Author Topic: Deep Space and Interplanetary Exploration - The Universe is Timeless  (Read 176929 times)

rebs

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Re: Deep Space and Interplanetary Exploration, 2015
« Reply #60 on: 12 March 2015, 19:31:56 »
another possibility and I am just WAG'ing here  is it had a high speed grazing impact where a big chunk of whatever it was "clipped" the moon, and most of it kept going, however it was a "solid enough" impact that part of it calved off and  did some of the noticeable damage/effects, while another portion (and a bunch of the lunar material) "ejecta spattered" and ended up where it is today (more or less)

from what I remember the lunar nearside is a LOT less damaged than the lunar farside due to in part earth and gravity has shielded it from a lot of impacts, and earth hets protected by the moon from a significant number of "random" impacts.

That makes sense.  I misinterpreted ejecta, and thought of the type that gets blasted into orbit, and not piled and "shoved" across the surface.  Definitely, the surface between the craters on the far side - where there is fairly untouched surface - is terribly chaotic. 

Properly envisioning catastrophic asteroid strikes is very important to my daily routine, you see.  Thus the tangents that I so encourage here. 
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Re: Deep Space and Interplanetary Exploration, 2015
« Reply #61 on: 12 March 2015, 19:35:52 »
And we're all protected by mighty Zeus ;) Jupiter sucks in - relying on memory of a 1990s paper here - something upwards of 90% (vague memory it may be even higher) of random intersolar crud, plus your deep hyperbolic objects from Way Out There.

Talking of objects Way Out There ...
http://www.gizmag.com/exoplanet-interstellar-space/29405/

Yah, basically this doesn't look like a protostar or really weenie brown dwarf; this looks like a perfectly good young super-Jovian planet out for the scenic route. And I tie this back in by mentioning in the Interstellar Billards version of solar system formation (eg. the aforementioned Nice Model), things work better if you add a third ice giant to the mix; this poor "spare wheel" ends up being ejected high off the ecliptic into interstellar space, taking what would be otherwise large and annoying quantities of angular momentum with it, and helping circularise the orbits of the remaining gas/ice giants.

Now here's a challenge. Again, being a classicist (and fan of Larry Niven), I always subscribed to the "Pluto was a moon of Uranus, which got walloped HARD. The resulting energetics tipped Uranus over on its side, and sent Pluto into it's very eccentric orbit via some orbital synch shennanigans with Neptune".

What's the current thinking? Because it'll be interesting to see how many ways the latest probe will disprove that emotionally satisfying scenario ;)
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ANS Kamas P81

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Re: Deep Space and Interplanetary Exploration, 2015
« Reply #62 on: 12 March 2015, 21:55:21 »
Yah, basically this doesn't look like a protostar or really weenie brown dwarf; this looks like a perfectly good young super-Jovian planet out for the scenic route.
I'm
Too sexy for my star
Too sexy for my star
Too sexy by far
I'm a Jovian, you know what I mean
And I do my little turn
Yeah round the un'verse
Round the un'verse yeah
I shake my little moon
Round the un'verse
Now here's a challenge. Again, being a classicist (and fan of Larry Niven), I always subscribed to the "Pluto was a moon of Uranus, which got walloped HARD. The resulting energetics tipped Uranus over on its side, and sent Pluto into it's very eccentric orbit via some orbital synch shennanigans with Neptune".
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Re: Deep Space and Interplanetary Exploration, 2015
« Reply #63 on: 12 March 2015, 21:59:09 »
The 3rd profession ;)
* No, FASA wasn't big on errata - ColBosch
* The Housebook series is from the 80's and is the foundation of Btech, the 80's heart wrapped in heavy metal that beats to this day - Sigma
* To sum it up: FASAnomics: By Cthulhu, for Cthulhu - Moonsword
* Because Battletech is a conspiracy by Habsburg & Bourbon pretenders - MadCapellan
* The Hellbringer is cool, either way. It's not cool because it's bad, it's cool because it's bad with balls - Nightsky
* It was a glorious time for people who felt that we didn't have enough Marauder variants - HABeas2, re "Empires Aflame"

guardiandashi

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Re: Deep Space and Interplanetary Exploration, 2015
« Reply #64 on: 12 March 2015, 22:44:28 »
That makes sense.  I misinterpreted ejecta, and thought of the type that gets blasted into orbit, and not piled and "shoved" across the surface.  Definitely, the surface between the craters on the far side - where there is fairly untouched surface - is terribly chaotic. 

