The most important issue that must be solved in space exploration area

[HereWeGoAgain]

Indeed.
I consider suspended animation as a means to render a non-survivable journey survivable, will forever exist only in sci-fi.

I agree with you it would be a gargantuan benefit to such enterprise.
But in practical terms even bears can't stay in hibernation long. Not long enough to get them to Proxima Centuri.

I believe the major obstruction is public funding. It's simply too expensive for one planet to afford. And in most scenarios, there's negligible pay-off for those left behind.

Speed is also a huge problem even if we had suspended animation.
The speed of light would have to be achieved or at least close to it for interstellar travel to ever become a reality.

 

[HereWeGoAgain]

I think if we are to put a small group of scientists on mars it would probably be for a few weeks. Why go all that way just to collect a few rocks, plant a flag and leave, as was done in the first Apollo mission.

I would think it best to send one or more unmanned flights to drop off enough food, water, minimal housing and also a return rocket. Then the manned trip would not be burdened with all that heavy equipment and could go at a much higher speed. There would be a lighter safer landing and they would have everything they need.

.

Which of course has already been discussed.
Sending tech that can build pods the astronauts could live isnt a new idea.
In fact it would be a necessity. And is well within the tech we already have.

 

[teodor88]

e=mv2 (squared) doesn't seem as interesting. It's our upper limit for now. We'll have to see if human exploration of Mars leads to anything interesting.

The exploration of the red planet might bring us a lot of interesting stuff. If we are able to find some evidences of forms of life that existed on this planet (or still exist) it will be a scientific breackthrough. As well as if we send first humans to Mars.

 

[teodor88]

I wouldn't bet on it. Space is no place for man, it is man's machines that will explore and find the things of interest. Man went to the moon and found little that was not already known.

This is a good point. Personally, I support uncrewed missions for further space exploration missions. It is more cheaper and more secure than sending humans in space.

 

[rightwinger]

The exploration of the red planet might bring us a lot of interesting stuff. If we are able to find some evidences of forms of life that existed on this planet (or still exist) it will be a scientific breackthrough. As well as if we send first humans to Mars.

Better to invest in an Army of unmanned drones and robots to explore the entire planet for years than a few humans to poke around for a few weeks

 

[alang1216]

This is a good point. Personally, I support uncrewed missions for further space exploration missions. It is more cheaper and more secure than sending humans in space.

Exploration will be done by machines but we'll do the colonization. There will always be some group that wants to get away from the rest of the world. Mormons went West and Jim Jones went south but we're running out of room on this rock.

 

[teodor88]

Exploration will be done by machines but we'll do the colonization. There will always be some group that wants to get away from the rest of the world. Mormons went West and Jim Jones went south but we're running out of room on this rock.

I guess it`s too early to talk about colonization of other planets. Our technology is so weak even to visit Mars with a crewed mission. Moreover, I consider the colonization of the red planet as a useless idea. This planet is not appropriate for humans to live on at all. I has really harsh environment like high level of radiation and low temperature

 

[Ringo]

The hole in the household compartment of the Soyuz MS-09 was drilled in zero gravity by a person who is not familiar with the conditions of this spacecraft, TASS reports, citing a high-ranking source in the Russian rocket and space industry.

"Of the eight holes, only one was through, the rest were drilled as if with drill rebounds, which rather indicates drilling in zero gravity without the necessary support," the source said.

Describing this person, the source added that "someone who did not undergo training on the conditions of the Soyuz MS spacecraft was drilling".

The interlocutor clarified that " the americans refused to pass a polygraph, unlike the russian cosmonauts."

In August 2018, it became known about an air leak on the International Space Station (ISS), the source of which was a hole in the Soyuz MS-09, which docked to the station in June of the same year. Visual examination showed that the hole appeared as a result of the deliberate impact of the drill on the hull of the ship. The Russian cosmonauts managed to quickly seal the hole, and in December — to make a spacewalk for an external examination.

In December of the same year, Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Sergey Prokopyev examined the outer surface of the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft docked to the ISS. The crew members opened the thermal insulation and the anti-meteorite protection panel at the alleged site of the breakthrough, from where the air leak occurred in August, and also examined and photographed the hole in the household compartment. The collected materials and data should be analyzed on the Ground in order to clarify the circumstances of the hole.

