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With our current technology, long distance space travel is out of the question -- just getting to the moon is challenging and Mars is still a dream. I love me

• somenameforme 3y ago
  I wouldn't say it's that far off at all. All of the component technologies are already present, and really have been for decades. The first NASA flyby plan of Mars was planned in the mid 60s, and set for 1976. It was scuttled due to budgetary issues. The only problem is $$$ and risk. We're happy to casually spend hundreds of billions of dollars on obscure geopolitical goals half way around the world, but fight nickle and dime for visionary goals that might genuinely positively reshape humanity. And the other issue will be risk. Most early colonists will, in all probability, not meet pleasant ends - like literally every colonization effort, ever. And so it's important to have a society that can recognize and praise them for their bravery, try to prevent what killed them from killing the next batch, and immediately continue carrying on.
  • pstuart 3y ago
    I agree that the way we fund (and don't fund) programs is crazy. It will be a significant time before we colonize the Mars or Venus, and that's only within our solar system. We're going to have to practice and master doing that before we can consider putting people in a giant can in space with zero guarantees that their efforts will succeed. I'm not trying to dismiss the value of it, just that we've got a long way to go and a lot of problems to solve first.