>2021 - Send an Orion capsule with four crew members on a

Why are they pushing the human space exploration meme so hard? It's so impractical until we get to worldships.

>>8629741
earth sucks man

>>8629750
But why HUMAN space exploration? Robots are so much better at it.

fucking 0 this shit is a boondoggle and Trump is gonna cancel it

>>8629755
S-so we're never going beyond earth's orbit again? ;_;

>>8629797
It'll be on a SpaceX and perhaps a Blue Origin rocket

>>8629741
It's cool and increases our survivability, whether we colonize the moon, mars, or the Andromeda galaxy.

>>8629752
To ensure that we can live outside of earth. A robot sending data is much different than a human actually arriving there

>>8629797
The SLS is garbage. They cobbled together a bunch of mismatched parts to make a half assed rocket that even in a best case scenario will cost billions of dollars and only ever launch a handful of times.

That doesn't mean space travel itself is in trouble - SpaceX, Blue Origin and the Chinese Space Agency are building rockets that are better than ever. By the time a working SLS ever sits on a launchpad there may be Falcon Heavy, New Glenn AND Long March 9 rockets available, ALL of them cheaper, safer and more powerful than the SLS

>>8629752
Because the only people who give a shit about robotic exploration are scientists... and I've got news for you - scientists aren't the majority of guys paying the taxes or writing the checks.

People want to be inspired, they want to feel like their money is going to something bold, exciting, and worthwhile.

"Look at new camera we put on a robot! Isn't that cool??" doesn't cut it.

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>>8629979
>Chinese Space Agency
Ah yes... because why do anything new and innovative when you can just do a half-assed job imitating what other countries did better 40 years ago?

>>8629737
very unlikely until we engineer a way to protect ourselves from the cosmic radiation- which we are far as shit from doing. The ideas floating about are adding a thick ass layer of water around the entire capsule holding the crew, that's not going to work because heavy as shit

>>8630004
If this involves imitating the Saturn V then they're in good shape

>>8629737
If these are actual projects and funding isn't cut, they will happen. The math has been done.

>>8630044
It doesn't.

>>8629961
> increases our survivability
two words, heat death.

>>8629737

50% although another moon program is more likely.

>>8629755

Why would Trump cancel is? SLS and Orion are hitting all of their marks and NASA needs an ISS replacement. He'll probably give them enough money for a lander instead so the next President can have moon landings.

>>8629979

looks like our NASA hater is back. Are you actually going to source your claims this time or are you going to continue whining about things you have no idea what you're talking about?

>By the time a working SLS ever sits on a launchpad there may be Falcon Heavy, New Glenn AND Long March 9 rockets available, ALL of them cheaper, safer and more powerful than the SLS

SLS is bigger than all of them, which is the point of SLS.

>>8630087
>SLS is bigger than all of them
No it isn't. They're all ~70 ton LEO vehicles. The 140 ton SLS variant is nothing more than a drawing board sketch that might exist some time in the 2030s if you threw tens of billions more dollars at it

>>8630096

>The 140 ton SLS variant is nothing more than a drawing board sketch that might exist some time in the 2030s if you threw tens of billions more dollars at it

SLS was from the ground up designed to be that big, at least for the cargo variant. This was how Constellation's mars transfer vehicle was supposed to be built in orbit.

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

>>8630084
They're behind schedule, over-budget, and being run by inefficient cost-plus contracts through the same retarded defense contractors who fucked up Ares I, gutted Orion, and killed Altair.

Incorporate the parts of Orion and Ares that are worth saving, give NASA a big fat juicy budget and a nice, clear deadline. No more of this dumb "we will do some things that will enable us to do some stuff 20 years from now" shit - go Full-Kennedy "we will have the capability to send a man to Mars and return him safely by the end of my second term"

>>8630099
I don't know what to tell you

By NASA's own most generous and optimistic estimates, they will still only be launching 70 ton payloads a decade from now and they will barely be able to hoist up one rocket at a cost of half a billion dollars per launch once every two to three years

>>8629737
Well Trump is looking to partner with venture capitalists like Musk which could streamline and reduce cost dramatically. That time table might be too long. Hypothetically.

Big if- but if the EM Drive does work then we could have a full mars colony by 2050 and outposts on other moons as well.

>>8630069
In 10^10^13 years--- Possibly.

>>8629752
To long to wait till humans can cybernized.

>>8629737
>Mar 2018 Send Trump capsule on lunar free return
>Apr 2018 Land Trump lander on moon
>May 2018 Build Trump space colony on moon
>Jun 2018 Build Trump wall on moon

>>8630024
I mean it could work, it'd just have to be transported there on several rides. By the time we start colonizing on Mars we can have much more advanced technology. Especially with Generation Z or whatever they're called being born in the tech world, we merely adopted it. The advancements they'll create may push us ahead ages.

I don't plan to die before 2070. By then I hope to have amassed my fortune and use it to start a research base up in Mars. Hopefully have enough of my act together to invest on Mars and create some Massive Mars based Passive Income to fund the next great age of science advancements. I want to build a super lab out there before dying. Take the smartest of the smart out there and Tomorrowland that bitch.

>>8629737
0%

Given that the SLS is only marginally desirable, it is guaranteed that these dates will slip. The longer they slip, the longer the relevant senate districts keep the pork rolling in. The senators have absolutely no interest in the project actually succeeding, they just need it to stay in development hell to keep the funding coming.

>>8629752

Ideology, achievements, prestige. Those play very important part in human society.
You just don't get it because, you know, autism.

How will any of that help with a mars mission? Weren't we supposed to get a mars mission soon? What happened to that?

>>8631144
SpaceX will be colonizing Mars by the end of Trump's second term

>>8631145

Drumpf won't last a term because he'll be impeached after massive public outrage over his stupid and incompetent policies. Maybe then the whole martian thing could begin, but ultimately it's a waste and it's better to redirect the money to things that actually matter and make everyone's lives better.

>>8631515
Can't wait for based Pence to be POTUS

>>8631515
can't wait for trash like you to get forcibly drafted to the front lines as cannon fodder

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>>8631515

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>>8631515
wew lad

>>8631572
that's by far the funniest bait pic I've seen

why does every other /sci/ thread become a trump thread

>>8631941
Because Drumpf is fucking murdering science