 

[Wuwei]

I guess it`s too early to talk about colonization of other planets. Our technology is so weak even to visit Mars with a crewed mission. Moreover, I consider the colonization of the red planet as a useless idea. This planet is not appropriate for humans to live on at all. I has really harsh environment like high level of radiation and low temperature

Elon Musk is notably obsessed with going to mars. I looked for a mission statement and found this:

“You want to wake up in the morning and think the future is going to be great - and that’s what being a spacefaring civilization is all about. It’s about believing in the future and thinking that the future will be better than the past. And I can’t think of anything more exciting than going out there and being among the stars.”​

-Elon Musk​

SpaceX

SpaceX designs, manufactures and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft.

www.spacex.com

That mission statement is on par with wanting to be first to climb Mt Everest, when the technology was weak (No supplementary oxygen on the first climb).

At the bottom of the page is a site for more information:
[email protected]
The sales department!!!
I suppose it's OK for billionaires with lots of disposable income to do things like that, but it still lacks a legitimate reason.
.

 

[alang1216]

I guess it`s too early to talk about colonization of other planets. Our technology is so weak even to visit Mars with a crewed mission. Moreover, I consider the colonization of the red planet as a useless idea. This planet is not appropriate for humans to live on at all. I has really harsh environment like high level of radiation and low temperature

Agreed but planets will be the last bodies to be colonized, asteroids will be hollowed out, rotated, and then populated.

 

[teodor88]

Elon Musk is notably obsessed with going to mars. I looked for a mission statement and found this:

“You want to wake up in the morning and think the future is going to be great - and that’s what being a spacefaring civilization is all about. It’s about believing in the future and thinking that the future will be better than the past. And I can’t think of anything more exciting than going out there and being among the stars.”​

-Elon Musk​

SpaceX

SpaceX designs, manufactures and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft.

www.spacex.com

That mission statement is on par with wanting to be first to climb Mt Everest, when the technology was weak (No supplementary oxygen on the first climb).

At the bottom of the page is a site for more information:
[email protected]
The sales department!!!
I suppose it's OK for billionaires with lots of disposable income to do things like that, but it still lacks a legitimate reason.
.

Yeap, I`ve noticed that. Musk is really obssesed with the colonization of Mars. He always tries to improve the Starship and prepare it for the first crewed mission to Mars. But I still have some dounts that Space X will be able to launch a crewed mission to Mars in 2026 as Musk calims.

 

[sear]

Agreed but planets will be the last bodies to be colonized, asteroids will be hollowed out, rotated, and then populated.

Interesting, but highly unlikely.
It would consume vast amounts of energy to hollow an asteroid. To what purpose? Then inflate like a beach ball, to inhabit the interior? It's monumentally unlikely such a structure could hold the pressure necessary.
At sea level our atmosphere exerts about 14 PSI on us. In Denver (a mile up) the pressure is lower, & survivable. But there's a limit. At 10 PSI a hollow big enough for a football field:
calculate the entire area of a football field, including the end zones, it works out to 57,600 square feet (360 x 160)
it's almost 83 million pounds.
It's unlikely that a random fragment of a stellar explosion would be both air-tight, and structurally secure enough to hold over 82 million pounds. Add a ceiling & walls and it increases by ~4, or 300 million pounds. Don't try that in your car tire.

Apart from that it's a bad aesthetic. Few if any would wish to live inside an asteroid.
Goldilocks zone Earth-sized planets are basically the only answer. Surely the ISS doesn't have that.
But one year, 12 months seems to be about the limit up there. Surely not generational lifetimes. And the ISS is completely dependent on Earth, on our biosphere for resupply.

Even as an emergency, temporary refuge it's difficult to imagine solving the engineering problems involved.

 

[alang1216]

Interesting, but highly unlikely.
It would consume vast amounts of energy to hollow an asteroid. To what purpose? Then inflate like a beach ball, to inhabit the interior? It's monumentally unlikely such a structure could hold the pressure necessary.
At sea level our atmosphere exerts about 14 PSI on us. In Denver (a mile up) the pressure is lower, & survivable. But there's a limit. At 10 PSI a hollow big enough for a football field:
calculate the entire area of a football field, including the end zones, it works out to 57,600 square feet (360 x 160)
it's almost 83 million pounds.
It's unlikely that a random fragment of a stellar explosion would be both air-tight, and structurally secure enough to hold over 82 million pounds. Add a ceiling & walls and it increases by ~4, or 300 million pounds. Don't try that in your car tire.

Apart from that it's a bad aesthetic. Few if any would wish to live inside an asteroid.
Goldilocks zone Earth-sized planets are basically the only answer. Surely the ISS doesn't have that.
But one year, 12 months seems to be about the limit up there. Surely not generational lifetimes. And the ISS is completely dependent on Earth, on our biosphere for resupply.

Even as an emergency, temporary refuge it's difficult to imagine solving the engineering problems involved.

