Will we ever live on another planet?

Hi all,

I just wanted your opinions on whether or not, humans will ever live on another planet/galaxy? Is it even possible?

The Earth provides for us the right balance of necessary conditions so that we can live in reasonable comfort without artificial aid. Whether another planet out in space harbors conditions similar enough to earth that we would need little or no "artificial environment" is unknown. We might think that such another planet ought to exist, but it doesn't mean that it necessarily does.

Anyway i just thought id create my first post, since im new to ATS
~ JDN24

well i think we need to try and find another earth type planet first then we could hypothesise on whether we can reach it. Like you say theres no guarantees we will find any.

our first kind of interstellar mission looks set to be using solar sails www.nasa.gov...
personally i think theres so many obstacles to overcome were going to have to wait on other tech developments like extending human lifespan etc for anyone to be able to travel the stars

Well i think we are going to have to move a significant proportion out of this planet, as we are clearly outgrowing it. We could live artifically on the Moon or Mars. And go about terroforming Mars's atmosphere once the neccesary equipment is avaliable. I reckon witihn 50 years we will have permanent popualtion on at least the Moon and mabye Mars.

i believe surely there is another planet with conditions similar to
the earth although not in our solar system. we earth humans ever
colonise? i think mr. lear would say we already have begun!!

It's inevitable.

I figure in about 50 years or so we'll have some sort of settlement on Mars and if we're lucky, in a couple hundred we could have all the cool stuff they've got in the movies.

Originally posted by Dero
It's inevitable.

I figure in about 50 years or so we'll have some sort of settlement on Mars and if we're lucky, in a couple hundred we could have all the cool stuff they've got in the movies.

Who says we can't do that already. If the secret space programs could do it.
Do you think we (the public) would know? Do you really think NASA is the only space program? NASA is that movie you are talking about.
The purpose of movies is to distract the people from reality.
Do you think the US doesn't have any space weapons or vehicles we don't know about?

If you really think our mainstream technology is true reality. Think again.
William cooper stated there are already bases on the moon and mars.
He revealed a lot of crazy stuff. And then he got murdered. Coincedence??
Only TRUE whistleblowers get murdered if you ask me.
JFK , William Cooper, Forrestal, and William Colby included.

Try these books and make up for yourself if they are fiction or not.
And please people , don't give me that selling books excuse
Selling a book doesn't mean you are a hoax.
A grocery doesn't give food for free either

Day after roswell by Col. Philip J. Corso
Interview www.youtube.com...

Need to know by Timothy Good
Interview www.youtube.com...

Dark Mission by Hoagland
(radio interviews with writer and more)
www.youtube.com...

The same for the disclosure project testimonies.
www.youtube.com...

Peace






[edit on 28-12-2007 by abovetech]

Originally posted by abovetech
Who says we can't do that already. If the secret space programs could do it.
Do you think we (the public) would know? Do you really think NASA is the only space program? NASA is that movie you are talking about.
The purpose of movies is to distract the people from reality.

Yes, in reality NASA has an antigravity engine and mastered the art of interstellar travel some time in the 50s, and we are actually colonizing the Alpha Centauri even as we speak.

What crock

If we can survive long enough to have the technology to build ships that can support life, recycle water and waste and turn it back into food, kind of like the starship enterprise then we can reach the stars and galaxies. We're gonna need warp speed or some kind of technology that can get us across the universe quickly. I also think we need to fix ourselfs first before going to others worlds with possibly limited and hostile enviroments.
We need to be able to maintain a healthy enviroment on new planets.

But yes I think we will make it to other worlds, but only if we can fix our own first, have the technology to travel and the right people to succeed.

Originally posted by JDN24
I just wanted your opinions on whether or not, humans will ever live on another planet/galaxy? Is it even possible?

Well, "ever" is a long time. But even so, I would have to guess that no, we will never get to a point where large human colonies will be established on other planets. For a few reasons.

The first reason is that the human body is not built for long space flight. The Russians pretty much proved that. Humans made it to the moon, but compared to another planet, the difference is between camping in the back yard and going on an Mount Everest expedition.

We have weak bodies and we have to take pretty much everything with us wherever we go, making the size of the project almost insurmountable. We also don't have very long lifespans. We could never live long enough to travel to even the closest neighboring star, and intergenerational ships are interesting in theory but the practical problems with doing that are monumental. Sci-fi geeks like the idea, though.

Of course, you could maybe say that we might solve the speed and power problems in the next 10,000 years or so. Maybe. But the human species itself will probably not be around that long. We're already manipulating DNA and in a couple hundred years we will be modifying ourselves right out of existence as a species. Along with that, in just about that same amount of time, we will be creating artificial life forms that are self-replicating intelligent machines. Because they can be turned off and stored indefinitely, they would be much better suited to any deep space exploration or planetary colonization that human beings. So they'll go and not us.

Maybe we'll make some kind of token trip to Mars someday. Forget Venus. A brief scientific excursion. Mars is really not set up to support human life well, though. And it would take us too long to terraform to make it more cozy. Again, by that time, our smart robots will be living there long before us and maybe after us.

Anyway, that's what virtual reality is for. In much less than 200 years, we'll have space games and virtual reality constructions perhaps fed directly into your brain that will be so realistic that it would be pointless to actually go to a real alien planet. Actually traveling to someplace like Sedna would be expensive and dangerous and only for a few people. Virtually flying through the ice mountains of Sedna, feeling the frozen helium whipping through your hair, on some fabulous adventure, will be a lot cheaper, accessible to everyone, and more satisfying than actually going.

