Private space exploration / colonization

[Yamori]

Since the government is sitting on its butt in regards to space exploration, the possibility of private space exploration and eventually colonization sometime in the future may become a reality.

There are already plans for a "space hotel" underway I believe.

What are your views on a company owning and developing a planet? Does that strike you as being better or worse than a government doing so?

[KaiineTN]

Just tell Mr. Bush that there is a seemingly endless supply of oil on Mars. That'll jumpstart some space programs!

[Ciladan]

lol bush attack

[Jennay]

God I fucking hate Walmart.

[Phlegm]

What are your views on a company owning and developing a planet? Does that strike you as being better or worse than a government doing so?

I think if a company is willing to spend a ton of money to explore and colonize a planet then they should reap the rewards. I dont have any problem with company owing a uninhabited planet if they get there first and plant their company logo flag.

[Zanchief]

Gore would have pushed a strong space program.

[DESX]

I dont think one company will ever .... or anytime soon have nearly enough resources to colonize a whole damn planet lol. Not even close not by far. It will have to be a joint venture by all/ or most of the goverments of the world to build the amount of equipment needed to make colonization of a planet possible.

Just tell Mr. Bush that there is a seemingly endless supply of oil on Mars. That'll jumpstart some space programs!

25 Tons of helium 3 could power the U.S. for about a year which is roughly the load of one space shuttle. It is estimated that their is 1 million tons of it on the moon so fuck oil. He might go for the Helium 3.

[DESX]

Double post but 1 ton of helium 3 is equivalent to $4 billion dollars of oil.

[Phlegm]

I dont think one company will ever .... or anytime soon have nearly enough resources to colonize a whole damn planet lol. Not even close not by far. It will have to be a joint venture by all/ or most of the goverments of the world to build the amount of equipment needed to make colonization of a planet possible.

Just tell Mr. Bush that there is a seemingly endless supply of oil on Mars. That'll jumpstart some space programs!

25 Tons of helium 3 could power the U.S. for about a year which is roughly the load of one space shuttle. It is estimated that their is 1 million tons of it on the moon so fuck oil. He might go for the Helium 3.

Since none of the cars run on Helium 3, I dont think this will happen

[DESX]

I dont think one company will ever .... or anytime soon have nearly enough resources to colonize a whole damn planet lol. Not even close not by far. It will have to be a joint venture by all/ or most of the goverments of the world to build the amount of equipment needed to make colonization of a planet possible.

Just tell Mr. Bush that there is a seemingly endless supply of oil on Mars. That'll jumpstart some space programs!

25 Tons of helium 3 could power the U.S. for about a year which is roughly the load of one space shuttle. It is estimated that their is 1 million tons of it on the moon so fuck oil. He might go for the Helium 3.

Since none of the cars run on Helium 3, I dont think this will happen

Yeah but all the power plants in the U.S. might want some of this id rather have my house running then worry about gas for my car atm.

[Ciladan]

I dont think one company will ever .... or anytime soon have nearly enough resources to colonize a whole damn planet lol. Not even close not by far. It will have to be a joint venture by all/ or most of the goverments of the world to build the amount of equipment needed to make colonization of a planet possible.

Just tell Mr. Bush that there is a seemingly endless supply of oil on Mars. That'll jumpstart some space programs!

25 Tons of helium 3 could power the U.S. for about a year which is roughly the load of one space shuttle. It is estimated that their is 1 million tons of it on the moon so fuck oil. He might go for the Helium 3.

Well what the hell is everyone waiting for?

[Phlegm]

I dont think one company will ever .... or anytime soon have nearly enough resources to colonize a whole damn planet lol. Not even close not by far. It will have to be a joint venture by all/ or most of the goverments of the world to build the amount of equipment needed to make colonization of a planet possible.

Just tell Mr. Bush that there is a seemingly endless supply of oil on Mars. That'll jumpstart some space programs!

25 Tons of helium 3 could power the U.S. for about a year which is roughly the load of one space shuttle. It is estimated that their is 1 million tons of it on the moon so fuck oil. He might go for the Helium 3.

Since none of the cars run on Helium 3, I dont think this will happen

Yeah but all the power plants in the U.S. might want some of this id rather have my house running then worry about gas for my car atm.

Bush is pushing to build new nuclear power plants for this job.

[DESX]

The best fuel or energy resource in my opinion that is in the near future is Tokamak fusion power.

[araby]

Here are my thoughts.

We have this ridiculous situation, where, there are a ton of our troops over in another country and they're fighting the latest war.

People making minimum wage can't pay their bills.

America is medicated on everything you can think of.

Tolerance is at an all time low, education too, while ignorance at an all time high.

I think colonization/exploration can be put on the back burner for now.

[DESX]

I dont think one company will ever .... or anytime soon have nearly enough resources to colonize a whole damn planet lol. Not even close not by far. It will have to be a joint venture by all/ or most of the goverments of the world to build the amount of equipment needed to make colonization of a planet possible.

Just tell Mr. Bush that there is a seemingly endless supply of oil on Mars. That'll jumpstart some space programs!

25 Tons of helium 3 could power the U.S. for about a year which is roughly the load of one space shuttle. It is estimated that their is 1 million tons of it on the moon so fuck oil. He might go for the Helium 3.

Since none of the cars run on Helium 3, I dont think this will happen

Bush is pushing to build new nuclear power plants for this job.

