Beware of billionaires with space ships...

[MrScorpio]

[fescuerescue]

1. I support private spending on space technology

Especially since we have lost the will to spend public funds on it.

I can't think of a better way to drain Bezo's fortunes than spending all that cash on space technology.

Makes Bezo's poorer and us richer in technology.

Frankly it's tragedy that Nixon killed the Apollo program with nothing to replace it and we've been stuck in low earth orbit for a generation.

[PSPS]

2. I prefer billionaires pay taxes.

Leave science-related decisions and programs to scientists and publicly-accountable funders.

[fescuerescue]

4. That's fine they should do that to

But Frankly we are dropping the ball bigtime on space. We haven't made a good public space decision since around 1970. The most rapid advancement is coming from a private individual (elon)

We are now in second place behind the Russians heading quickly to 3rd place.

We have the ability. We just don't have the will.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

8. Right.

Because our space program is proceeding apace. The moon colonies are flourishing and we're getting a toe hold on Mars and pretty soon we'll be sending exploratory missions to the moons of Jupiter.

What? What do you mean no moon colonies? No Mars colony? I just arrived from August, 1969 (got a great deal on a time machine, I'll have to tell you about it some time) and of course fifty years down the road we'd be well established in space.

Our only real hope of actually getting back into space permanently is if some insanely wealthy people decide to do something about it.

[ck4829]

3. K&R

[Oneironaut]

5. The idea of "escaping earth" is nonsensical.

It’s nonsensical in this century, at least. Also, we’re going to need to sacrifice a lot of people to do it. I don’t think the “at least we can go to Mars” people understand the sheer difficulty of terraforming another planet (like Mars).

We’ll kill ourselves faster than we can even get close to terraforming technology. Terraforming and colonizing our solar system is a centuries-long task, and the first groups that try will almost certainly die horrible deaths.

We only have this planet in our foreseeable future. When we even get the first group of colonizers to somewhere like Mars, the year 2020 will be viewed as history in the same way ancient Egypt is viewed.

[Blue_true]

12. My guess is we send out robots that mimic the anatomy and physiology of people (at

least the robotic sensors do). But even to get to that point will likely take 10 years.

But there is so much about nature that we don't yet understand, as those secrets get unlocked, what we at one time thought was not possible becomes an everyday reality.

[zaj]

7. This is nonsense...

First, Elon Musk has 4 companjes working on climate change... Tesla, Solar City, Hyperloop, and The Boring Company.

He also founded SpaceX, just like Bezos did Blue Origin.

Beyond that, though...

Earth with global warming is far more habitable than any planet these rockets will get us to.

Finding a planet that is remotely as habitable as earth doesn't require a rocket. It's telescopes and other sensors. Earth will always be the planet most fixable for human life anywhere close to us.

They are doing these things because they are bold investments pushing humanity forward. Not because global warming is a danger.

[2naSalit]

9. Okay, this may sound crazy

because it is but

maybe Jeff is trying to entice -45 to insist on being the first to get to ride in Jeff's rocketship whereby after launching, we just let him keep going into oblivion! That's one way to clear our planet of monsters like the one in the WH.

[Flaleftist]

15. He can tell Trump the moon has caves filled with gold.

He just has to see it and he can take all he wants. He was going to let the Royal Family go first, but he thinks Trump is more special.

[Baclava]

10. If there's money to be made, we'll go there, simple as that

Here you go


Asteroid mining is the key to our future expansion into space

Planetary Resources is embarking on the world’s first commercial deep space exploration program. The purpose is to identify and unlock the critical water resources necessary for human expansion in space.

Sourcing water is the first step to creating a civilization in space. Water is used for life support functions and can also be refined into rocket propellant. The initial mission will identify the asteroids that contain the best source of water, and will simultaneously provide the vital information needed to build a commercial mine which will harvest water for use in space.

The program is an extensive data-gathering series of missions in deep space that will visit multiple near-Earth asteroids. The goal is to answer the question: where will we establish the first mine in space?