Properly envisioning catastrophic asteroid strikes is very important to my daily routine, you see.  Thus the tangents that I so encourage here.
and FYI I just was considering an "expanded" definition of ejecta
such as http://www.thefreedictionary.com/ejecta

basically: 
1.  (Geological Science) matter thrown out of a crater by an erupting volcano or during a meteorite impact

[C19: Latin, literally: (things) ejected; see eject]

so it doesn't have to reach escape velocity, it just has to be moved or thrown.  in the example we were using I just suggested that rather than a lunar shattering direct hit, it was a glancing blow, that still resulted in large amounts of material being thrown "up" the far side of the moon.

another possible explanation for the more extreme buildup on the far side of the moon is that that side gets a lot more strikes (duh) it is essentially vulnerable to impacts coming in from a bit more than 180 degrees in both horizontal and vertical directions whereas the "near" side has this big cone in the middle where junk would have had to come through the earth, (or some weird deflected courses) in order to hit there.  note this does not rule out these strikes from happening it just lowers the probability.

rebs

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Re: Deep Space and Interplanetary Exploration, 2015
« Reply #65 on: 12 March 2015, 22:49:40 »
And we're all protected by mighty Zeus ;) Jupiter sucks in - relying on memory of a 1990s paper here - something upwards of 90% (vague memory it may be even higher) of random intersolar crud, plus your deep hyperbolic objects from Way Out There.

Talking of objects Way Out There ...
http://www.gizmag.com/exoplanet-interstellar-space/29405/

Yah, basically this doesn't look like a protostar or really weenie brown dwarf; this looks like a perfectly good young super-Jovian planet out for the scenic route. And I tie this back in by mentioning in the Interstellar Billards version of solar system formation (eg. the aforementioned Nice Model), things work better if you add a third ice giant to the mix; this poor "spare wheel" ends up being ejected high off the ecliptic into interstellar space, taking what would be otherwise large and annoying quantities of angular momentum with it, and helping circularise the orbits of the remaining gas/ice giants.

Now here's a challenge. Again, being a classicist (and fan of Larry Niven), I always subscribed to the "Pluto was a moon of Uranus, which got walloped HARD. The resulting energetics tipped Uranus over on its side, and sent Pluto into it's very eccentric orbit via some orbital synch shennanigans with Neptune".

What's the current thinking? Because it'll be interesting to see how many ways the latest probe will disprove that emotionally satisfying scenario ;)

It's nothing but a drifter.  A loner, a rebel planet without a star.

You know, I always wondered about that...  Rogue Jovian planets, or even various "dark" stellar bodies that didn't make the fusion cutoff, or the lithium fusion cutoff for Brown Dwarfs, drifting like that.  They must be countless, rolling along through space; massive bowling balls, and here we sit perched atop some really nice pins.

The Uranus system shows obvious signs of catastrophe.  That's touched at least a little, from the axial tilt, to the twisted magnetic poles, to the moons, in almost everything I've ever read about the planet.  That is an interesting theory, Pluto being lost to it during that calamity.  Pluto has the size and it's in the area. 

