A picture is worth a thousand words in this case. Here are some glorious pictures taken in February (2012) from space.com:
http://www.space.com/14671-photos-venus-moon-jupiter-conjunction-skywatching-images.html
Monday, February 27, 2012
Sunday, February 26, 2012
NASA's loss of focus is a blessing in disguise
When the shuttle was retired last year (Atlantis - July 21, 2011), it signaled then end of an era for the US space program. Now NASA will be focusing more on robotic missions, and the current administrator (Charles Bolden) made a statement in 2010 where he stated "NASA's foremost mission was better relations w/ the Muslim world.", admittedly a little strange.
However, NASA's loss of focus is actually a blessing in disguise.
This leaves the door open for private companies to commercialize space, and it is far more lucrative to commercialize space for the purpose of space settlement than space exploration.
Let me explain.
Building a permanent self-sufficient space settlement will be hugely expensive but it can be commercially viable, especially if the settlement is involved in mining near earth objects for their metal content and trading with the Earth. Mining is just one example of how Space Settlement can be considered a good ROI for enterprising companies. Another is the potential to manufacture certain products that can only be produced well in zero or near zero G environments.
Sending robots to roam the distant solar system is very important for the advancement of science and should be continued, however the discoveries we make will not bring any immediate, tangible benefits, economically speaking. That's why all of the money for these programs is funded through tax dollars and is a government run enterprise.
However, NASA's loss of focus is actually a blessing in disguise.
This leaves the door open for private companies to commercialize space, and it is far more lucrative to commercialize space for the purpose of space settlement than space exploration.
Let me explain.
Building a permanent self-sufficient space settlement will be hugely expensive but it can be commercially viable, especially if the settlement is involved in mining near earth objects for their metal content and trading with the Earth. Mining is just one example of how Space Settlement can be considered a good ROI for enterprising companies. Another is the potential to manufacture certain products that can only be produced well in zero or near zero G environments.
Sending robots to roam the distant solar system is very important for the advancement of science and should be continued, however the discoveries we make will not bring any immediate, tangible benefits, economically speaking. That's why all of the money for these programs is funded through tax dollars and is a government run enterprise.
Saturday, February 25, 2012
The Lifeboat Foundation
lifeboat.com is a site promoting scientific advances to mitigate against existential threats to the human species, one of them being establishing settlements in space:
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Lifeboat Foundation is pursuing a variety of options, including helping to accelerate the development of technologies to defend humanity, including new methods to combat viruses (such as RNA interference and new vaccine methods), effective nanotechnological defensive strategies, and even self-sustaining space colonies in case the other defensive strategies fail.
We believe that, in some situations, it might be feasible to relinquish technological capacity in the public interest (for example, we are against the U.S. government posting the recipe for the 1918 flu virus on the Internet). We have some of the best minds on the planet working on programs to enable our survival. We invite you to join our cause!
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From this link: http://lifeboat.com/ex/space.habitats, there is an excellent explanation of how we can establish settlements in space in the foreseeable future.
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Mission Statement
The Lifeboat Foundation is a nonprofit nongovernmental organization dedicated to encouraging scientific advancements while helping humanity survive existential risks and possible misuse of increasingly powerful technologies, including genetic engineering, nanotechnology, and robotics/AI, as we move towards the Singularity.Lifeboat Foundation is pursuing a variety of options, including helping to accelerate the development of technologies to defend humanity, including new methods to combat viruses (such as RNA interference and new vaccine methods), effective nanotechnological defensive strategies, and even self-sustaining space colonies in case the other defensive strategies fail.
We believe that, in some situations, it might be feasible to relinquish technological capacity in the public interest (for example, we are against the U.S. government posting the recipe for the 1918 flu virus on the Internet). We have some of the best minds on the planet working on programs to enable our survival. We invite you to join our cause!
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From this link: http://lifeboat.com/ex/space.habitats, there is an excellent explanation of how we can establish settlements in space in the foreseeable future.
Friday, February 24, 2012
We belong in space
A great collection of articles on space settlement is found here by compiled by Al Globus. In summary,
"The key advantage of space settlements is the ability to build new land, rather than take it from someone else. This allows a huge expansion of humanity without war or destruction of Earth's biosphere. The asteroids alone provide enough material to make new orbital land hundreds of times greater than the surface of the Earth, divided into millions of colonies. This land can easily support trillions of people."
"The key advantage of space settlements is the ability to build new land, rather than take it from someone else. This allows a huge expansion of humanity without war or destruction of Earth's biosphere. The asteroids alone provide enough material to make new orbital land hundreds of times greater than the surface of the Earth, divided into millions of colonies. This land can easily support trillions of people."
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Floating to Space
http://jpaerospace.com/ is a company that is pioneering the idea of literally floating to space (From John Powell, the president of the organization. We may eventually be able to lower the cost of space travel significantly by using both balloons to reach the edge of space and perhaps ion propulsion systems to gradually push us out of the atmosphere.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Space Settlement vs. Space Exploration
Think about Space Settlement instead of Space Exploration. Space Exploration is best left to robots exploring the distant reaches of our Solar System. Space Settlement would be done near the Earth (just beyond the atmosphere), so resupply missions and trade With the Space Settlement colonies would not take a long time.
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