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New link in the top of page "IRC Chat". |
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| User | Post |
| Cairoi Posts: 3171/3807 |
Actually pretty psyched for all this. Shame I'll be too old to really enjoy it. :/ |
| Lord Vulkas Mormonus Posts: 3145/4541 |
Eh, honestly, I'm fairly skeptical about the whole thing, the space program hasn't grown much at all for a long time, and other than sending probes to Mars, I don't even know what they've been doing sicne the invention of the space shuttle.
IT would still be cool though. |
| Cyro Xero Posts: 1434/1779 |
Something I read up on at Space.com. Not a lot of things you think will happen will, and a lot of stuff you never knew would happen seemingly will. I myself relish the though of a space elevator. A tool like that could be very beneficial for launch programs.
http://www.space.com/news/081001-nasa50-road-ahead.html [edit]Dag, people! 22 views but not a single post? NOBODY is interested in our space program?? Here's the highlight: So the future of space in 50 years can't be foretold in detail, it's always in motion. Sounds like it's time to take the plunge and offer some debatable ideas. Some Predictions The one thing we can predict with certainty is that by the year 2058 we will not have spaceships capable of flying faster than light, despite the suggestion of another science fiction franchise that predicts the invention of warp drive in 2063. Now for the uncertainty. Try this out for size, in 2058: NASA is still around and narrowly focused on exploration and the goal of extending human presence throughout the solar system. The first humans have long since landed on Mars and there is a thriving science colony near the moon's south pole. Construction has begun on a radio telescope on the moon's far side and the lunar base has been established for years as one of the nation's centers for excellence in fusion and alternative energy research. NASA probes continue to reconnoiter the planets not only in our system, but with new telescopes and imaging techniques we are exploring planet in other systems and have discovered several Earth-like planets. While proof of life - ancient and bacteria-sized - exists throughout the solar system, there is still no sign of intelligent life in the universe, not that NASA is looking. In fact, by 2058, the U.S. military's space program has evolved considerably and there the ones charged with keeping on eye on the stars for any potential threat, whether from intelligent life or accidental rock throwing. It will be the military, in the name of national security, that will develop some of the more exotic and interesting spacecraft of the 21st Century, and will by 2058 be close to achieving the goal of a single-stage-to-orbit spaceplane - if they haven't already. In the meantime, the commercial space world by 2058 has become a major component of the space program, bigger and busier and more productive than NASA and the military combined. Commercial space will almost exclusively be who you turn to when you want to travel to or from low-Earth orbit. The number of nations in the launch business or capable of launching something into orbit will be surprisingly greater than in 2008. Commercial space tourism each year will provide hundreds of people the opportunity to vacation in an orbiting hotel, launching from spaceports sprinkled throughout the world. Trips to orbit the moon will be possible, and lunar hotels at the Sea of Tranquility may not be out of the question. (Please note that we cannot guarantee a room with a window view of the Apollo 11 lunar landing site at the Sea of Tranquility, which is surrounded by a security gate and is considered off limits so no one disturbs Neil Armstrong's and Buzz Aldrin's footprints.) Suborbital hops as thrill rides - popular in the first quarter of the century - will become passe by 2058 as the space planes grow larger and become integrated with the world's air traffic system so that 45-minute hops from Miami to Tokyo become possible. Along those same lines, the cargo folks like FedEx and UPS also will embrace this transportation mode for when it positively has to be on the other side of the planet on the same day. |
