Space geeks: What could we do with $1 trillion?

[JC Callender]

What could we accomplish in outer space with $1 trillion? Could we start a colony on another planet? Could we start to build a tiny planet (think Death Star with nicer people)? Could we come back with some awesome resources?

 

[The Mark]

What could we accomplish in outer space with $1 trillion? Could we start a colony on another planet? Could we start to build a tiny planet (think Death Star with nicer people)? Could we come back with some awesome resources?

That's not even close to enough cash for either.

Well MAYBE the colony thing, but somehow I think even that will cost more than a trillion.

 

[ScrewPokemonGo]

You know what else that money could do that's not a total waste?
Anything.
Pick one, feed the starving, house the homeless, clean up the environment, take your pick

 

[Crovax]

What could we accomplish in outer space with $1 trillion? Could we start a colony on another planet? Could we start to build a tiny planet (think Death Star with nicer people)? Could we come back with some awesome resources?

The cost on that would be like 850 quadrillion, so a trillion would be a bit short

 

[WCH]

You know what else that money could do that's not a total waste?
Anything.
Pick one, feed the starving, house the homeless, clean up the environment, take your pick

We've spent 10s of trillions on those things and we still have about as much or more people living in poverty. Must be a death wish.

 

[Tim the plumber]

What could we accomplish in outer space with $1 trillion? Could we start a colony on another planet? Could we start to build a tiny planet (think Death Star with nicer people)? Could we come back with some awesome resources?

I think it is happening with a lot less resources than that.

Principally the intial reasons for going into space are the same as they always are to go to some far off place where there is danger and hard work to live at all. Loads of very valuable resources!

These, to begin with, will be in the form of the elements which we use for good batteries and stuff. Whilst these elements are rare on earth they are often adundant in asteroids. One asteroid, a medium one, 1km across, the right one, can provide all the batteries we will need for the next century.

Quickly there will be added to this such things as Helium3. This makes fusion power a lot easier and since we are almost able to make it work today we should crack it.

To get these things there will develope a general sceondary industry maunfacturing plant and habitat for the extractive industries.

The final phase will be horrific. The building of a low earth orbit shopping complex open all day all year and withing 30 minutes of all of the earth. Hideous, no escape at all....

 

[ScrewPokemonGo]

My point, is that NO ONE benefits from colonizing a planet we can't even survive on anyway.
But ANYTHING else done with that wasted money will at least help SOMEONE.

 

[Tim the plumber]

We've spent 10s of trillions on those things and we still have about as much or more people living in poverty. Must be a death wish.

The ensuing U.S. space efforts have cost an additional $196 billion for the shuttle and $50 billion for the space station. NASA's total inflation-adjusted costs have been more than $900 billion since its creation in 1958 through 2014 (more than $16 billion per year).21 Jul 2014

No. The cost of tax evaision is vastly higher.

 

[PoS]

What could we accomplish in outer space with $1 trillion? Could we start a colony on another planet? Could we start to build a tiny planet (think Death Star with nicer people)? Could we come back with some awesome resources?

Mars. If we stop all our wars (drugs, terror, etc.), we could do it without any problem.

 

[ScrewPokemonGo]

Mars. If we stop all our wars (drugs, terror, etc.), we could do it without any problem.

1. No air.
2. No water.
3. Deadly radiation
4. No food.
5. .... Do I need to list more? Lol
What does ending war have to do with mars magically becoming earth like?

 

[Deuce]

1. No air.
2. No water.
3. Deadly radiation
4. No food.
5. .... Do I need to list more? Lol
What does ending war have to do with mars magically becoming earth like?

My point, is that NO ONE benefits from colonizing a planet we can't even survive on anyway.
But ANYTHING else done with that wasted money will at least help SOMEONE.

Is it your contention that the scientific and engineering knowledge gained during such a task benefits noone?

 

[beefheart]

I think we could send a robotic team to the moon to construct a colony using lunar regolith and the water found in polar craters. Make it all nice and then send up humans, and farms for food and oxygen generation and all that.

 

[Abbazorkzog]

What could we accomplish in outer space with $1 trillion? Could we start a colony on another planet? Could we start to build a tiny planet (think Death Star with nicer people)? Could we come back with some awesome resources?