And it's better than Neptune eating its moons.  Neptune can't have anything nice. 

obligatory edit:


Various dwarf planets and planet candidates.  Included are some of the faces in Pluto's neighborhood, as well as their near and far distances from the sun.  Thanks, wikimedia! 
« Last Edit: 12 March 2015, 22:59:53 by rebs »
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Re: Deep Space and Interplanetary Exploration, 2015
« Reply #66 on: 12 March 2015, 22:54:44 »
C'mon, I can't pass that straight line - better at lease than moons going inside Uranus ...

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rebs

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Re: Deep Space and Interplanetary Exploration, 2015
« Reply #67 on: 12 March 2015, 23:05:57 »
That would get anyone's magnetic poles all twisted up. 
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Re: Deep Space and Interplanetary Exploration, 2015
« Reply #68 on: 13 March 2015, 08:45:02 »
I hope they'll be able to afford spacecraft that could be used in the long term to explore all those planets on the fringe of the solar system.

It be interesting to see Haumea up close, it's oddest dwarf planet out there we can reach i think.
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Re: Deep Space and Interplanetary Exploration, 2015
« Reply #69 on: 13 March 2015, 11:33:49 »
We might want to check out 624 Hektor or 216 Kleopatra first if you want medium-sized objects with unusual shapes. Both are, like Haumea, twice as long as they are wide; Hektor is a 370-km long bilobate contact binary Jupiter Greek (the largest other object in Jupiter's orbit not orbiting Jupiter in fact), Kleopatra is a 200-km long contact binary in the Asteroid Belt that's shaped like a ham bone.

If we ever send something to Haumea, we might want something that can check out more than just one member of its collisional family - given that the interesting thing about Haumea is mostly that under current theories its collisional family is probably unique in the solar system.
« Last Edit: 13 March 2015, 11:44:47 by kato »

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Re: Deep Space and Interplanetary Exploration, 2015
« Reply #70 on: 13 March 2015, 19:13:37 »
Someone must have owned the image or the permissions.  My bad. 

But yes, if we're all familiar with the prominent KBOs and TNOs and Scattered Disc Objects, Haumea would be a cool target.  Eris would also be cool, except it is exceedingly far, considered to lie in the Scattered Disc these days.  It's still at or near perihelion IIRC, but is still nearly twice Pluto's distance.  Haumea is not exactly a jaunt around the corner, either.  Or Orcus, or Quaoar... 

I once saw a great orbit chart showing the orbits of all of those objects (except Sedna, but I've seen its millennium and a half or so long orbit too.  It may or may not be typical of Inner Oort Cloud Objects.  While I'm editing, that Would be a great place to probe out!  It's at or near its perihelion, too, its farthest distance being out of the question to ever get to in or lifetimes (not that it's going to get there that fast, either, but you know...), and it's closer than Eris right now, IIRC), and that was quite cool.   None of the prominent ones are anywhere close enough to each other in their current paths and positions for a single mission, unless we get Magic Fusion. 

So sighting smaller objects near to one or any of them would be enough to make a tour out of it.  An irregular object would be great to try to fit in to such a mission. 

Dreams...
« Last Edit: 13 March 2015, 19:25:49 by rebs »
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rebs

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Re: Deep Space and Interplanetary Exploration, 2015
« Reply #71 on: 13 March 2015, 19:39:16 »
NASA news is minimal about secondary targets for New Horizons after the Pluto encounter.  I had heard that some possible targets were found, so hopefully, that is the case.

While we await word regarding Philea from the anxiously quiet volks at the ESA, here's another article from the Planetary Society, this one about what to expect on the Pluto flyby later in July.  I nearly forgot how far it was.  Three days lagg!  Ugh!!!  It's going to bite.  But it should certainly be the most interesting instance of that particular feeling I've ever had, no doubt.

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2015/03101637-pluto-image-expectations.html

edit: I know it's not three days, but it's still some lagg! 
« Last Edit: 13 March 2015, 21:18:17 by rebs »
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rebs

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Re: Deep Space and Interplanetary Exploration, 2015
« Reply #72 on: 15 March 2015, 01:53:12 »
Still waiting for news about our favorite visitor to a comet.

