The Space Age is 50

[karohemd]

Sputnik was launched 50 years ago. Blimey. Uncle Gerald has been a radio amateur since he was 12 (and built his first receiver) and one of his big accomplishments was being able to tune into Sputnik's signal.

While technology has improved significantly since then and the ISS has been a reality for a number of years, actual human exploration of space has advanced nor further than the Moon and that was almost 40 years ago. Interestingly, other aspects of technology/science have advanced a lot quicker but some of the icons of early SciFi (flying cars, humans in space etc.) are still out of reach whereas some things very few people envisioned are a everyday reality (tiny computers, mobile phones etc.). There are plans for humans to land on Mars in the next decade or so but that's only the next planet in our huge solar system.
The NASA space effort ground to a halt after the Challenger accident but I think even if it hadn't happened, we wouldn't be much further.

Comments

[pmoodie.livejournal.com]

I read a good book about NASA and the stalled exploration of space a while back.

Basically, NASA seem to exist to keep the Space Shuttle on the go to mainatin lucrative contracts, even though it's a very inefficient system. And they actively block attempts at developing more cost-effective and efficient spacecraft which might make interplanetary travel a more feasible prospect.

I don't think the exporation of space will leap forward again until there's another Cold War, probably with China. It's a tragedy, but that seems to be what it takes to motivate governments and public alike to take an interest in exploring space. :(

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

*nods*

Not to mention that most of the US budget is currently burned in Iraq :o/
However, I'd prefer them to spend money on their own people (rebuilding New Orleans comes to mind, which still hasn't happened) than on another space race.

[pmoodie.livejournal.com]

I'd prefer them to spend money on their own people (rebuilding New Orleans comes to mind, which still hasn't happened) than on another space race.

Indeed. But I dearly want to take a trip into space before I die. It looks highly unlikely that it's going to happen. :(

We need to find a way to rekindle that pioneer spirit and get Joe Public interested in space again.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Fret not. A lot can happen in the next 30 or 40 years. There's still time.

[belak-krin.livejournal.com]

The trouble is, there isn't really anything out there. Certainly not within our reach.

While discovering how life might have existed on Mars is fascinating to the scientific community, it has little bearing on our day to day lives.

We all wanted to see what space was like. Turns out its just a bunch of rocks.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

*nods*
However, if the technology isn't gradually advanced (faster and more efficient propulsion systems etc.), the step outside the solar system will be impossible.
Faster than light travel is inconceivable to today's minds but modern space travel was inceivable 200 years ago, too so hope isn't lost. I'm just a bit worried that mankind will have destroyed itself (or Earth) before it gets that far. ;o)

In the long term, Earth won't have enough space for its inhabitants and they'll have to look elsewhere (biosphere colonies on the Moon or Mars aren't that inconceivable anymore, it's just getting there that's still a major hurdle) unless other SciFi measures are introduced (drastic birth control, killing off people after a certain age etc.).

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

To be honest it would probably do the universe a favour if mankind destroyed itself, looking at what we've done to the planet we already had. If I was an alien race I would confiscate all the space exploration equipment until we had stopped breaking everything we touched due to basic physical stupidity.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

*grins*
I think there have been quite a few SciFi stories in which exactly that happens. Like the TNG episodes this icon is from, at least if Picard hadn't managed to wiggle himself out again.

I hope it will happenn with a bang rather than gradually over a few hundred years.
Earth could always be in the way of an intergalactic bypass... ;o)