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How or why is this even an idea? Where did you get such a bizarre pseudo-religious idea from?

http://www.distancetomars.com/

No, you don't. That's some kind of pseudo-religious woo you picked up as a child reading sci-fi written by Space Nutters.

Space is dead, deadly, empty, hostile, and barren. It's not like the movies.

Contemplate the enormous chasm of nothing that is space. Then ask yourself how many times you have to breathe in a minute. Or eat in a day.

http://www.distancetomars.com/

Also, no one has ever explained to me how sending people into a vacuum with mostly nothing in it (average density of the universe: 1 atom per cubic meter) is "exploring".

We've found out more about the universe sitting at our telescopes in the 1930s than Neil Armstrong ever did.

a little closer in terms of shipping costs

According to this animation, the distances to the moon and mars are 3k and 428k pixels away, respectively. Do you consider that a 100 times bigger distance isn't an issue? Is the cost of doing something 1 day the same than doing it during 100 days? And what about the potential problems? Same likelihood in both scenarios? And what about delays, need for help or equivalent? Everything the same? The results (the costs) are identical within a 100 times range? I don't think so.

"To help build a way to take us to the stars.'

Why does this come up so often with geeks? Especially the gamer and programmer sub-species?

http://www.distancetomars.com/

http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the...

Anyone who's given space a moment's thought will realize that absolutely *none* of those pseudo-religious, doomsday, romantic, colonialist fantasies will *ever* happen.

Your first link, www.distancetomars.com stated it would only be 150 days. That's doable.

"I strongly believe that from the POV of this simple earthling outer space belongs to us all "

LOL. You have people that can't even feed themselves and you're worried about a vacuum?

http://www.distancetomars.com/

"So my dream is to start building an ISS2 in a cislunar orbit, also orbiting the earth and moon."

And for what? For who? For your fantasies? Send a camera with a radio. That's all you need there.

is that most people seem unable to grasp the distances involved. Even people who should know better. It's amazing to me the amount of people sitting comfortably at their desks surrounded by everything they need and describe the most fantastic fact-free unrealistic scenarios.

http://www.distancetomars.com/

http://www.centauri-dreams.org...
http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the...

It's over, folks, the Space Age's corpse will be on display for all worshipers, and it aint' going anywhere.

A space program? Sure. Drink all the Tang in Low Earth Orbit you want. Bounce all the Ku band you want off satellites. Heck, it's what I do for a living.

Thinking the species must leave this rock and colonize the universe on 3D printed space elevator private startups, not so much.

Bringing up all this tiresome shit about how I only have a computer because of Apollo? Blow it out your ass.

http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the...
http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the...
http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the...
http://www.distancetomars.com/
http://www.computerhistory.org...

http://i67.tinypic.com/35c278x...

"reach into space"... Such emotional language!

http://distancetomars.com/

Geek doesn't mean "naive, wide-eyed dreamer". You are a Space Nutter and belong in a church, not a geek website.

Every single piece of scientific and engineering information shows that space is a no-go for the kind of grandiose fantasies you cling to.

http://www.distancetomars.com/
http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the...
http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the...

"if someone wants to put a fucking space colony on the moon, FUCKING AWESOME."

Egyptians 5000 years ago built really fucking awesome tombstones. So?

" We're not going to get off this rock until people start doing shit, "

Well that solves that! BTW, for the curious, "get off this rock" is a Space Nutter dog whistle. You hear that, and pretty soon you'll a bunch of unrealistic naive dreamers show up with the "species" and the "asteroid of doom".

99% of these people are depressed, misanthropic programmers, ie the last people on Earth you should listen to for what's realistic in the real world.

"Fuck off, some of us have dreams."

Oddly, you always have exactly the same dream, the dream of the 1960s Space Age sci-fi, which itself was driven by Russian Cosmism mysticism.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Where are the life extension dreamers? Where are the leisure society dreamers?

Your "dream" is basically the past of the USA, but with rockets.

Grow up, nutcase. Go talk to a girl or something.

Nice example. Going to the Moon was a one-shot stunt with no practical uses. (and yes, we never went back).

So now in order to pursue the space religion, you set your sights even further and make up even more outlandish excuses to justify the Irrelevant Space Scam.

http://distancetomars.com/

How about Venus? Then we'd be twice as safe, and according to you we have the technology, right?

