Will humans ever inhabit the Moon/Mars/etc...?

[asdf]

-nt

[Satan's Uncle Ron]

The moon, probably not. Other moons/planets with possible resources to sustain life, maybe. Space travel needs to become a lot more cost efficient and possibly faster.

[Tilly]

To say it will never happen is a real stretch. In fact, they've been entertaining thoughts of colonizing the moon and mars in the future.

[MontysDouble]

It's just a matter of time and (population and resource) pressure before it happens. Certainly we'll see people working at mining the Moon before the turn of the century. Colonists will follow.

The biggest hurdle: An efficient way of getting heavy payloads into orbit. A space elevator from the equator or a rail gun from a very high mountain would be neat, but not yet do-able.

Rutan's Spaceshipone concept seems promising: It does go almost all the way beyond the atmosphere, using a fraction of the fuel a chemical rocket launched from near sea level does. Scale that up to where your White Knight 'stage one' vehicle is the size of an Antonov cargo plane, and your orbiter can carry ten-odd tonnes, and then we'd be talking turkey: Much simpler and cheaper than the Space Shuttle or an Ariane, using much less fuel.

[Big Ozzie]

Sure, Why not?
But inhabit? As in a little Community with Schools? Grocery Stores? Fuel Stations? WalMarts?
Nah....doubt it.
That would be a long way off and I would hope that our problems here on Earth would be resolved first!
BUT, I can see groups of Scientists, Geologists, Biologists, Volcanologists and many others staying and working on other Planets or the Moon for perhaps a Year at a time.
That will not come in my life time...but many of you may see it yet.
As far as Monty's response about lifting Payloads to Space.
Would that be supplies from Earth?
They already take many Metric Tons of Cargo into orbit on the Shuttle with each launch. I am sure that should the time come that we are Colonizing another Celestial body, we will be launching ships with even greater payloads on a regular basis...not several times a year, but several times a week.
Leaving other Planets or Moons with Ore or other Natural Resources should be much easier than Launching from the Earth. Especially with the lessor gravity found on our Moon and others in Orbit around other Planets.
However, the Gravitational pull of some planets may be too great to make it worth while to explore for some time!

[Josh85]

You'll all be dead in a little over 4 years so I doubt it.

:P

j/k.... or am I?

[Big Ozzie]

You'll all be dead in a little over 4 years so I doubt it.

:P

j/k.... or am I?

I say a little Prayer of Thanks every Day that I awaken and see the Sun.
Four Years can be a Lifetime for some, Josh.

[MontysDouble]

Sure, Why not?
But inhabit? As in a little Community with Schools? Grocery Stores? Fuel Stations? WalMarts?
Nah....doubt it.
That would be a long way off and I would hope that our problems here on Earth would be resolved first!
BUT, I can see groups of Scientists, Geologists, Biologists, Volcanologists and many others staying and working on other Planets or the Moon for perhaps a Year at a time.
That will not come in my life time...but many of you may see it yet.
As far as Monty's response about lifting Payloads to Space.
Would that be supplies from Earth?
They already take many Metric Tons of Cargo into orbit on the Shuttle with each launch. I am sure that should the time come that we are Colonizing another Celestial body, we will be launching ships with even greater payloads on a regular basis...not several times a year, but several times a week.Yes, but the thing with the Shuttle is that the fleet is ridiculously small, and each vehicle needs weeks to be turned around and flown again. Single use rockets are worse: Many millions of dollars and man hours and hundreds of tonnes of metal are used a single time to get one satellite into orbit. The manufacturing and infrastructure requirements are immense per kilogram launched.

Next to this, Scaled Composites looks as small as a backyard operation- but they achieved a really amazing thing in 2004 when they scooped the X prize.

Your key words are "regular basis'.

If Spaceshipone and spaceshiptwo lead to Cargoshipone and Cargoshiptwo, then we will see the tried and true concept of aviation seamlessly melded with a reusable orbiter to provide very (relatively) low risk, cost and maintenance transport to low earth orbit. Most importantly, you won't be making a whole new rocket or external tank for every launch, or having to go through a protracted maintenance procedure between flights- it will be nuch more like general aviation is now for the carrier aircraft at least.