In the meantime, here is a great article looking back at the Venera 14 landing, thirty-three years ago.  Again, the Planetary Society.

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/guest-blogs/2015/0305-venus-from-33-years-ago.html

edit: Huzzah!  And another one about earlier Venera missions.  All with images.

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/guest-blogs/2014/0724-standing-on-venus-in-1975.html
« Last Edit: 15 March 2015, 02:00:22 by rebs »
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rebs

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Re: Deep Space and Interplanetary Exploration, 2015
« Reply #73 on: 17 March 2015, 23:00:59 »
Still waiting on Philae...

But here was an article from BBC News regarding the movement of dust on the surface 67P as imaged by Rosetta.  No wind required.

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-31917305

Seems the Opportunity Rover might be near its mission end, or so the brass says.  Planetary Society has a good article on it if anyone wants to search it up, it's on the Home Page rotation there.  I would post the link for the article, but it gets all Rule 4-like at a place or two, or more.  But, the article covers the grading system for our ongoing missions, so that's interesting. 

edit: Also in the article there is a proposed InSight Mars mission upcoming to replace a phased-out mission like Opportunity.  Plus, and wait for it...  wait some more!  ;)  OK, new Europa Mission on the table right now O0  So there is good news.

Not for debate purposes, of course. 
« Last Edit: 17 March 2015, 23:08:03 by rebs »
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worktroll

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Re: Deep Space and Interplanetary Exploration, 2015
« Reply #74 on: 18 March 2015, 00:02:19 »
Love the blogs about Venus. Can't see where the wherewithal would come from to develop something capable of lasting long enough to bother making it mobile ... until we get John Varley style skinsuits.

Only one thing bothered me about the photographic recreations. The atmosphere is so thick on Venus, and the temperature gradient strong enough, that light is refracted downwards. Net effect is to make things look like you're at the bottom of a bowl - you need to look up to see the horizon. I couldn't find any evidence that he'd accounted for that; his horizon looked suspiciously flat & central. Still, nice to imagine being there at the bottom of the ocean of "air", with the rocks close to red hot and the rocks crumbling under each step ...

As for Opportunity ... note that the NASA administration has asked for cutbacks to its planetary exploration division for the last 4 years. For 3 of those 4 years the cuts didn't get made. The administrator may be playing the "poor me" game, or may need to show he's prepared to make cuts, which he then relies on sentiment blocking them. Note I'm not getting political at all; it's just how administrators can play the game.

For a parallel, our local Children's Hospital gets funded by the government, and has a massive fundraiser every Easter. They always go hundreds of millions over budget, mainly buying the latest & best "machines that go 'ping!'" (while failing to allow for staffing of the machines), because they always know they just have to go "Give us more millions because wharble garble reasons WON'T SOMEBODY THINK OF THE CHILDREN!". Can you spell emotional blackmail, kiddies?

(Remember - happy to discuss the Dark Side of the Administrative Force. Not happy to go into politics.)

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ANS Kamas P81

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Re: Deep Space and Interplanetary Exploration, 2015
« Reply #75 on: 18 March 2015, 00:10:39 »
Meanwhile, in less hopeful news that was obvious from day one, Mars One is a scam.
https://medium.com/matter/mars-one-insider-quits-dangerously-flawed-project-2dfef95217d3
Notable points...screw it, I'd be pasting the whole article.

Granted, this surprises less than noone with any real knowledge of space, but the way the press has been hyping it made it sound like there was an outside chance.  The truth is that there never was any real plan, not even a hopeful attempt to get anything more than (apparently) a TV show.
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worktroll

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Re: Deep Space and Interplanetary Exploration, 2015
« Reply #76 on: 18 March 2015, 00:21:32 »
Quote
Mars One’s testing methods fall well short of NASA’s stringent astronaut corps requirements 

Mind you, that always struck me as one of the good points about Mars One ;)

OTOH, the whole thing has always reminded me of the Leviathans computer game kickstarter, which was a dismal flop alas. As per many discussions of successful kickstarters, it seems pretty necessary to start with something that's already largely complete, rather than starting with a bunch of good intentions and making the assumption that sufficient money would solve all the problems.

