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  1. #1
    The Fucking Voice of Actually
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    NASA isn't even trying to get people to Mars anymore

    http://www.businessweek.com/articles...closer-to-mars
    On its first flight Thursday, the Orion capsule will orbit earth twice, carrying 1,200 sensors.

    ...

    The first flight with astronauts isn’t planned to take place until six years from now.

    ...

    The first Orion mission to Mars isn’t anticipated until about 2035, preceded by numerous shorter flights for the four-person capsule to help improve technologies that will protect Mars-bound astronauts from radiation in deep space and the physiological impairments of a zero-gravity environment. One of those flights, set for the mid-to-late 2020s, will involve a rendezvous with an asteroid redirected by a robot spacecraft to orbit the moon.
    Errbody all on about Mars now. Space race 2.0 goooooooo!

  2. #2
    Formerly BGTemp // TERA Fan
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    To see this happen in our lifetime would be awesome. I can only imagine how the country/world felt watching the lunar landing.

    inb4 its a hoax.

  3. #3
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    A bit nervous with the proposition of maneuvering an asteroid into orbit around the moon. Sounds like rocket science.

  4. #4

    Quote Originally Posted by Suvhater View Post
    Sounds like rocket science.

  5. #5

    After learning about Mars Direct, I have zero faith in future Mars proposals, especially given the current economy is held together by duct tape. The Mars Direct documentary also outlined how preposterous any mission proposals are beyond 10yrs. 2035 might as well be the date given for when we all get flying cars, sex androids, and a cure for cancer.

  6. #6
    the elephant whisperer
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    I'm much more excited about the possibilities of Venus colonization than Mars. Saw a thread on reddit the other day that fascinated me.

  7. #7
    Relic Shield
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    Quote Originally Posted by noblemountain View Post
    I'm much more excited about the possibilities of Venus colonization than Mars. Saw a thread on reddit the other day that fascinated me.
    How would this even work? Venus is, by all accounts, hellish. If there are some ideas that aren't from a bunch of dudes passing around a blunt, I'd be interested in hearing about it.

  8. #8
    Shimmy shimmy ya shimmy yam shimmy ya
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    Quote Originally Posted by Clash Perez View Post
    How would this even work? Venus is, by all accounts, hellish. If there are some ideas that aren't from a bunch of dudes passing around a blunt, I'd be interested in hearing about it.
    Everything I've ever read concerning Venus colonization supposedly would depend on floating cities. Something about the atmosphere above so many kilometers up in the sky being similar to Earth on the ground.

    So yeah, puff, puff, pass, etc.

  9. #9
    The Fucking Voice of Actually
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    The surface of Venus is inhospitable.

    But the atmosphere is so dense, that a sealed environment containing a human breathable environment would be buoyant enough to float at a height where pressure and temperature conditions are much more favorable.

    It helps to think of Venus's atmosphere more like an ocean than a sky, and habitations like boats submarines instead of planes.

  10. #10
    Banned.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Cantih View Post
    The surface of Venus is inhospitable.

    But the atmosphere is so dense, that a sealed environment containing a human breathable environment would be buoyant enough to float at a height where pressure and temperature conditions are much more favorable.

    It helps to think of Venus's atmosphere more like an ocean than a sky, and habitations like boats submarines instead of planes.
    sounds even more farfetched than going to mars, given how much extra crap they'd need to bring along just to make it possible to grow food

  11. #11
    The Fucking Voice of Actually
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    The main benefit is gravity. Human biology doesn't tolerate gravity different from Earth's baseline very well.
    Mars gravity is about 40% that of Earth, better than the Moon, but still troublesome. Venus gravity is 90% that of Earth.

    Other factors are just engineering and logistics issues, gravity is much more pervasive and unalterable.

  12. #12

    It's something like 30 miles above the Venus surface where they are suggesting this happen. But what the fuck is the point of attempting to to have an ISS type thing above a distant planet, when we can barely do much with the one we have now.

    I am more excited for the down to earth implications that a Mars race would have both for consumer population and private business. The advancements in Propulsion, shielding, and sustainability have a lot that they can offer us still here on the planet.

  13. #13
    Ridill
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    Colonies in the atmosphere of Venus is dumb, and despite it being an idea that holds some traction in certain aerospace circles, is something that doesn't belong anywhere outside of anime or Stargate.

    Mars could hold some incredibly valuable findings for biology, geology, etc. Unfortunately I don't think the endeavor overall is going to contribute much to helping humanity go out beyond our solar system. Hopefully some of the tech can lead to getting some orbiting or moon-based facilities for assembly of larger stations, crafts, telescopes, and detectors. That's where I think the really "future changing" stuff is going to come from.

    If we can demonstrate extraterrestrial life on Mars. Awesome. A+. If it's non-carbon based I will be ecstatic. If it is...kinda meh as far as I'm concerned. Still plenty of life on our planet that isn't extinct that we still haven't discovered.

    tl;dr Theorists are bored by experiment. More at 11.

  14. #14

    Day One of the Mars Era gentlemen.


  15. #15

    I love how the further it got you stopped being able to hear the engines. And that flame tail was frigin huge.

  16. #16
    I'm not safe on my island
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    Anyone into engineering know what technological hurdles we need to cross to be able to build assembly facilities out in space? Like sath said, i think that's probably a key accomplishment to getting us off this rock. Making ships in outerspace without the problem of earth's gravity sounds great, but i presume there's some other problems that come with it. Radiation?

  17. #17

    Radiation shielding technology is what the majority of these first missions will be about, I think.

    We're looking at 0:30 Min for splashdown.

    http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/...k-test-launch/

  18. #18
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    Colonies on Venus is a terrible idea. Even if we ignore the hellish conditions and float in the sky we have no real way of gathering or creating resources to sustain said colony on Venus. Mars is better for this, on top of all the other reasons we'd want to go to mars.

  19. #19
    The Fucking Voice of Actually
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kuya View Post
    Anyone into engineering know what technological hurdles we need to cross to be able to build assembly facilities out in space? Like sath said, i think that's probably a key accomplishment to getting us off this rock. Making ships in outerspace without the problem of earth's gravity sounds great, but i presume there's some other problems that come with it. Radiation?
    Human on-station assembly is troublesome, because of the supply logistics and the general difficulty of getting things up the gravity well, but that is it's own can of worms that can dominate a thread.

    Past that, for manufacturing in space from materials present there, very adaptable robotics will probably be key. I'm thinking something along the lines of large and small scale 3D printers that can handle mineral/metal based feedstocks, processing capabilities to supply such from raw materials (you'd also need to store things interim as well, possibly in various phase states, oh!*), robotic arms, and you'd need to make things to manage manipulating really large scale, building sized, pieces/projects.
    I don't know enough about fabricating silicon chips and whatnot, but that's something you should ask someone about actually how to pull it off in space conditions. I'm sure it is a grand headache with the stuff involved. Though, who knows if we're still using silicon for that by then.
    The more you can bootstrap building more production capability without sending stuff from down here to up there, the better the whole thing works.

    Small scale microgravity tinkering lab stuff will likely still need to be done with humans involved, until nanotechnology gets cracked and matured.

    *You'd also need environmental controls, for when you need to do work with materials that would have to be in a phase they wouldn't be in the low temperature & pressure of space.

  20. #20
    Relic Horn
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    Would it not be best to start underground on the moon for a base facility? I would expect constant meteors and or other pieces of pea sized rock going 20k + speeds be another major obstacle as it would pierce the hull of whatever we may build?

    Edit: Asking with Kuya on same topic of challenges in space.

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