planet I go too has hot blue alien babes
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I'm kind of liking earth so far, you guys can go off to space or wherever but I'm staying here lol
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As long as we remain in touch with our most basic sources of happiness: capitalism.
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[quote]Ad astra per aspera.[/quote] We need to increase in population before moving to colonize other planets. Right now, it's just unnecessary. Still, it'd be cool to see it in my lifetime.
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Edited by ~wolfBTM~: 10/16/2015 10:17:42 PMThank you for consistently posting intellectual topics that are interesting and beneficial.
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Humans need to get smart and manage earth before anything else Human practice of
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I violated the [url=http://i1.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/109/415/tumblr_lg46betBTg1qzptwgo1_500.jpg]Code of Conduct[/url] and was met with Ninja Justice.
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Folks that say space travel is a waste of money are completely wrong. Outside of the military, space exploration is the single largest source of technology and scientific progress, and I absolutely believe that exploration needs to continue and advance. We're quite a long way away from any sort of colonization, but in the meantime we'll be able to benefit from a world united in that goal, technological advancements hopefully mitigating the environmental damage that may force colonization, and a general expansion of our knowledge.
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I like this thread le bump
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This planet is a treasure amongst our universe, and it's been telling us to leave for a while now.
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Necrobump
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[b] [/b]
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Completely true
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But will there be porn?
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fmjay
clash royale - old
Watch Interstellar Nuff sed