How will we explore space?

[Xelios]

The Phoenix Lander thread is getting derailed, but there's some interesting discussions about how we'll explore interstellar space going on. So here's a shiny new poll. Lets assume we're talking about exploration to other star systems, not whether we'll send a manned mission to Mars or other satellites in our solar system.

A little clarification about the options:

Von Neumann Probes - self replicating robotic probes that explore space on their own and send the data back to Earth.

Biologically altered humans - we still have biological bodies, but we change them (or they evolve) to become more adapted to interstellar travel

Artificial bodies - robotic bodies, nanite bodies, virtual reality existence, those sorts of things. We take our minds but leave our biological bodies behind.

Humans as we know them - we use technology to create ships/colonies that cater to our biological bodies as they are now (like Star Trek).

[D H]

You need to add an option to your poll: We won't explore interstellar space.

[cosmictraveler]

We will send whatever we can, whenever we can, to help humans advance scientific knowledge of the Cosmos.:)

[SeveredLimbDebris]

I'm inclined to agree with those sentiments.....but there's always the possibility (and plausability) of some kind of catastrophic event occurring that reverts our advancement back quite a ways. I mean, who knows, maybe we've had a leg up on whatever other civilizations may exist out there in the cosmos, as far as dodging any massive collisions, all-out nuclear warfare, etc etc and so forth - so maybe our progression will continue sans cosmic/earthly threats and we'll be sending robotic probes out into the great beyond before you can say "John Candy".

[cosmictraveler]

As long as the money is there to explore in space, humans will explore. Only when funding runs out will there be a stop to exploration. Right now, there's enough data that has already been collected by spacecraft to last over 20 years of going through it and more data is streaming in daily.

[Nasor]

It will surely be some combination. We will probably develop the technology to send a few tons of probe to another star long before we have the technology to send people (either regular people or engineered people). Also, we would surely want to have at least some idea of what’s in another star system before we send people to it – it would suck to invest years of your life on a mission to another star system only to discover that there’s nothing interesting there. Most likely we would send out robotic probes first, then follow them up with manned missions if it looks like there’s something in the starsystem to make it worth the trip.

Regarding engineering humans, the biggest change would probably simply be increasing our natural lifespans. Any mission would take years at least, maybe decades. Making a trip that’s 15 years each way would be a lot more attractive if your lifespan was hundreds of years instead of 80 or so. Medical science is working pretty hard on this anyway, so people might eventually have much longer lifespans regardless of whether or not they want to go to other stars.

Artificail bodies seems like it’s just a variation on robotic probes. Surely any probe to another star would have a pretty sophisitcated computer system controling it. I’m not sure it really matters if the computer brain thinks it’s a person or not.

In any case, manned missions to other stars would probably require either lots of antimatter or some way to freeze people/put them in stasis during the trip. Even if you life for many hundreds of years, there’s a limit to how long you’re going to be willing to spend trapped on a ship.

[cosmictraveler]

manned missions to other stars would probably require either lots of antimatter or some way to freeze people/put them in stasis during the trip.

Or a "Star Gate" type of device that could open a worm hole and let humans travel through it to anywhere in the universe in an instant.

[Nasor]

Or a "Star Gate" type of device that could open a worm hole and let humans travel through it to anywhere in the universe in an instant.
Yeah, but that's almost the same as saying "we'll use magic". We should probably stick with foreseeable technology. If we allow for the possibility that we'll have wild technology that's not at least somewhat foreseeable to us today, speculation is pretty pointless anyway. And in any case, even if we do eventually develop god-like technology for instantly transporting stuff around the universe, we’ll probably develop things like fusion or antimatter-powered spaceships, stasis/freezing technology, etc. first. We have at least some idea how to do that, even if we don’t know the specifics.

[Forceman]

I think it would be a combination of humans to celestial objects in our vicinity and humanoids to far out bodies. But probes would be the most probable solution even though I voted artificial bodies, which I regret.

P.S. Wouldn't it be cool if NASA scientists and MIT and Harvard professors posted on this website.

[draqon]

We will explore humans both as humans and through robots...the age when humans will merge with robots will be many thousand (if not more) years when we will be a space fairing civilization.

[draqon]

P.S. Wouldn't it be cool if NASA scientists and MIT and Harvard professors posted on this website.

if they did...they wouldn't be MIT and Harvards professors. People like that dont waist their time on this talk, they do research...research...and more research.

[Oli]

And they never, ever enjoy themselves by doing something frivolous in their spare time.

[draqon]

And they never, ever enjoy themselves by doing something frivolous in their spare time.

the only hobby I can think of is that professors are men too...they need to rock on just we normal do...at night. To them science is life, a hobby, and a babe to cherish.

[orcot]

space wasps for starters

[cosmictraveler]

Every year, bright and eager young physics students are being misled by "scientific" dogma conspirators who claim that light, not darkness, is the stuff that moves through the universe carrying energy. This page is dedicated to those hardy, brave souls who know the deeper truth and aren't ashamed to admit it: that so-called "light sources" are really dark suckers, that "light" is nothing more than the absence of darkness, and that it is darkness, not light, which is the fundamental radiative transport mechanism of the universe.

http://home.netcom.com/~rogermw/darksuck.txt

http://home.netcom.com/~rogermw/darksucker.html

[Forceman]

I agree.