Moon base/lunar colony for sure.

 

[JC Callender]

I heard Neil Degrasse Tyson speaking about the absurdity of going to war over resources here on Earth when there are so many in outer space. I'm assuming that it's not as easy as spending a trillion dollars to go into space then coming back a year later with $1.5 trillion in resources. Our politicians would be heroes if we could actually do that, I mean, what society wouldn't agree to something like that? I feel that if we could get really efficient at mining outer space entities for natural resources then we can more efficiently start building in outer space as well since our own population isn't shrinking anytime soon. As crazy as it might sound, I wonder if we will ever start building small, even tiny planets. It seems like we need such precise conditions for human life that we may have to build our own. Obtaining water would probably be the biggest challenge.

Btw, I know next to nothing about this stuff, it's just been an interesting topic to me over the past few days.

 

[JC Callender]

Moon base/lunar colony for sure.

NASA has determined that there's a lot of water on the moon in the form of ice and they're looking for ways to mine it. That's one solution!

 

[JC Callender]

Mars. If we stop all our wars (drugs, terror, etc.), we could do it without any problem.

How would we benefit from Mars?

 

[Abbazorkzog]

How would we benefit from Mars?

Same way we'd benefit from a Europa colony, or an Io one, or Ganymede, or Titan, etc. etc.........

 

[JC Callender]

Same way we'd benefit from a Europa colony, or an Io one, or Ganymede, or Titan, etc. etc.........

I don't understand, are you saying the living conditions there would be any better than the moon or something man made?

 

[beefheart]

Same way we'd benefit from a Europa colony, or an Io one, or Ganymede, or Titan, etc. etc.........

Fierce radiation on any of the Jovian moons, would not be nice.

 

[Abbazorkzog]

I don't understand, are you saying the living conditions there would be any better than the moon or something man made?

Mars would provide a stepping-stone, among other things, to the other celestial bodies. Titan is rich for hydrocarbon processing, deuterium and helium-3, for example.

 

[Abbazorkzog]

Fierce radiation on any of the Jovian moons, would not be nice.

Well, it would be kind of silly to go all the way there without having that in mind, and preparing accordingly. Besides, Titan is Saturn's moon.

 

[Northern Light]

The solution to permanent space travel is always going to be reframing our values here on Earth. $1 Trillion is nothing compared to the collective effort of humanity stopping wars, solving material inequities, and living peacefully. If only we could channel our violent competitiveness into pragmatic competition.

But we are still very much a barbaric race. Even the U.S. for all its space feats is reneging on its space program because human greed and mismanagement has caused new global wars and economic shortfalls. We're inching back into being violent when the original space program was spurred by competition with Russia.

The solutions to space travel are not monetary, they are social. Always will be.

 

[JC Callender]

The solution to permanent space travel is always going to be reframing our values here on Earth. $1 Trillion is nothing compared to the collective effort of humanity stopping wars, solving material inequities, and living peacefully. If only we could channel our violent competitiveness into pragmatic competition.

But we are still very much a barbaric race. Even the U.S. for all its space feats is reneging on its space program because human greed and mismanagement has caused new global wars and economic shortfalls. We're inching back into being violent when the original space program was spurred by competition with Russia.

The solutions to space travel are not monetary, they are social. Always will be.

See, I feel like if we could really start mining and colonizing in space then we would have much less reason to go to war here on Earth. Desert Storm was basically about oil. So much of it is about land, resources, and power...all endless possibilities if we could get efficient at mining and colonizing in outer space.

 

[Northern Light]

See, I feel like if we could really start mining and colonizing in space then we would have much less reason to go to war here on Earth. Desert Storm was basically about oil. So much of it is about land, resources, and power...all endless possibilities if we could get efficient at mining and colonizing in outer space.

You're applying logic to war. There is no logic behind war. War and violence are the absence of reason. They're animal. We already have the technology to turn Earth into a paradise, to cure deadly disease, to remove material inequities. We don't implement them because they're not profitable and powerful people don't want to be made redundant.

We could colonize 10 planets and still find reasons to hate each other.

 

[Deuce]

How would we benefit from Mars?

Additional resources, technological benefits of the effort, no longer having all our eggs in one basket.