I woudln't have minded if Mars One was run by crackpots and not 1000% totally safe, as long as they were knowledgeable, passionate crackpots. Steely eyed missile men on either side of the Iron Curtain didn't wait for a million simulations & test runs, they put men on badly made firecrackers and shot them into space. Most of the time, and they paid their prices along the way.

Frontiers aren't safe, and aren't for people who require total safety. But the people putting their lives on the line need to know the people sending them actually have a decent idea of what they're doing.
* No, FASA wasn't big on errata - ColBosch
* The Housebook series is from the 80's and is the foundation of Btech, the 80's heart wrapped in heavy metal that beats to this day - Sigma
* To sum it up: FASAnomics: By Cthulhu, for Cthulhu - Moonsword
* Because Battletech is a conspiracy by Habsburg & Bourbon pretenders - MadCapellan
* The Hellbringer is cool, either way. It's not cool because it's bad, it's cool because it's bad with balls - Nightsky
* It was a glorious time for people who felt that we didn't have enough Marauder variants - HABeas2, re "Empires Aflame"

rebs

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Re: Deep Space and Interplanetary Exploration, 2015
« Reply #77 on: 18 March 2015, 00:35:23 »
I made the observation early on that Mars One sounded a lot like a Vault-tec plot from Fallout 3.
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Re: Deep Space and Interplanetary Exploration, 2015
« Reply #78 on: 18 March 2015, 05:39:49 »
So, anyone got any realistic ideas on how to colonize Mars?  I wanna see something happen in my lifetime
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Re: Deep Space and Interplanetary Exploration, 2015
« Reply #79 on: 18 March 2015, 07:46:55 »
As for Opportunity ... note that the NASA administration has asked for cutbacks to its planetary exploration division for the last 4 years. For 3 of those 4 years the cuts didn't get made. The administrator may be playing the "poor me" game, or may need to show he's prepared to make cuts, which he then relies on sentiment blocking them. Note I'm not getting political at all; it's just how administrators can play the game.
I'm not familiar with how US government department and agencies handle annuality in their budgets, but is NASA maybe trying to give up funding in years 1-3 to allow them to instead slip the funding to the right for later years of the programme? There's been a big shift in accounting here for some departments in that they can now, if they notify the Treasury by AP8 (Christmas, roughly) of an underspend, they can roll some of the money forward to future programme years. If NASA doesn't have things to spend the money on now but projects coming up that badly need funding, giving up the excess now in exchange for more funding later would be pragmatic.

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Re: Deep Space and Interplanetary Exploration, 2015
« Reply #80 on: 18 March 2015, 11:23:18 »
I'm not familiar with how US government department and agencies handle annuality in their budgets, but is NASA maybe trying to give up funding in years 1-3 to allow them to instead slip the funding to the right for later years of the programme? There's been a big shift in accounting here for some departments in that they can now, if they notify the Treasury by AP8 (Christmas, roughly) of an underspend, they can roll some of the money forward to future programme years. If NASA doesn't have things to spend the money on now but projects coming up that badly need funding, giving up the excess now in exchange for more funding later would be pragmatic.
I honestly don't know but last time I heard it didn't really work that way.

one complaint I heard was that NASA had a list of projects they wanted to spend money on, some of which were seriously time critical (like sending probes to various outer system bodies, like Haylies Comet, or pluto when they would have time to arrive at their closest passes) but they got micromanaged into spending money on other projects instead.

so them asking for permission to cut and reallocate funding for some projects and programs that they feel are less important or time critical in favor of ones that are more time critical might make a lot of sense.

