Will we ever live on another planet?

The limit of the human mind is limitless. With that being said, I believe we will never reach that goal. It is quite possible in reality, but with all these wars we have, greed and division between nations this goal is impossible. You need everyone working together rather then against each other. I am sure if we dismantle all the H-bombs, and A-bombs we can make a spacecraft that can carry us to mars and so on. But with all these bombs around I think it is inevitable we destroy ourselves sometime or another.

"will we inhabit another planet?"

well without a doubt yes.
it's just the amount of time it will take that to happen is the real question.

I think we will first create a giant satellite kind of thing, where you can go visit, enjoy the view, go eat, hotel, learn stuff etc.

That will be the first step into other ideas.

[edit on 24-5-2008 by _Phoenix_]

I believe we may have colonies all over the universe in the next few hundred years or even sooner. The reason i believe it will occur faster than what you all have been predicting is because of advancing genetic manipulation and medical procedures. If technology maintains the same momentum it has had for over the last century then we may be able to increase are intelligence in the near future. I believe if stem cells, biotech, and nanotechnology continue to be researched, we may obtain the ability to regrow brain cells and thus make ourselves very smart. If we are very smart then we probably will be able to think of new technologies and sciences easier and faster. Therefore technology will boom and we will be out and about space.

I am sure there are lots of M class planets out there that are suitable for us to live on. Thwe real question is will the natives greet us with open arms or tell us to sod off?

Hmm not actually sure if 'M Class Planet' is a scientific term, I think that was Star Trek mumbo-jumbo; that aside, even if we did find a suitable planet with the right atmospheric conditions we would also have to take into account alien bacteria - diseases and viruses yet undiscovered. That could be a harder problem to overcome.

I think that what we could use to travel the stars could be large battleships used for protection, which can be as big as the naval ships we have today, transport, cargo, and colony ships to carry the equipment, food, and other things we may need to survive on a hostile planet. It's possible to do, its just that we need the right resources, time and tools used to construct these. I hope that sometime in the future, as soon as possible, we can build massive ships that we can use to travel the stars and find a new home for mankind to live on.

If humans ever get off this rock .. it will be the Elites ... so they can hold us ransom .. or just kill us off from orbit.

Then re-use the earth as a deathstar ... that doesn't move .. i guess

I doubt that large groups of human beings will ever live on another planet. I could be wrong, but I just don't see it happening. Space is really, really big, and we are very small and weak.

As it is, we only live on about 25 percent of Earth. We already could live at the tops of mountains, or on the bottom of the sea. Those locations are even easier to live in than on some distant planet. So why don't we?

Because it's really expensive, money and energy wise, for people to live someplace we're not designed for. Look at Antarctica. Even with plenty of breathable air and water, living there is such a constant challenge and so energy expensive that only a few people can do it.

And it's nice to dream about finding an Earth-like planet we can just "step into," as if it were our own. But if it was that much like Earth, it would have its own ecosystem that we probably wouldn't fit into.

Also, if you think about it, if you just want to go someplace that's just like Earth, why not just stay on Earth? Enjoy what we have here. How much of the world have you experienced? Have you experienced all that Earth has to offer? Probably not. Nobody has.

If we did manage to find another Earth, it would take us thousands of years to get there, or thousands of years for us to figure out how to get there sooner. Either way, we're talking thousands of years, and frankly, we're probably not going to last that long. Not because we're evil or something, but because we're clever. We're basically a transitional species.

In a thousand years or so, we'll have pretty complete control over our own genetics, and our species will modify and adapt itself into so many different shapes and sizes and colors (because we love to modify our bodies, just ask the tattoo guy next to you) that plain old human beings will likely be a minority, or extinct. A thousand years is just a fraction of an instant in cosmic terms.

We will also drive ourselves to extinction by continuing to create smarter and faster artificial intelligences. Not because we're evil. Because we're clever. Not too far into the future, we'll be making machines that are essentially alive, or at least so close to it you can't tell the difference. They'll be our offspring, in a way. The next step in our evolution. And we'll be gone. Live fast, die young. That's our motto.

And it is our artificial children who will possibly colonize distant planets, not us. They'll first go to the planets in our solar system. Who cares if there's no air or water? They don't need it. And if they want to go far, far away, they can simply flip their "off" switch and time themselves to wake up after the thousands or tens of thousands of years it would take to get to where they want to go. Just wake up, power up the old batteries and away they go.

Human beings, though? Not likely. We'll establish a few small colonies in our solar system. Not with billions of people on them. Maybe we'll set up shop at Proxima Centauri, if there's anyplace to hang our hats there. But that will be about the extent of it.

reply to post by NGC2736

Please accept a star for your beautiful post, with whose sentiments I unashamedly concur. The night before New Year's I was on a lagoon beach six degrees above the equator, facing west with very little light pollution and a really clear sky. The magnificent Jupiter-Venus-Moon lightshow had just set. Orion was rising behind my left shoulder. I recall looking up at the breathtaking stars, thinking how I, personally, will never walk on a different beach beneath an alien sun, and feeling such a sense of hunger and loss at the thought.

But our descendants will walk those beaches and swim in those lagoons.

I don't think that we will ever live on another planet in our solar system. They are either too hot, too cold, have no atmosphere, no surface, or have poisonous gasses in their atmosphere. But supposedly there are satellites of Jupiter and Saturn that have an atmosphere and may be able to support life, the problem would be getting there. However it's crazy to think that in this never ending universe that there's not another planet like ours that can sustain life, or even in our own galaxy, but like i said, the problem would be getting there.

reply to post by xRedlinex

Tell you what.

Maybe the paradigm of sending complete people on insanely long voyages from here to Extrasolar Eden is wrong. How about sending sperm and eggs instead? Fifteen years of so before the end of its centuries-long slower-than-light voyage across the Big Empty, the starship begins to turn itself into a factory/nursery under the control of suitable AIs. The eggs are fertilized and gestated in artificially bioengineered wombs, the kids are born and thereafter raised by kindly, endlessly patient and resourceful androids. We'll probably send along other animal gametes as well, and we can engender the dogs and cats a few years after we engender the kids. As the kids grow up and learn the facts of their situation and mission, they'll have pets to play with.

Meanwhile, the automated factories are at work. By the time the starship is finally in orbit around the new planet, it will have built tens of thousands of probes, drones, samplers, sniffers, rovers, diggers and other devices, which will thoroughly reconnoite and study the planet below, identifying resources, dangers and suitable places for settlement. In time they will be replaced by construction machinery, and the settlements - modest enough, to commence with - will begin to rise.

By the time the young colonists have reached their twenties, all will be ready. Not knowing Earth except from their lessons, they will regard the planet on which they live as their true and only home, even though the seed that generated them came from afar.

reply to post by Astyanax

By the time the young colonists have reached their twenties, all will be ready. Not knowing Earth except from their lessons, they will regard the planet on which they live as their true and only home, even though the seed that generated them came from afar.

:-)

that sounds reasonable

or, close enough

Yes eventually we will overcome the infancy of selfishness and the need to accumilate things and wealth and start looking at the human race as one, and then begin solving the problems as a whole for the whole, which at that point, moving outward to expand humanity and its survival chances will happen.

There are way too many pathetic issues right now that have to be solved first. You cannot just pick and choose a certian percentage to expand out into space. It must be the whole, not partial. And once mankind grows up out of that baby attitude of "I want it all and I want it now" BS..then perhaps mankind will be ready to take is place amongst the stars.



Cheers!!!!