Will we... (ever colonise another planet?)

**Negative Sun** · 05-27-2007, 06:02 PM

Ever colonise another planet?

Inspired by this thread I was wondering whether or not anyone else believes we will actually once colonise other planets...I know it sounds like romantic Sci-Fi at its best, but then again, a few decades ago we never though we'd put a man on the moon, and now there's robots riding around on Mars...With possibly an expedition going to Mars at some point.

The overpopulation of this planet is definitely reaching a critical point, and I don't know if it will happen in the near future, but this Earth will eventually run out of resources for us to live on...

I'm not even talking about finding another Earth-like planet, as that would involve travelling faster than the speed of light to make it to the nearest one in less than a few hundred years, but even planets in our solar system, or even the moon...A lot of these planets could be mined for resources if we get the right equipment out there some day, which could keep us going for a while...

Thoughts?

Trex · 05-27-2007, 07:27 PM

I guess we will, I think the question is more of the when. Technologically, we already have the ability to do it, it's just that the kind of people able to do such a thing are those with the money, and those with the money will only do so when they can make more money out of it.

Until then, we're just sitting waiting.

Web Rider · 05-27-2007, 07:52 PM

eventually, yes. Can I say when? Well, no, but I think before we get anywhere, it requires we change a fundamental part of human nature. Which one? well, I'm still working on that. But I just dont see the incentive, so perhaps it's our contentment, we need to stop being so contented with the mundane. We've had this hunk of space-rock for millions of years and we're still fighting over little bits of it. Maybe we're doing it from low-orbit and with nuclear weapons now, but the point is we're still doing it.

And most people are OK with that. Which is really pretty amazing if you stop and think about it.

So, until we overcome our self-placating ability to tell ourselves that what we've had is the best we'll ever get, I don't think we're going anywhere.

urluckyday · 05-27-2007, 08:29 PM

Nope...b/c according to the Aztec calendar...the end of this "era" will be on December 12, 2012...

Nah, im just kidding (but that's when it does end, not the end of the world)...but about colonization...uhhh...sure...what the heck, why not...

Web Rider · 05-27-2007, 09:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by urluckyday

Nope...b/c according to the Aztec calendar...the end of this "era" will be on December 12, 2012...

Nah, im just kidding (but that's when it does end, not the end of the world)...but about colonization...uhhh...sure...what the heck, why not...

out of curiosity to the aztecs, wouldnt 12, 12, 1212 have been more prophetic a date than 12,12,2012?

urluckyday · 05-27-2007, 09:54 PM

maybe...but im just telling u the date that the history channel told me lol

True_Avery · 05-27-2007, 10:36 PM

We will probably colonize the moon at some point, but I doubt we will ever make it to other planets beyond maybe mars. By the time Anti-Matter technology and other such things are that advanced we will of used them to destroy ourselves, or the planet can just decide that she has had enough of us and wipe us out.

Dinosaurs made it hundreds of millions of years on this planet. I will be incredibly amazed if human beings can make it another 2,000 years, if not only 1,000.

Totenkopf · 05-28-2007, 02:11 AM

Seems to me that if we manage to avoid immolating ourselves that colonization is inevitable, even if it takes several more generations to accomplish it. In less than a century we went from a top achievable speed of 30-40 miles per hour (or however the hell fast a horse can run) to the over 25000mph of rocket ships. If scientific and engineering prowess can continue at that rate for the forseeable future, then the qualified answer is definitely yes.

Sabretooth · 05-28-2007, 06:57 AM

I think planetary colonization is inevitable, if the world maintains its status quo. Unless some apocalyptic event reduces human population, there pop is gonna go on increasing. Already a good chunk of Earth's pop is homeless and by some fifty years, its gonna be hectic.

Planetary Colonization will probably be different from Continental Colonization of the Renaissance age. Back then, it was the economy that the European powers wanted. Now it is space we want. It will probably take time to find and test a suitable planet, and will take even more time to find a way to get there and report back in under five generations. Like Trex said, it is more of when, than an if.

Vaelastraz · 05-28-2007, 10:09 AM

Colonizing planets in our solar system will definitly be possible. But anything outside of that is just totally utopian as of now. The next star system (without planets I think) is 4 light years away. Light years! Our current engines for rocket ships are nowhere near lightspeed, and with the current technology, it will never be.

And even if we had lightspeed, which is impossible according to physics, travelling 20-10000000 years to reach another planet does make colonization somewhat difficult...

Ray Jones · 05-29-2007, 10:26 AM

I think colonising other planets will not suffice in the end. To find a earth-like planet is not necessarily impossible, but a tough task, nonetheless. Okay as for not earth-like planets there is the concept of terraforming and all, and it surely will work, but I think it won't work for every random planet/moon/whatever out there. However colonies on the moon and then other planets will be the very first step for us on our way away from earth.

At the end of the day the best alternative will be to "copy" the earth, and build HUGE spacecrafts which will be our homeworlds, with pretty much everything we find here on earth.

True_Avery · 05-29-2007, 11:28 AM

Well, considering that a human cannot travel our own planet without getting a couple dozen shots due to immunity issues...

If we were to ever find the will to survive and unity to even get into space, and even more impossibly find a way to travel at possibly lightspeed (To which once we travel far enough it will be impossible to return to earth without being several hundred to a thousand years in the future), we would then have the .0000000001% chance of finding a system with an earth like planet while in a stasis and most likely crash on the planet (depending on technology) to which we may find sentient life that wont be too happy to see us, or an ecosystem that does not favor us.