First, welcome to ATS. I'm glad you found Space Exploration a good place for your opening post. It tells me that you are not only forward thinking, but "grounded" in reality. While we may hope for ET to come along and give us the answers, it is more likely that we will have to puzzle out the road to the stars as we go along.

To answer your question , I have only my own opinion, and that is a resounding YES. Man is one of the most highly adaptable creatures that we know of. Man has filled a "niche" wherever it existed, be it plains or mountain, meat or veggies. Man adapts and overcomes. That is our specialty.

As we progress down the road of knowledge, one of those signposts is gene manipulation. Tomorrow's explorer may not "look" exactly like you or I, but by designing the genes to allow better adaptability, he may carry on where Columbus and others left off. He may have "what it takes" for exposure to cosmic radiation that would kill a terrestrial human. He may have the ability to withstand excessive g-force, he may even have the constitution to "shut down" for long space voyages. But he will be our son nonetheless.

Man was meant for the stars. If you doubt it, just go look at the night sky ablaze with a thousand jewels, and listen to your own heart.

I just wanted your opinions on whether or not, humans will ever live on another planet/galaxy? Is it even possible?

Yes.... and not at the moment.

We'll have no choice if we want to survive as a species. Eventually, our nice little fireball in the sky is going to turn into a red giant and incinerate the planet in the process, if not engulf it. Luckily, that's allegedly 5 billion years from now, but honestly, no one really knows when that time bomb is going to explode.

In the shorter term, however, a lot of other things could happen to make this world uninhabitable; Massive asteroid impact, full out nuclear war, overpopulation sucking world resources dry, disastrous climate change, something fatal happening to our atmosphere, and a multitude of other things. Nothing is static.

Relocating to another planet will be a matter of survival, period. Certainly by the time the sun runs out of hydrogen, which it eventually will, but probably much sooner than that. I'm confident that we'll have the technology to make moving to a planet in another part of the galaxy feasible some day far down the road. I just hope our "leaders" don't blow us all up before then, which I'm equally confident that they will.

I think most people will agree that in sometime, maybe the far far future, humans will settle on another planet or maybe set up some giant, planet-like space station to sustain life, but then again we will never really know.

Originally posted by last time here
i believe surely there is another planet with conditions similar to
the earth although not in our solar system. will earth humans ever
colonise? i think mr. lear would say we already have begun!!

mistake.please erase!!!

[edit on 28-12-2007 by last time here]

IMO not for a very long time,so many things to consider..

who decides when me as a person goes to another planet??
Who selects who doesn't go??

i would say in about 64 years time the first colony of about 10 peaople will make the first steps

I think we will one day, but I think that day is a lot farther off than the lay person imagines. Chances are we won't have any sizable colonies on the Moon or Mars for the next few hundred years. Sure we might have some scientific outposts and even "colonies" that are the size of small towns, but not viable populations. That's going to take a long time, a very long time. It isn't going to happen period until we devise a cheaper means of getting off of the Earth. As it stands it costs too much in fuel just to launch half a dozen humans into orbit a few times a year.

I even think we will conquer interstellar flight, but again that day is likely a long way off. We have some of the basic prototype technologies for interstellar travel on the drawing board right now and that it's impressive when you consider we've only been flying for about a hundred years. We'll make it, probably via a combination of fast ships (though not faster than light) and some form of hibernation/preservation of the crew/passengers. Once we find the first extra-solar planet that indicates it might have life I expect we'll be a hell of a lot more motivated to get out there. As it stands they hardly give space more than cursory mention in school.

reply to post by rhynouk


Well when/if the time comes for humans to leave Earth and live on another rock, i think that "you" will have the choice to go. As for space travel - its happening right under our noses.

Look at Richard Branson for example; he is giving people the opportunity to go space. Now i know that he is not sending us to another planet, but its a begining.

Also check out www.virgingalactic.com... if your interested in going "up".

reply to post by JDN24


without a doubt JDN24, we will live on another planet. Will it be in my lifetime. For Mars, yes I do see us have a manning outpost but it will be under the influence of the military as they will continue to have the ability to spend the billions $$ to fund a long term outpost of Mars.

Until we as a planet can learn to work together, any venture from this planet will continue to be seen in a military and power project sense, rather than a serious attempt to learn the lessons of living off planet Earth.

Some of the questions raised in this thread as very interesting. If we extend the OP's question, what about living on a planet in another solar system. As have been stated, we humans can live in a narrow range and any planet we choice to live on needs to be within our toleration. And then we have the issue of getting to this new solar system. we have yet to crack faster than light travel or putting humans on ice so to speak.

But I suspect we will solve one or both of these issues with time and humans will live on another planet outside of this solar system. Will I be alive to see it? I think not.

reply to post by Freedom ERP



Good point mate. I agree the if we do find a planet that is suitable for us, the Governements/Space Programs/Military will be the first on the scene.

Like you said, we have to find cheaper ways and to advance our knowledge of technology before we can even start to think of how to get off Earth.

I would like to belive that this will happen in my lifetime too, but nah........

I think its extremly possible with the hydrogen cell battery that only needs water to run. Renewable source of energy and water. It also means the amazing possibilities of flying cars. And if that did happen then the human race would advance so much. The sea and mountains would not be in the way of man kinds ventures instead the new obstacle of space would be mans next obstacle.

yes we already did it is called zenon