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Re: Deep Space and Interplanetary Exploration, 2015
« Reply #81 on: 18 March 2015, 11:45:04 »
I made the observation early on that Mars One sounded a lot like a Vault-tec plot from Fallout 3.

So on a whim, I applied for Mars One. I didn't take it seriously, though I was (and I'm embarrassed to say) somewhat butt-hurt that they didn't pick me. I mean, I actually know about space stuff!  :-[

So that's my moment of silly.

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rebs

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Re: Deep Space and Interplanetary Exploration, 2015
« Reply #82 on: 18 March 2015, 16:39:18 »
(Remember - happy to discuss the Dark Side of the Administrative Force. Not happy to go into politics.)

W.

Thanks!  I know the issue has many safe components to discuss, but didn't want to be responsible for partisan hostilities breaking out, or anything like what goes on in yahoo comment sections.  Because when people are involved, 'You never know' is a handy operative rule to live by and err on the side of.   ...Stupid prepositions...  ;)

So on a whim, I applied for Mars One. I didn't take it seriously, though I was (and I'm embarrassed to say) somewhat butt-hurt that they didn't pick me. I mean, I actually know about space stuff!  :-[

So that's my moment of silly.


Thank you for sharing that, Stuart.  I would have sheepishly shared the same thing and bared with the social consequences of disclosure, as well.  Honestly.  Just for the laughs.

But I heard about this one way too late to apply, anyway, even though my heart also lunged up in joy while initially reading about it.
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Maingunnery

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Re: Deep Space and Interplanetary Exploration, 2015
« Reply #83 on: 18 March 2015, 17:16:34 »
So on a whim, I applied for Mars One. I didn't take it seriously, though I was (and I'm embarrassed to say) somewhat butt-hurt that they didn't pick me. I mean, I actually know about space stuff!  :-[

So that's my moment of silly.
But it also sounds a bit brave to me.  ;)
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Re: Deep Space and Interplanetary Exploration, 2015
« Reply #84 on: 18 March 2015, 17:50:48 »
So on a whim, I applied for Mars One. I didn't take it seriously, though I was (and I'm embarrassed to say) somewhat butt-hurt that they didn't pick me. I mean, I actually know about space stuff!  :-[

So that's my moment of silly.

I'm too old, overweight, diabetic, and married to have been accepted. But there's part of me that would jump at the chance.

Stupid VASIMR not living up to hype yet ...
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Re: Deep Space and Interplanetary Exploration, 2015
« Reply #85 on: 18 March 2015, 17:58:13 »
So, anyone got any realistic ideas on how to colonize Mars?  I wanna see something happen in my lifetime

Colonisation basically happens for one or more of the following reasons:
1) Prestige (drive the moon race)
2) Getting in on someone else's good thing (Drove Columbus to try for an alternate route to the spices of the East, to get in on the Portugese trade)
3) Easy access (wagon trains ho!)

Long term economic rationality usually stumbles on the price barrier, and only comes into play once the colonists have something worth exploiting.

The price barrier to get to Mars, in the absence of a prestige or competition goal, is the kicker here. Even with a lowered price barrier - eg. VASIMR reducing flight time from 9 months to 2 weeks - you still have to pay the "learning to work in vacuum" price to get up there at all.

Interestingly - and staying clear of politics - only the Chinese seem to be investing in paying that price at the moment. India's got a great little space program - heck, they got a functioning probe to Mars on their first attempt! - but no intent to put people up there at the moment. China's program seems geared to a planned, gradual expansion of capabilities - mind you, I'd love to be suprised.
* No, FASA wasn't big on errata - ColBosch
* The Housebook series is from the 80's and is the foundation of Btech, the 80's heart wrapped in heavy metal that beats to this day - Sigma
* To sum it up: FASAnomics: By Cthulhu, for Cthulhu - Moonsword
* Because Battletech is a conspiracy by Habsburg & Bourbon pretenders - MadCapellan
* The Hellbringer is cool, either way. It's not cool because it's bad, it's cool because it's bad with balls - Nightsky
* It was a glorious time for people who felt that we didn't have enough Marauder variants - HABeas2, re "Empires Aflame"