Redefining Natural Resources

More accessible than the Moon, near-Earth asteroids are comprised of natural resources that will accelerate humanity’s exploration and development of deep space

There are an estimated two trillion tonnes of water available on near-Earth asteroids. This water can be used to sustain human life and as propellant for spacecraft.

Through an extensive multi-year observational prospecting program, Planetary Resources has selected the most promising, water-rich asteroid targets for the company’s first exploration mission.

https://www.planetaryresources.com/why-asteroids/

[roscoeroscoe]

11. I understand hoping for more investment in alternative energy and such

But as a supporter of space development, I'm glad to see those with deep pockets invest in space. Serious funds are required to succeed in reaching a point in space operations where we can move dirty industries to space, build solar power collectors in orbit, and extract resources from asteroids.

The whole goal of space development is to save the Earth - to save it from the desperate looting of resources as civilization runs out.

The sidebar of building a population off-planet is a sidebar to saving the Earth, it really wouldn't easy Earth's population pressure.

[2naSalit]

17. At the pace we're going..

we'll never make it in time. Regardless of how well our intentions in space may be, we have sealed our fate as a doomed species that will go extinct on this planet which we deserve. We contribute nothing to the well being of the biosphere, therefore, we should go extinct.

Ambitions as you describe for saving earth sound more like a pipe dream for the ages.

I don't mean to sound super negative but those ideas just don't make sense when we are killing ourselves and everything else for our own alleged comfort. We need to solve our issues on the planet right here on this planet.

[roscoeroscoe]

19. Your feelings are not unusual, and you're not wrong

But heck, we are truly in a situation where we are on the verge of things falling apart... but there's still hope. Global alternative energy investment is growing but not as much as we'd like to see, maybe $330 billion. Global space operations are just a little bit more right now.

Are you familiar with Gerald K. O'Neill and the work done on space energy production and colonization? He worked on these concepts in the 1970's (all of humanity's problems were addressed successfully in the 1970's but the powers that be didn't care) and wrote this:

"It is important to realize the enormous power of the space-colonization technique. If we begin to use it soon enough, and if we employ it wisely, at least five of the most serious problems now facing the world can be solved without recourse to repression: bringing every human being up to a living standard now enjoyed only by the most fortunate; protecting the biosphere from damage caused by transportation and industrial pollution; finding high quality living space for a world population that is doubling every 35 years; finding clean, practical energy sources; preventing overload of Earth's heat balance."

Call it scientific utopianism? If you must. But my work on my Master's Degree showed that we are currently working on projects that would be profound breakthroughs: radiation shielding, space drives that could reduce travel time to the planets to just a few weeks, even warp drive.

O'Neill's and his students calculated at the time that investing in a long-term space effort that would produce half the world's energy from space with solar power would take half a century and cost about the amount Americans spend on cigarettes each year. I suppose that may have been optimistic, but the point is there. These solutions are within reach (especially if all the wealth wasn't being sucked out by the wealthy) and would help save our beautiful green planet.

http://ssi.org/the-life-of-gerard-k-oneill/ Check it out!

[Kid Berwyn]

13. Hijack the Starship

The hippies were right, again, as usual.

[GReedDiamond]

16. Yup, Paul Kantner, Grace Slick - Jefferson Starship...

[uriel1972]

14. Let's build one big rocket,

fit as many of the 1% we can on it and fire it off.
Mars, the Moon Jupiter, the Sun.. who cares.

[2naSalit]

20. +1

We can make the adverts look like it will be country club accommodations for the trip to entice them.

[melm00se]

18. A few things

1) Much of the Age of Discovery in 15th, 16th and 17th century was funded by the rich.

2) Harvesting near Earth asteroids will have dramatic economic impacts back here on good ol' Earth. There is ample historic precedent for this. For example: when the Spanish brought back huge amounts of gold and silver from the New World, it seriously jacked up their economy and, arguably, contributed to the downward trend of the Spanish Empire.

3) Bezos, Musk etc are the modern day equivalent of Carnegie and Rockefeller etc.