Here's something fun you can watch while you sit comfortably in your living room on this rock:

http://www.distancetomars.com/

If you call 1945 "zero", that's your first problem. By 1945, we had just finished a nuclear war. Call it what you want, but WWII was a nuclear war. In 1945 we had jet engines, rockets, unmanned missiles, radar, radio, solid-state RF detectors, computers and digital voice encryption.

Your second problem is that you assume that there's something worthwhile to be done by a man in space. Again, by 1945, Vannevar Bush knew that sending people into space was nothing more than a stunt. He knew it with "zero" knowledge, why can't you?

And your third problem is the emotionally loaded word "exploration". We know what's out there. We know how rockets work. We built them! What's to "explore"?

"I remember as a kid anticipating a shot of going to distant worlds as an adult, "

The adult should know this:

http://www.distancetomars.com/

The adult should also know that kid's shows are no guide to reality. That was *fantasy*.

"wanted to see things happen faster"

They did. We don't even have Concorde anymore. We got better at processing information using less and less energy per bit.

They didn't see that coming in the 1960s.

Things are just the way they are because they can't really be any other way, barring some fundamental upheaval in our view of the universe.

The last upheavals were the ultraviolet catastrophe and using oil for energy and chemical feedstocks.

Late 19th century stuff.

You got it straight. What's so shocking about it?

Imagination doesn't move mass.

http://distancetomars.com/
http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the...

Ooooohhh, into the upper atmosphere, and a few times to the nearest rock. Wow.

http://distancetomars.com/

"For one thing, testing various methods for keeping humans alive, healthy, and sane in space."

We already know how to do that. Put them on a planet. Problem solved, we're already here.

"We need to expand beyond Earth."

Who's "we"? What "need"? Simply baffling.

". To do that, we'll need space stations as jump-off points"

Wow.
Complete nonsense.

http://www.distancetomars.com/
http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the...

Put down the Battlestar Galactica DVDs and get a grip.

"Space is the future"

"was". The 1960s are over. We don't even have Concorde anymore and you loons are planning the future of the human race in space?

Crackpotted delusional nuttery.

There's not much to ponder. We also gave up colonizing the bottom of the ocean. Ponder this

http://distancetomars.com/

"You figure all of NASA, the european space agency, the Russians, the Chinese... the various private undertakings, every satellite manufacturer and service provider in the world... are all deluded, do you?"

Um, no? I figure that anyone who looks at a satellite and thinks "gee, now we can colonize Mars!" is the deluded one.

http://www.distancetomars.com/

I have *no* idea how you get your conclusion from what I post.

"Frankly, I'm quite confident the "nutter" here... is you. You, and the drooling idiot with mod points who cranked your insanity up past zero."

That's nice, and I'm quite confident that you, me and everyone else will all stay right here. Forever.

You can have all the time you want, it won't change the four fundamental forces of the universe or the periodic table of the elements.

But by all means, here's the horse: keep flogging it.

In the meantime the human race will pass you by as you stay stuck in the romantic visions of philosophers past.

Computers got better and 3D printers... and stuff. That's how it's going to happen. Don't you dare contradict the geeks with facts

http://www.distancetomars.com/

Their Space Derangement Syndrome will come out full blast! That is, until this dies down and is forgotten, just like the 1997 Japanese Space Hotel

http://www.cnn.com/TECH/9705/2...

or OTRAG...

"There's obviously nothing beyond the forest."

Said no one ever anywhere, only in the demented imagination of Space Nutters. And are you comparing the upper atmosphere to a *forest*??

Thing about space is, we have pictures. We KNOW there's nothing there.

http://distancetomars.com/

There's obviously nothing beyond the upper atmosphere. That's obvious to anyone with a modicum of intelligence. There's nothing, then the Moon, a dead rock, a whole lot of more nothing, and there's Mars with even more dead rocks.

How come none of you wants to colonize Venus since technology is so simple and we already have it?

We are here, and we're staying here. Looking at pictures of stuff incredibly far away and making plans to colonize it is a mental disease.

That's right, and we *will not* by any meaningful interpretation of the laws of physics, engineering, and reality.

http://www.distancetomars.com/

Why won't these Space Myths just die already? We no longer talk about Sealab and how we MUST explore the bottom of the ocean, or the leisure society with the ten hour workweek and stuff for all, although these two ideas make far more sense.