The ISS has licked the pressure issue so we know it can be done and anywhere we go in the solar system we'd have to deal with that issue, including Mars. The Sun provides unlimited energy. What we need to kick start it is the space elevator.

 

[teodor88]

Getting back to the space junk issue I wanna add a few words. 1. Space junk, which is the issue for the Earth ecology as well as the space exploration and observation. It tells us some promising steps of high-level collaboration. 2. Effectiveness for Mars and the Moon exploration and at least exploration stations there for a short term human presence. 3. Asteroids collision monitoring and prevention. Detection has a lot of potential to move forward. In this case 1, 2 and 4 also count. 4.Effectiveness of near-earth orbit exploitation (e. g. surveillance, internet provision to far places), inter-satellite coordination (e. g., Machine Learning implementation.

 

[sear]

The ISS has licked the pressure issue so we know it can be done

The ISS isn't a hollowed out asteroid. And because of what we've learned from hydrofracking, we know hollowing out an asteroid to live in is not the optimal approach.
If we're going to consume that much energy, why not iron from asteroids and create our own habitat?

anywhere we go in the solar system we'd have to deal with that issue, including Mars.

No.
A hollowed out asteroid would have to retain air under pressure, like a balloon.
Mars retains it via gravity. It's a fundamental difference.
And farming an asteroid is a most unlikely prospect. We could put a clear balloon around it to retain an atmosphere for plants to grow on the surface of the asteroid.
But if we have a balloon that size, what do we need the asteroid for?

 

[alang1216]

The ISS isn't a hollowed out asteroid. And because of what we've learned from hydrofracking, we know hollowing out an asteroid to live in is not the optimal approach.
If we're going to consume that much energy, why not iron from asteroids and create our own habitat?

No.
A hollowed out asteroid would have to retain air under pressure, like a balloon.
Mars retains it via gravity. It's a fundamental difference.
And farming an asteroid is a most unlikely prospect. We could put a clear balloon around it to retain an atmosphere for plants to grow on the surface of the asteroid.
But if we have a balloon that size, what do we need the asteroid for?

If the ISS were in a hollow asteroid there would be no radiation or pressurization issue. Solar collectors on the surface would provide power for lights for plants grown inside and protected from radiation.

 

[my2¢]

Speed is the biggest problem.
That and suspended animation.

That makes complete sense to me. Both beat my notion of it being the taste of Tang.

 

[LuckyDuck]

1. Maneuvering asteroids/comets into Earth orbits to extract their resources.
2. Faster than light travel.
3. Terra-forming Mars and Venus.

 

[Stryder50]

SpaceX Brings 4 Astronauts Back to Earth After 6-Month Stint on International Space Station​

...
A four-member team of astronauts launched to the International Space Station by SpaceX touched back down on Earth in the Gulf of Mexico on May 6.

The return via a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule came just one day after the group undocked from the space station following a six-month mission in which they conducted science experiments and did maintenance.

Dragon and Crew-3 astronauts consisted of Raja Chari, a U.S. Air Force combat jet and test pilot who served as mission commander, Tom Marshburn, a medical doctor and former NASA flight surgeon, Kayla Barron, a U.S. Navy submarine officer and nuclear engineer, and Matthias Maurer, a European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut and materials science engineer.

They returned to Earth and splashed down off the coast of Florida at 12:43 a.m. ET on Friday. NASA expected to have them back in Houston later in the morning.

“On behalf of the entire SpaceX team, welcome home … It’s been an absolute honor to support you on this mission, Endurance Crew, and thanks for flying SpaceX,” space officials said over SpaceX’s livestream.
...
They embraced the seven astronauts remaining at the station—Crew 4 commander Kjell Lindgren, pilot Bob Hines, Jessica Watkins, and European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti; and three Russian cosmonauts, Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveev, and Sergey Korsakov—before parting ways.

Those replacement astronauts, from the United States and Italy, were taken up to space last week after completing a charter trip to the station for a trio of businessmen.

SpaceX was founded in 2002 by billionaire Elon Musk whose proposal to purchase Twitter for $44 billion was recently accepted by the social media platform’s board of directors.

The Tesla CEO supplies the Falcon 9 rockets and Crew Dragon capsules that are flying NASA astronauts to orbit.
...

SpaceX Brings 4 Astronauts Back to Earth After 6-Month Stint on International Space Station

www.theepochtimes.com

 

[there4eyeM]

"Space" is interesting, fascinating, attractive. Once we understand the space between our ears, "space" will be even more interesting. First things first.
Inner Space; the Ultimate Frontier".