If by all impossible odds we make it to another planet there are a lot of things to consider. If the planet is much larger than earth (which is a good possibility) then our bodies would not be suited for the higher gravitational pull and would become a huge burden depending on how much higher or lower said gravity is. That is the very least of our worries however because we would not have immunity to the new planets new ecosystem and brand new spankin range of virus', germs, and all that fun stuff which I guarantee would kill us faster than any other factor of the planet.

Traveling to a new planet sounds like a fun idea but nature has that wonderful way of limiting the spread of a virus, keeping an atom bomb from absorbing the entire universe, killing off animals it no longer needs, ect. The virus known as humans is doomed to stay on earth and die here, and even if we make it to another planet nature will make sure that we die by a factor that we may or may not have considered.

Oh how I love and respect you Mother Nature.

The best and only chance humans would have would be to simply build huge ships and space stations and live on those. It might be possible to inhabit a planet like Mars since it is relatively similar to earth or was in the past.

HerbieZ · 05-29-2007, 04:49 PM

I honestly think for us as a people to start thinking of the bigger picture, we would have to be in the stage of recovery from a massive global war. Every country is so insular that if we all did think about colonisation, we would be claiming each planet for the countries and not earth as a whole. As it stands now, people are just not bothered with space flight or for that matter planetary colonisation. Everyone is paranoid of everyone else throwing nukes at the one who reaches up to the sky. You only have to look at how much money America is pouring into Iraq whilst space travel takes a back seat and is now nothing more than a tourist attraction.

Thats why it will not be the governments who launch people up into space in the future. It will be the independants or the survivors.

adamqd · 05-29-2007, 05:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by True_Avery

By the time Anti-Matter technology and other such things are that advanced we will of used them to destroy ourselves.

Thats the key, Priorities. We spend billions on war, but organizations for Aids and Cancer rely on charity, were not Evolved enough to save ourselves.

Pho3nix · 05-29-2007, 05:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by adamqd

Thats the key, Priorities. We spend billions on war, but organizations for Aids and Cancer rely on charity, were not Evolved enough to save ourselves.

Well said.

I feel that the human race will be long gone before we'd ever have the technology for colonizing another planet. And even if we did, I don't think we'd come to an agreement on territories.

Let's say the planet we colonize has one side that is drier than the other, and the other one has more resources. Which side would everyone want?

Just more war, problems and death.

**Negative Sun** · 05-29-2007, 05:52 PM

But then again, look at how far civilization has come in the last few centuries, it may not be perfect, but I believe we are slowly going in the right direction, and if we don't blow the place up too soon we will make it through as the human race all together...It might sound Utopian to some, but it is what I believe.

One of the wisest things said in Epidode II: "The day we stop believing democracy can work, is the day we lose it", I believe it applies to a lot more than just democracy...

Darth InSidious · 05-29-2007, 06:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Negative Sun

But then again, look at how far civilization has come in the last few centuries, it may not be perfect, but I believe we are slowly going in the right direction, and if we don't blow the place up too soon we will make it through as the human race all together...It might sound Utopian to some, but it is what I believe.

One of the wisest things said in Epidode II: "The day we stop believing democracy can work, is the day we lose it", I believe it applies to a lot more than just democracy...

Really? All I see today is a 21st century Rome. Bread and circuses...

Dagobahn Eagle · 05-30-2007, 12:14 PM

Quote:

Every country is so insular that if we all did think about colonisation, we would be claiming each planet for the countries and not earth as a whole.

We won't be claiming as much as a square metre until laws change. No one can own territory in space, Heck, no one can own territory in orbit, which is why satellites are allowed to fly over any country they wish. It's like Antarctica - although several countries have claimed territory there, nobody really owns the place. It's essentially just a big nature preserve with some scattered research facilities.

In my view, the question isn't whether we'll estabilish permanent bases on the Moon or other planets, but who'll do it. In my view, it should be the private sector. Government money should be spent on national issues, not on discovering strange, new worlds.

*tk102* · 05-30-2007, 12:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HerbieZ

Every country is so insular that if we all did think about colonisation, we would be claiming each planet for the countries and not earth as a whole.

I don't know what you're talking about.

Sabretooth · 05-30-2007, 12:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by adamqd

Thats the key, Priorities. We spend billions on war, but organizations for Aids and Cancer rely on charity, were not Evolved enough to save ourselves.

Exactly. Even though we live in a democracy, we have been inadvertently thrown into a Medieval period. Rather than looking at the future, nations are looking at their own skins. Which is wrong? You cannot say. Isn't politics a sad subject?

HerbieZ · 05-30-2007, 02:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tk102

I don't know what you're talking about.

Studio 17, Paramount lot.

JediAthos · 05-30-2007, 10:47 PM

If I've done my homework correctly, NASA's plan is to start small by completing the ISS and then establishing a moon base. Our best chance for colonizing a planet within our own solar system is still Mars, and I don't think that will happen in my lifetime. Perhaps in my daughter's lifetime. (she's 8 months old)

So, I guess my answer would be yes, I think that we will eventually, but I think that it will take more than just NASA. There will have to be some sort of international cooperation to accomplish that feat I think.