Will we colonise space in our lifetime?

We are starting to see the beginnings of commercial space travel to the moon and maybe even Mars but will we actually have people living full time on either in our lifetimes?
I think the moon may well become a new home for the super rich who value privacy but I honestly can't see Mars being anything other than a place for scientific exploration and study as the journey time is just too long and unless they can build a super deluxe space ship the super rich who could afford it just won't accept the austerity of the journey.
I think the best I can hope for is hotels being built on the moon that may be within financial reach for trip of a lifetime style holidays within the next 60 years or so but that's as good as it's going to get for me I feel.

As for the rest of the solar system you can forget it as it just isn't happening.
So, am I right or being pessimistic and technology will come to our rescue and make living on Mars viable?

No

Fair enough :lol:

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Falsey wrote:No

I think Mars will have small research settlements within our lifetimes (say the next 50-60 years for those of us who make it that long) but probably not fully fledged colonies. I expect our grandchildren will see them.

I think we'll see a mars colony in the next 50 years, so yes.

I don't think we'll see 'proper' Moon/Mars colonies in our lifetime. There isn't an economic imperative for creating such settlements, and it's not yet cheap enough to do that we can go 'for fun.' It's not directly comparable because going to space has a greater 'wow' factor, but it would be easier by every metric to build a city in Antarctica, and we still haven't found a decent reason to do that -- despite potentially abundant minerals and oil, and several nations (the US, China, Russia, and arguably us...) being big and powerful and mean enough to ignore the treaties prohibiting prospecting there if they wanted to.

That said, I hope we'll see a man on Mars soon. It'll just be a few chaps living in the hull of the spaceship that brought them there, but it'll still be super cool.

Karl wrote:That said, I hope we'll see a man on Mars soon. It'll just be a few chaps living in the hull of the spaceship that brought them there, but it'll still be super cool.

You sexist pig!

Lady-brains are just too small and dainty for the manly trip to Mars. That's science. Hooyah!

Hmm, I suppose. Women, eh, when will they get bigger brains, the morans?!

I'd bloody love to go to Mars, but only if it was all set up and ready for human consumption. Why do I have such a puny human lifespan? :cry:

Mars is going to be a strawberry floating hard slog, with a crap ton of issues many of us have never really thought about (like the perpetual jet lag colonists/visitors will undergo): https://fivethirtyeight.com/tag/earth-to-mars/

No
I think we really should be sorting out our own planet first than ploughing huge resources into space projects etc.

darksideby182 wrote:No
I think we really should be sorting out our own planet first than ploughing huge resources into space projects etc.

That'll never happen though. We have to get out among the planets and stars while our civilization can still do it.

Alvin Flummux wrote:
darksideby182 wrote:No
I think we really should be sorting out our own planet first than ploughing huge resources into space projects etc.

That'll never happen though. We have to get out among the planets and stars while our civilization can still do it.

What will stop us from doing it?

darksideby182 wrote:
Alvin Flummux wrote:
darksideby182 wrote:No
I think we really should be sorting out our own planet first than ploughing huge resources into space projects etc.

That'll never happen though. We have to get out among the planets and stars while our civilization can still do it.

What will stop us from doing it?

General laziness and apathy, unwillingness to alter our lifestyles to help others we don't know or feel are undeserving, cuntservative policies that divide communities and hurt the poor, the ebb and flow of tribalistic and nationalistic feeling, the inability or unwillingness of politicians to address underlying root causes of issues (gun crime, homelessness etc) with their "Let's just cack-handedly feign an attempt to treat one symptom of this complex social ill and call it a day" attitudes, the financial greed of powerful and influential people, corruption in business and politics, religion etc.

Oblomov Boblomov wrote:Hmm, I suppose. Women, eh, when will they get bigger brains, the morans?!

I'd bloody love to go to Mars, but only if it was all set up and ready for human consumption. Why do I have such a puny human lifespan?

But like, why though? For sure if you were a scientist/ Astronaut, but right now?

There's plenty of places on earth to visit if you want a Mars like experience

Alvin Flummux wrote:
darksideby182 wrote:
Alvin Flummux wrote:
darksideby182 wrote:No
I think we really should be sorting out our own planet first than ploughing huge resources into space projects etc.

That'll never happen though. We have to get out among the planets and stars while our civilization can still do it.

What will stop us from doing it?

General laziness and apathy, unwillingness to alter our lifestyles to help others we don't know or feel are undeserving, cuntservative policies that divide communities and hurt the poor, the ebb and flow of tribalistic and nationalistic feeling, the inability or unwillingness of politicians to address underlying root causes of issues (gun crime, homelessness etc) with their "Let's just cack-handedly feign an attempt to treat one symptom of this complex social ill and call it a day" attitudes, the financial greed of powerful and influential people, corruption in business and politics, religion etc.

Fair point shame really its probably gonna happen like this.

darksideby182 wrote:
Alvin Flummux wrote:
darksideby182 wrote:
Alvin Flummux wrote:
darksideby182 wrote:No
I think we really should be sorting out our own planet first than ploughing huge resources into space projects etc.

That'll never happen though. We have to get out among the planets and stars while our civilization can still do it.

What will stop us from doing it?

General laziness and apathy, unwillingness to alter our lifestyles to help others we don't know or feel are undeserving, cuntservative policies that divide communities and hurt the poor, the ebb and flow of tribalistic and nationalistic feeling, the inability or unwillingness of politicians to address underlying root causes of issues (gun crime, homelessness etc) with their "Let's just cack-handedly feign an attempt to treat one symptom of this complex social ill and call it a day" attitudes, the financial greed of powerful and influential people, corruption in business and politics, religion etc.

Fair point shame really its probably gonna happen like this.

Which is why we can't wait for Earth to become a utopia before we start setting our sights on the planets and stars around us. We will never be able to create the ideal society, there are no perfect actors, there will never be a "right time" and there will always be something else the money might be better off getting spent on.

If we have the technology and are willing to prepare ourselves sufficiently (mental and physical training for pioneering explorers etc) we should just get out there and start doing science gooseberry fool.

I just believe there are too many people around the world living in poor conditions and they should all have the opportunity to live with the basics anyway kind of derailed the thread. I do agree with what you have said Alvin.

As you were.

Can't see it in our lifetimes, the obstacles are still too insurmountable.

Will we colonise space in our lifetime?

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