Should NASA go to Mars or back to the Moon?

Giving opinions is what we do here, but in your case you refuse to acknowledge that space is an undertaking of the collective, and that the will of the collective is the law.

We have a ton of problems at home that demand our immediate attention, so why in the hell would anyone want to divert time, money and energy into space exploration right now?? It seems to me that the one who is grasping a straws to escape the problems that man has created for himself, looking to escape into the frontier, is the defective one...

First, expansion of the species beyond our vulnerable biosphere is critical to the long-term survival of the species.

Second, because the process of expanding brings about scientific gains which will help solve many of our problems here on Earth.

well hell, that is an admission that humans are inferior biological life forms and should be exterminated. Life forms that destroy their biospheres and then have the unmitigated gall to seek out new biospheres to destroy should be stopped before they are allowed to infect some perfectly fine place. I wonder if we should be expecting a visit form the galactic police anytime soon??

So far this technology based modern civilization has used technology to over populate the earth and allowed us to be well on the way to destroying the earths ability to support biologic lifeforms....I am holding out for a better plan so pardon me if I am not all ga-ga over the proposed next wave of technological advance...

Giving opinions is what we do here, but in your case you refuse to acknowledge that space is an undertaking of the collective, and that the will of the collective is the law. You are free to try to influence the collective, and so far your argument is that it is a moral imperative, that anyone who does not want to explore space is a defective human. That is kinda insulting but ok fine....why must we keep looking into the frontiers? We have a ton of problems at home that demand our immediate attention, so why in the hell would anyone want to divert time, money and energy into space exploration right now?? It seems to me that the one who is grasping a straws to escape the problems that man has created for himself, looking to escape into the frontier, is the defective one...

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First, expansion of the species beyond our vulnerable biosphere is critical to the long-term survival of the species.

well hell, that is an admission that humans are inferior biological life forms and should be exterminated. Life forms that destroy their biospheres and then have the unmitigated gall to seek out new biospheres to destroy should be stopped before they are allowed to infect some perfectly fine place. I wonder if we should be expecting a visit form the galactic police anytime soon??...

...Two reasons:

First, expansion of the species beyond our vulnerable biosphere is critical to the long-term survival of the species.

Second, because the process of expanding brings about scientific gains which will help solve many of our problems here on Earth.

You need to think a little bigger... our petty problems aren't going anywhere, no matter how much we get on top of various social problems, we will just invent new ones to worry about. We can't let that hold us back from furthering the destiny of our species.

Cycloptichorn

Cycloptichorn wrote:

...Two reasons:

First, expansion of the species beyond our vulnerable biosphere is critical to the long-term survival of the species.

Second, because the process of expanding brings about scientific gains which will help solve many of our problems here on Earth.

You need to think a little bigger... our petty problems aren't going anywhere, no matter how much we get on top of various social problems, we will just invent new ones to worry about. We can't let that hold us back from furthering the destiny of our species.

Cycloptichorn

I thought you'd want to weigh in on this. Welcome to the discussion.

So, basically, you're using the "humans should be exterminated argument?"

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So, basically, you're using the "humans should be exterminated argument?"

No, I am using the we should fix ourselves before we look for new digs to ruin argument. The focus should be inwards, as in what is wrong with us that we would behave so badly and what can we do to make ourselves a better species, instead of outwards looking for a new home.

It's hard to believe how short-sighted and foolish people can be on this subject. Limiting our future expansion helps nobody at all; it actually decreases the resource pool significantly for everybody, even though it takes resources to accomplish in the short-term.

Cycloptichorn & hawkeye10, I can see merit in both your views.

But in roughly 50 years of space exploration we're still using either solid or liquid fueled rockets to get into orbit. Our vehicles, either manned or unmanned that have made it to other celestial bodies, are still just "falling" through space at about 28000km/h. There are no inhabitable worlds within reach, and we don't appear to yet have the ability to make the most likely one (Mars) suitable for human habitation with our current knowledge and technology. I look out at the stars and wish I could explore it myself. But our species ain't going anywhere soon. Short of the most significant technological breakthroughs in human history, seems unlikely to me that we're going to go anywhere at all.

God in Heaven! No one has seriously believed for a long time that anyplace else in this solar system is inhabitable by humans.

What about the trillions of other solar systems???

What about the possibility of other civilizations out there among those trillions of worlds?

You do have a lot of self hate but most of us do not have that.

Which target would you choose?