What's more practical investing money to Colonize our Solar System or in a FTL Vehicle?

Originally posted by Low Orbit
The Motivation would be Alpha Centari and other close by galaxies that show might be hospitable to human life. While a Mars outpost is great there is no way one can walk outside without a space suit on. Within Alpha Centari there may be planets similar enough to our own in which we would be able to survive without any life systems.

You mean other close by solar systems right? Traveling to another galaxy would take an incredibly long time. The closest being 42,000 light years away. And yes one wouldn't be able to walk outside with out a space suit on any other planet in our solar system, but we don't even know how common or uncommon Earth like planets are. And if we were to find one in Alpha Centari and it had an Alien civilization already living on it, well then we definately can't just start setting up a colony on it. And then it's back to colonizing planets with no life on them and needing a space suit to wear outside.

For Me, FTL technology is inevitable and the choice is either do we waste our natural resources to build a slow ineffectual Outpost or do we invest in the greatest resource man has at his disposal, his intelligence and intuition? While throwing gobs of money at FTL might not bring us FTL space craft in the next hundred years or so it most certainly would help to bring about other "advanced technologies" this is similar to trickle down economics, "voo-doo economics."

Yes it's inevitable, but what you call a waste I call necessary steps to get there. By colonizing our solar system, we'd gain a lot of resources. I find that throwing gobs of money at anything never really works well. Like I said in my previous post, technology is developed better when there is a need for it. Right now there isn't a need to go to Alpha Centari. Would any of us want to go given the chance? Hell yeah, but there isn't a need to go there right now. Compare that to having a colony set up on Triton, a moon that orbits Neptune. It's about 30Au away from Earth. Having a colony so far out would give one a very big need to develop a system to get there as soon as possible.

Why do you think we can't setup colonies and not also work on faster propulsion methods at the same time? I see the two going hand in hand. Like i've said several times already, things just develop better when there is a need for them. Think of the Cold War between the US and USSR. Lots of amazing things were developed durring that time, because there was a need for both Countries to keep up and out beat the other. For example there was a need for the US to be able to fly over the USSR and spy on them. They needed something that could fly high and fly fast and we got the SR-71. Still the worlds fastest manned aircraft. The SR-71 probably wouldn't exsist today if there was no Cold War and thus no need for it. A lot of other aircraft and other vehicles wouldn't exsist either.

What would this craft be made out of?
What would this craft's propulsion be based on?
Present materials dont alow us to travel near ligh speed, plus propulsion is a serios problem, I am not sustaining it's imposible, but I think it will take alot more time before we get there.
If we look back it has passed almost 50 years and nothing has changed in space flight, basicly we are stuck with rocket technology which burns fast and does not alow us great speeds.
I would say for something new to pop up there would have to be major scientific discoveries,it took them a life time to make the shuttle which is basicly the same thing as the rocket with a few improvments, the shutle is a tecnology of aircraft(which has already existed) and a rocket(also avalible at the time the shutle was made)
So the shutle was made out of the tehcnology that was already present and didint really bring something new.

I would say , we waited for a freakin war to bring us some good stuff,so it's really almost 100 years since the rocket has been discoverd.
German scientists experimented with rockets around 1920's for the first time, so we went for a long time with nothing new.
Material aloys and engine propulsion is a problem that will be solved in hundred of years maybe 1000,who knows, for the present time we got nothing new.

Stephen Hawking urges that we must colonize our solar system as soon as possible, and I agree with him. After we make a few space colonies, we can start focusing on FTL travel. www.msnbc.msn.com...

Pepsi, you have to understand that pessimism will get you no where. With your line of reasoning, maybe if we never talk about FTL technology again it will NEVER exist. The sooner we start looking for the answers the sooner we will find them.

He who searches, finds!

My argument is the sooner we begin researching FTL technology the sooner it will come into fruition even if we do not currently have the necessary materials to travel at that speed doesn't mean we shoudn't pursue it today.

Leto, I think it is great that the Legendary Hawking has spoken out for colonizing our solar system. However, did you read the reasons why Hawking wants mankind to establish outposts in our solar system? The article states, "The survival of the human race depends on its ability to find new homes elsewhere in the universe because there's an increasing risk that a disaster will destroy the Earth, world-renowned scientist Stephen Hawking said Tuesday." Hawking goes on to say, "We won't find anywhere as nice as Earth unless we go to another star system."

My argument is what good would a self-sustaining Moon and Mars outposts be without the Earth. If Earth did get wiped out and the only people left alive were on these outposts humanity as we know it would be over. The only true way for us to "find new homes elsewhere in the universe" will be with the aid of FTL technology. Without FTL technology mankind loses the ability to find new homes and instead banks on a self-sustaining outpost.

Why invest countless billions into a space outpost when we could be developing FTL technology. There is so little to gain from an outpost compared to FTL technology.

There are already universities and organizations researching this technology. However, it's not so much technology as it is our understanding of physics. You can't throw money at the dudes with big brains and say "Learn faster!"

What you're talking about is focusing the global economy on constructing a means to transport the entire population of the planet, if necessary, to a yet to be discovered planet in another star system for the purpose of surviving a possibile future event that results in the eradication of the entire human race.

That sum it up? If this were possible I think the majority of those possible future events would be eliminated.

[edit on 16-6-2006 by apc]

It's just not posible in a short period of time, I dont se it hapening for my kids kids, maybe a new space shutle posible, with some nuclear reactors, posible.
Or ion drive tecnology based on solar wind which is probaly the next thing that will hapen,but ion drive does not permit great speeds, it's just solar sailing, some of you are hoping to catch it in this liife time, I say it's not posible.

I thought its impossible to go faster then the speed of light. (As your speed increases your mass increases)

I think wormholes are the future tech that would revolutionize human kind.

But I think its just that...future.

We should be doing exactly what were doing...sending sats to other worlds, and planning for an outpost on our moon.

The only way were going to go FTL in our lifetime is if we hop a ride on a ufo.

Humans have already begun colonizing this solar system -- it first started with earth.

I hardly think human habitats spread throughout this solar system on far away moons, asteroids and planets is good idea at this time, but it is the obviously cool choice.

I can't see any other nation than that of the US taking on such a task. THat's where it stands as of now and in the foresable future. Though, to admit it, there just aren't enough qualified, competent and willing individuals in this world to embark on the adventure.

Originally posted by Leto
Stephen Hawking urges that we must colonize our solar system as soon as possible

The man has lost his mind or is desperate for attention. Humans have yet to ensure that everyone has at least the equivalent of an apple to eat each day.

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I see it this way -- humans have yet to reach 1/10 the speed of light or let alone come anywhere near 1/1000 the speed of light.

There are not very many physicist who focus particular large quantities of their time toward contemplating FTL, and hardly very many physicist at all!

The obvious choice must be to colonize this solar system. I say this solar system intentionally.