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Lunar landing anniversary today
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gnuarm:

--- Quote from: Brumby on July 25, 2022, 02:25:40 pm ---
--- Quote from: gnuarm on July 25, 2022, 08:47:27 am ---
--- Quote from: Brumby on July 24, 2022, 09:34:33 am ---
--- Quote from: gnuarm on July 22, 2022, 04:39:30 am ---Even as fiction, Star Trek is a bit ridiculous.  I guess I've never paid attention to whether they've left the galaxy, still, within the galaxy, you have to exceed the speed of light by huge factors to get around.  It's 52,000 light years across.

--- End quote ---
:palm:  How to kill your credibility.

You might want to pay more attention next time you pull out some numbers.

--- End quote ---

WoW!  Only in an engineering forum would someone completely miss the point by focusing on such a trivial detail. 
--- End quote ---
Who says I missed the point?  I certainly did not.

You may consider an error in excess of 50,000 light years as trivial, but I kinda think it is significant - especially as the numbers are all too easily found.


--- Quote ---That's what I get for hanging out with nerds.

--- End quote ---
Yeah ... OK.  On that I'd have to plead guilty.   ::)

--- End quote ---

The point was the number is orders of magnitude larger that practical even for something like a warp drive.  Then you nitpick over a factor of 2.  See?

I can't believe I'm arguing over Star Trek on the Internet!!!  What has my life become!!???
IDEngineer:
There's another aspect to space that is based on the human psyche: We as a species seem to need to be looking outward to prevent stagnation. That sounds like a tautology but it's more.

There was a time when anything past the horizon was the great unknown. It took courage, acceptance of risk, and lots of money to fund expeditions, over land or sea, to discover what was "out there". Those societies that didn't expand their vision shrank and were lost to history.

You see this scenario play out even in small children. Those whose inquisitiveness is encouraged enter into a positive feedback loop of faster learning and greater discovery. Those who are restricted, whether intentional or by sad circumstances, often have their die cast for life. Sure, they become functional adults, but they miss a greater life experience because their inherent drive for knowledge and experience was suppressed.

I fear humanity is becoming North Korea writ large. Without an open mind, without the outward-looking attitude that welcomes exploration and the pursuit of new things and new experiences and "what's out there", our species risks becoming a bunch of navel-gazers trapped in a cage of our own resignation and lethargy. Like children given no mental stimulus and left to rot in front of a television every day, we do our species a disservice if we resign ourselves to "this is everything" and "there's nothing important over the horizon" and "stop wasting your time on unachievable dreams".

I suspect it was Musk who said this, but no matter, it's a good summation: "Earth is the cradle of human civilization, but at some point you must leave the cradle."
PlainName:

--- Quote ---my phone would be way down on the list
--- End quote ---

It was a metaphor, illustrative of short time of usability.
pcprogrammer:

--- Quote from: dunkemhigh on July 25, 2022, 05:18:57 pm ---
--- Quote ---my phone would be way down on the list
--- End quote ---

It was a metaphor, illustrative of short time of usability.

--- End quote ---

That I got, but I countered it to show the need for preparing and the usefulness of skill.

For example we know landing on the moon is possible, and also that live in a space station is possible. Both took lots of preparation to accomplish this. And sure a lot of technological advancement where made in name of these projects, but so did several wars. This is another point, but mentioned earlier in this thread, so just to address that.

For a next step a suggestion is made to build a base on the moon, because launching from the moon takes less energy, but it would still require to bring all of the equipment to the moon which is needed to build on it. Even though the moon might hold some essential resources these would have to be mined and processed first. So it won't be an easy feat to accomplish this. And what I wonder about here is whom is willing to be part of this feat? Sure the unknown will lure in a lot of people, but do they have the skills required. And who droppes out when they hear what the living conditions will be, and what the risks are.

As I wrote before I like nature to much to be stuck in some special moon cubicle to build on the spread of the human race.

And to take it even further, think of the long travel through space to reach the nearest possible habitable planet. Even with some maybe possible hyper drive it would still take a long time of 40 years or so. What will that do to the psyche of the astronauts. This to address the quote below.


--- Quote from: IDEngineer on July 25, 2022, 04:53:24 pm ---There's another aspect to space that is based on the human psyche: We as a species seem to need to be looking outward to prevent stagnation.

........

I suspect it was Musk who said this, but no matter, it's a good summation: "Earth is the cradle of human civilization, but at some point you must leave the cradle."

--- End quote ---

Yes as a baby growing up you leave the cradle at some point, and I would then like to say that human civilization is still in its infancy stage and has to grow up first. Because take a look at the world, true civilization is not what we are doing. Lets fix that first before venturing of into the unknown.
Circlotron:
“I do not know with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”
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