Maingunnery

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Re: Deep Space and Interplanetary Exploration, 2015
« Reply #86 on: 18 March 2015, 18:06:15 »

What also complicates things is that nations don't want to claim territory in space, it would be a political minefield. And why colonize if one can stake a claim? 
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Re: Deep Space and Interplanetary Exploration, 2015
« Reply #87 on: 18 March 2015, 18:19:00 »
Trying desperately to not get political here, but ... human nature dictates that this particular argument will only apply until someone has both the capacity to meaningfully exploit space, and the motivation - return, prestige, etc - to justify enforcing their claim.

Imagine the issues the first time someone tries to bring a nickel-iron asteroid into Earth orbit to mine it. Technically no-one controls the orbitals, but
a) who's going to be happy trusting "the other" to avoiding a fender-bender, and
b) who's going to be happy with "the other" buidling Ghu knows what over their head.
* No, FASA wasn't big on errata - ColBosch
* The Housebook series is from the 80's and is the foundation of Btech, the 80's heart wrapped in heavy metal that beats to this day - Sigma
* To sum it up: FASAnomics: By Cthulhu, for Cthulhu - Moonsword
* Because Battletech is a conspiracy by Habsburg & Bourbon pretenders - MadCapellan
* The Hellbringer is cool, either way. It's not cool because it's bad, it's cool because it's bad with balls - Nightsky
* It was a glorious time for people who felt that we didn't have enough Marauder variants - HABeas2, re "Empires Aflame"

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Re: Deep Space and Interplanetary Exploration, 2015
« Reply #88 on: 18 March 2015, 18:25:22 »
Same here about the political sensitivities to this subject.

Sooner or later, we're going to have to deal with that, the claiming of territory in space.  All I can say (it's been said well already) is Bless them whose shoulders will bear the weight of those decisions, and those whose lives will be on the line for them in the times to come.

Maybe, if we are lucky, we will come to grips with our selves as humans in the process, and unite like on Star Trek.  Or disperse and filter into Galactic life over the next fifty or sixty thousand years or so, like Star Wars.  But no Empire, or Xim the Despot, who no longer exists/existed in the EU so erase the memory if you have it.  He gone.

Or maybe six Great Houses will rise through the next ten centuries, uniting and then falling back to destructive war, but always marching forward.  Well, I mean five Great Houses, always marching forward...
« Last Edit: 18 March 2015, 18:27:25 by rebs »
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Re: Deep Space and Interplanetary Exploration, 2015
« Reply #89 on: 18 March 2015, 18:30:12 »
Sooner or later, we're going to have to deal with that, the claiming of territory in space. 

To be honest, I pray not. What's that quote? "I can imagine a society that has given up war. We could beat them so easily", or the like.

(Frell politics. I can rant about Gene Rodenberry's hypocrisy more than I can about politics any day. Note how his "peaceful" StarFleet uses military structures & ranks, and heavily arms its exploration vessels? Court-martials crew? Supplies crew with military arms? Ignore the TNG & later versions, TOS StarFleet are cold warriors facing the enemy in all their primary coloured jumpers glory.

And that's the way I like it ;)
* No, FASA wasn't big on errata - ColBosch
* The Housebook series is from the 80's and is the foundation of Btech, the 80's heart wrapped in heavy metal that beats to this day - Sigma
* To sum it up: FASAnomics: By Cthulhu, for Cthulhu - Moonsword
* Because Battletech is a conspiracy by Habsburg & Bourbon pretenders - MadCapellan
* The Hellbringer is cool, either way. It's not cool because it's bad, it's cool because it's bad with balls - Nightsky
* It was a glorious time for people who felt that we didn't have enough Marauder variants - HABeas2, re "Empires Aflame"