Heady stuff.Leaving other Planets or Moons with Ore or other Natural Resources should be much easier than Launching from the Earth. Especially with the lessor gravity found on our Moon and others in Orbit around other Planets.
However, the Gravitational pull of some planets may be too great to make it worth while to explore for some time!Precisely. The gas giants Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are completely out for landings as any solid surface they have will be thousands of kilometers deep under very dense atmospheres.

Mercury is ridiculously close to the sun- that will probably be the penultimate frontier of manned exploration/exploitation in the Solar System.

Venus has a dense, hot and corrosive atmosphere. It's likely people will never go there.

Mars remains.

As do the Moon and dozens (or hundreds- depending on how small you want to go) of moons (mostly of Jupiter and Saturn) and asteroids. The moons of the two largest gas giants could be very, very promising indeed. These moons could be ideal bases from which to 'atmosphere mine' virtually limitless amounts of hydrocarbons from gas giants.

Right now, there's zero incentive to go out there except for sheer curiosity.

When we eventually become pressed for resources or living space on Earth, we will move spaceward, stabilise or perish.

[Big Ozzie]

I agree completely, Monte! Let's satisfy our curiosity now! :xyxthumbs:
But wait until it is TOO late here on Earth to do anything about it! :eek7:

[Tilly]

If they built a space colony at the end of a space elevator, would you live there?

I sure as hell would.

I would also not mind living on the moon or mars, either.

[hoschiadedodi]

^^^Even if you're not allowed to bring a sword?

Just kidding, but I think the first people living in space ´will be scientists like those living in the arctic/antarctic regions. It'll be very lonesome and boring.

[tgd_02]

-nt
tl;dr

[Tilly]

^^^Even if you're not allowed to bring a sword?

Just kidding, but I think the first people living in space ´will be scientists like those living in the arctic/antarctic regions. It'll be very lonesome and boring.

Hmmm...not being allowed to bring a sword just outweighs the appeal. How else would I cut down my enemies in space?

[brownbearclan]

^^^Even if you're not allowed to bring a sword?

Just kidding, but I think the first people living in space ´will be scientists like those living in the arctic/antarctic regions. It'll be very lonesome and boring.

Nah they just need a few essential "supplies" like booze, drugs, women, TV, and internet. GTG. :xyxthumbs:

[loadrunner]

I think the moon is goint to be a launch bay. it takes 10% of the energy to launch, from there.

I think when we have bigger spaceships, the moon wil be the docking bay. so bigger ships, with more supplys can be launched into the dark

[Snuff.]

Almost certainly. Currently, (as I understand it) the best shot we've got at controlled fusion is with the use of helium-3. The problem is that it's incredibly rare on Earth (especially given the quantities that would be needed) and the cost to produce it is astronomical and renders nuclear fusion completely inefficient. The moon, however, is thought to contain vast stores of the stuff and is our best shot at building a 'fusion civilisation'.

I doubt it will be colonised in the way the OP suggests, but certainly we'll see mining colonies on the moon should civilisation live long enough. Similarly, Mars will be the prototype planet for terraforming application. ...But not for many, many centuries, I'd imagine.

All this is a big 'if'. The coming century will be the most trying time that human civilisation has yet experienced. When you consider the probability of us being here in the first place (just look at Monty's sig) prospecting for such things as advanced space travel and terraforming alien planets is pretty ridiculous. ...Fingers crossed though, hey?

[crazyjoe]

They have a space station out in space - another 10-20 years of technological advances(even though they could probably do it now) and I think we will see it happen.

[DC Thug]

is option 3 supposed to be a yes? or depending on one's view of star trek, a no? What would Shatner choose...

[Raidenator]

Let's build a giant fucking bridge to the moon. How kick ass would that be? Then when people drive their cars out into space they'd be driving like hover cars and they would hover and then they'd get to the moon and it'd be awesome and they were married.

[eruptionx]

i think eventually in like 5000 AD we will be able to live on mars and possibly have space colonies of some sort too

[UnregisteredSexOffender]

they should build a taco bell on the moon that only serves cheesy beefy melts and code red mountain dew. That's my kind of t bizzle

[Raidenator]

they should build a taco bell on the moon that only serves cheesy beefy melts and code red mountain dew. That's my kind of t bizzle

Fuck Code Red. It should be that orange mountain dew shit. Or game fuel. That shit kicks ass.