4 ms·
The most obvious pressure would be China's space exploration program. If it turns out that there's useful stuff outside our atmosphere, America doesn't want the
by JonChesterfield 2y ago
The most obvious pressure would be China's space exploration program. If it turns out that there's useful stuff outside our atmosphere, America doesn't want their economic rival in control of it.
Also - if our species doesn't make it off-planet before the current one is rendered uninhabitable, it's curtains for us all. So that's a pressure of a sort.
- lupusreal 2y agoThere's nothing useful out there, except for the high ground and vantage point. All satellites that make money or have military value are pointed at Earth.
- jupp0r 2y agoThat's what they told Columbus.
- krapp 2y agoNo, they didn't. Columbus thought he could find a fast route to Asia because he grossly underestimated the circumference of the Earth. Spain was advised of this (the more correct circumference derived by Eratosthenes was commonly known), and only funded Columbus on the off chance that if he might stumble across something of value, they would rather that belong to Spain than a rival power. It was a cheap gamble for Spain at the time.
- timschmidt 2y agoAll the rarest minerals on Earth, including the ones which gravitated toward Earth's core while the planet was molten, are present in asteroids.
- JonChesterfield 2y agoIf you're right, we're all dead. Maybe within a few hundred years, probably under a thousand. If you're wrong, but enough people believe you're right in the spirit of maximising quarterly returns, then we're all dead on the same timeline. The only path to survival as a species is to work out how to do space exploration. I'm hoping to find water on the moon and mars as the next step, and to find it within the next few years.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]