Yeah but all the power plants in the U.S. might want some of this id rather have my house running then worry about gas for my car atm.

Lol in 15 years I will guarentee you that nuclear power will be obsolete and energy needs will be met by most likely ... by biomass for then it will switch to Fusion power or Helium 3. Both of which produce MASSIVE amounts of energy for almost no resources.

[Phlegm]

I dont think one company will ever .... or anytime soon have nearly enough resources to colonize a whole damn planet lol. Not even close not by far. It will have to be a joint venture by all/ or most of the goverments of the world to build the amount of equipment needed to make colonization of a planet possible.

Just tell Mr. Bush that there is a seemingly endless supply of oil on Mars. That'll jumpstart some space programs!

25 Tons of helium 3 could power the U.S. for about a year which is roughly the load of one space shuttle. It is estimated that their is 1 million tons of it on the moon so fuck oil. He might go for the Helium 3.

Since none of the cars run on Helium 3, I dont think this will happen

Bush is pushing to build new nuclear power plants for this job.

Yeah but all the power plants in the U.S. might want some of this id rather have my house running then worry about gas for my car atm.

Lol in 15 years I will guarentee you that nuclear power will be obsolete and energy needs will be met by most likely ... by biomass for then it will switch to Fusion power or Helium 3. Both of which produce MASSIVE amounts of energy for almost no resources.

If you are correct on the timeline, you still will need somekind of powerplants for the next 15 years. Until the other power generators go online, nuclear reaction is what Bush is picking.

[Narrock]

Here are my thoughts.

We have this ridiculous situation, where, there are a ton of our troops over in another country and they're fighting the latest war.

People making minimum wage can't pay their bills.

America is medicated on everything you can think of.

Tolerance is at an all time low, education too, while ignorance at an all time high.

I think colonization/exploration can be put on the back burner for now.

Here are my thoughts on your thoughts...

Our troops fighting the war in Iraq is necessary.

People making minimum wage are being taught 2 lessons: First, that they can't buy everything they want. Second, that they should be looking into an education so that they can have a better quality of life.

We've made tremendous strides in medicine. Why not take advantage of it? My concern is the deadbeat single mom who thinks the proper way to raise a child is to work full time while having a nanny or day care raise their child. Then when the child starts acting up, the mother *approves* of putting the child on Ritalin to keep the child from acting up. That is a MAJOR pet peeve of mine.

Tolerance should not be at the top of anybody's list of stressors and concerns. I agree that our education system sucks and is at an all time low, and that ignorance is at an all time high, although the tolerance factor is totally unrelated. ie, a vote against gay marriage could be construed as "intolerant" by some radical left wingers, but it is far removed from ignorant or making someone "uneducated" for voting that way. (Save your breath Arlos. I'm not interested in your commentary.)

I agree with you that colonization should be put on hold for now. We have too many issues to deal with right here in the good ol U.S. of A. However, I do support space exploration.

As an additional note... I support nuclear power research.

[Arlos]

First of all, as you know, I radically disagree with the troops being in Iraq. Afghanistan, that was an absolute necessity, Iraq, no. And how many hundreds of billions have been spent on it now? Much better uses for that money.

Education should be one of the absolutely most fundamental things to be an absolute priority. Unfortunately, it has not been at all. "No Child Left Behind" is riddled with issues, and is seriously underfunded. If a 99th percentile school district, like Palo Alto, can be listed as a "troubled" district, and 1 step away from federal takeover, simply because the parents of a few children refused to allow their children to take the standardized test, which the schools have no control over, then something is very wrong with the law.

Now, combine issues with primary and secondary education, with the continued eroding of the assistance net for people to attend colleges, and you have a crisis. The Pell Grant and Stafford Loan programs have been continually eroded, with less and less funding available. Trust me, I have been personally effected by this. If we don't give ALL qualified students a chance to go to college, we're going to inevitably lose our innovation edge, and further devide into a nation of upper class vs McJobs drones.

Tolerance is an absolutely vital thing to teach people. What does IN-tolerance accomplish in society? The US has always been a huge amalgam of cultures, and with the world becoming increasingly globalized, the earlier we teach culture/faith/etc. tolerance to students, the better they will be able to adapt to the global business environment. You think a racist religious zealot, who is convinced that every aspect of the US is superior to everywhere else, who is sent to deal with a client in Nigeria, say, is going to be as successful as someone who's learned tolerance from the time they were knee-high to a duck? I think not.

One thing that isn't considered with the space program is that it has HUGE commercial spinoffs into the private sector, in products, technologies, expertise, etc. Go look up the list of current products and businesses that directly sprang out of the Space Program over the years, and you'll be astounded.

I AM in favor of Fusion research, as it has almost none of the waste problems that fission reactors do. I am, however, opposed to further expansion of fission plants, until we have a MUCH better plan in place to deal with the waste. As it is now, some of the waste produced is toxic for tens or hundreds of thousands of years, and it functionally cannot be contained in any sort of reasonable fashion.

Finally, as for Ritilin, yes, it is likely over-prescribed, but ADD and ADHD *ARE* real diseases, just like biological depression, and taking a medicine to control a disease, REGARDLESS of what the medicine is should not be stigmatised. Would you condemn a diabetic kid for taking insulin, or an asthmatic from using an inhaler? I think not. Why then condemn someone who really does have one of these conditions from taking medicine to control their condition?

-Arlos