I've heard precisely the opposite (about space debris). Every time any piece of junk gets put into orbit it has to be tracked. The toolbox that an American astronaut accidentally released into orbit on a shuttle mission actually now has its own tracking number with US Space Command, I read; for example.

It seems incredible to believe that we have not had a manned flight outside the earth's orbit in 43 years. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_17

It's really been pathetic. Think of the technological breakthroughs we have had in computers and others areas since then.

freeman3

It's really been pathetic. Think of the technological breakthroughs we have had in computers and others areas since then

Is manned flight an end in itself?
We've learned enormous amounts about the cosmos without the manned flight.

hacker

Well that sort of thing sounds a bit more advanced than our present level of technology

There are people who, through training, can now control their prosthetic limbs with their own minds. We can implant memories in peoples minds. (false ones). we can manipulate dreams and record dreams.
we're probably as far away from remote control of avatars as we are to finding a solution to human bodies living in space for their entire existence. (Because it would take that for us to get anywhere habitable.) So unless we break the speed of light somehow ...
I think we travel to far away galaxies only remotely.

rickyp wrote:freeman3

It's really been pathetic. Think of the technological breakthroughs we have had in computers and others areas since then

Is manned flight an end in itself?

Yes, it is.

It is nice to learn about the universe around us, but we also want to go there.

danivon wrote:

rickyp wrote:freeman3

It's really been pathetic. Think of the technological breakthroughs we have had in computers and others areas since then

Is manned flight an end in itself?

Yes, it is.

It is nice to learn about the universe around us, but we also want to go there.

For me it always depends on facts and circumstances. If the choice is to explore another solar system virtually or land another human on the Moon, I would go for the former. For work it is better to be face-to-face with clients, but if I can do so with 1/1,000th of the time and cost via Skype, it's worth it 99.9% of the time.

A dog and his bone has nothing on us and our attachment to our ideas...

freeman3 wrote:A dog and his bone has nothing on us and our attachment to our ideas...

woof woof

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015 ... nd-landing

Probably the most important thing to happen this year. Successfully landing a first stage rocket booster is an incredible feat of engineering, and the potential it affords is epic. The cost of the fuel they used to send a payload into orbit is about $200000, whereas the cost of building a new first stage from scratch for every launch is $16 million. SpaceX has now developed the technology for landing the first stage in a controlled fashion. It remains to be seen whether it will prove to be reusable after having made a re-entry from space, but you'd have to assume that it will be.It's going to revolutionise the space industry by dramatically slashing costs. You'd think that refurbishing the old rocket will be a lot quicker than building a new one from scratch as well, so the potential now exists for much quicker turnaround times between launches. We may now have the ability to send much greater payloads into orbit much more quickly and for substantially lower cost.

That was pretty cool wasn't it?