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The Top Three Reasons for Humans in Space
An anonymous reader writes "Why humans in space? The Space Review has the top three reasons: 3. To work. 2. To live. 1. To survive. 'To work' means doing stuff in space: research, explore, visit, etc. 'To live' means to have humans/life beyond Earth in colonies/settlements. 'To survive' means that putting humans/life beyond Earth is a very Good Thing in case a very Bad Thing happens to humans/life on Earth."
That is the job for NOAA (National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration).
- "Every demand is a prison, and wisdom is only free when it asks nothing." Sir Betrand Russell
NASA stands for "National Air and Space Administration". Nowhere do I see "sea" or "water". Give mony to NOAA for that.
Mens et Manus
Might as well start at some point though. If we keep putting it off, we'll never be able to colonize space.
Yeah, you might then say 'that money could better be spent on making the earth better'. Sounds great, but thats not where money diverted from space research goes.
Plus, fixing earth won't help if a Bad Thing (tm) happens to earth that we can't help.
But yeah, I we governments would take cleaning up the earth seriously though. At the rate we're screwing up earth I doubt we'll have a self sustaining environment ready in time.
printf("Goodbye cruel world!\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b");
That is not correct. The issue was never one of whether Galileo was correct, but it was the treatment of Galileo and others. A nice write-up of it is here.
Some of the other things Lewis thought were evil in the same series: large corporations (especially those run by Satan), lesbians, biologists, non-Christians in general. They are fun to read, tho, if you can get past Lewis personal biases.
Intron: the portion of DNA which expresses nothing useful.
It's not about where it's safest. Tell me, are your backup tapes safer locked in your secure climate controlled data center, or at your house under your bed? Now tell me where you'd want your backup tapes to be if your building burnt to the ground.
-- Dave
Making fun of dumb people since 2009
(With apologies to turgid. This doesn't necessarily all apply to you. You're just the trigger. Maybe I just have a case of the Mondays...)
Shut up. You are wrong. We are not all liberals. We are not all conservatives. We aren't all atheists, and we don't all believe in God. There is no moderator's conspiracy, get over it. Sometimes moderators or other posters won't agree with you. Get over it.
Here's some hints on how to get along:
Treat other people with respect, especially when you don't agree with them.
If you are going on a rant let us know so we can take what you say in context, and so we know that you know the difference between a rant and a reasoned argument. Same goes with sarcasm.
If you are taking a stand, back it up with some researched links so we can check it out for ourselves.
Treat everyone as if they are intelligent human beings capable of forming their own opinions, especially if you think the opposite of them.
I know discussing ideas and opinions in this way is not nearly as much fun as beating the dead high horse you rode in on, but it does go a long way to actually getting your point across, which last time I checked is the actual purpose of communication as opposed to exhibitionist mental masturbation.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
You've never been to northern Canada have you? It's been done.
Yes, I have. A good three-hour puddle-jumper flight North-by-Northwest from Red Lake, Ontario. We spent a week just a few miles North of "nowhere" and a little East of "whothefuckknows."
Apart from the "ozone hole", it's lovely in the summer time. Great fishing, pretty country, lots of trees, and like Mars in almost no way whatsoever. Also, they've got those neat little two-dollar coins which are almost the exact right ammount to tip your waitress if you buy breakfast in a cheap diner on your way up there.
I certainly didn't feel much like a space explorer as I took a nap in the Lund fishing boat on a quiet lake as eagles flew by.
The point of the Antarctica analogy is that it's not only cold, barren, and inhospitable all year round, but it's also very, very remote. Once you get a few hundred miles inland, you are out of radio contact with pretty much everybody, and emergency help can be a matter of a days away... longer if it's too stormy for flying.
Living on a Mars colony would be like living at Ice Station Zebra, except you would be even more cut off from the rest of civilization, because at times the Earth can be up to about 15-20 light-minutes away. Need your appendix taken out? You better have a facility there for it, and you better not happen to be the only doctor they sent to take care of such things, or you are screwed.
Oh yeah... and there's no water, and you can't breathe outside. Sounds like a real party, huh?
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
Now, we shouldn't go around destroying other life forms we find, but turning sterile environments into healthy biospheres can't be bad thing, whether or not life is rare.
You have two hands and one brain, so always code twice as much as you think!