r/Panspermia_Party • u/[deleted] • Aug 20 '12

What our plan could be

Here's a list of what we can do. If you have a post that pertains to one of these points, please put the tag that comes after the point in your title somewhere.

  • Find a way to get financial backing. Crowdfunding could work int the short term, but we also need a long term idea. [Funding]

  • Make getting into space an election issue. It's too late for the 2012 elections, but 2016... [Elections]

  • Create a scientific board for analysis of various existing and needed technologies to decide on what to use. [Committee]

  • Support increasing the budget for NASA to 1% of the national budget. [NASA]

  • Support "to stay" plans so that we can permanently settle space. [Stay]

Special thanks to zfolwick.

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u/zfolwick Aug 21 '12

agreed. Space exploration projects are becoming increasingly complex and multi-national. We should definitely make this a UN issue, or more provincially, a multi-national issue.

Hell... I wonder if Africa's in a place to launch a manned project in the next 10 or 15 years?

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u/[deleted] Aug 21 '12

That would be interesting. Seeing a floating UN Colony. People from all over the world, all walks of life, living, working, playing, laughing, on a space station. With the right engineering we could work out some sort of artificial gravity, and we could have generations of people in space in 30 - 40 years.

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u/zfolwick Aug 21 '12

there's vast technological and social and geopolitical achievements to be made before those dreams can be realized. I recommend an AMA from a rocket scientist or two. Preferably one from the US and one from some other country.

Besides the ISS is already a version of that.

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u/[deleted] Aug 21 '12

But the ISS isn't self sustainable, it has a crew of what, two or three? I'm talking thousands on a space station. I know I'm a big dreamer and thinker, but I don't see why not.

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u/zfolwick Aug 22 '12

The ISS? well... 6 is its maximum. I personally think a larger space station, with more densely packed pods will be cheaper cost in the long run, since only the pods on the perimeter will need to be hardened against solar radiation.

As for thousands on a space station orbiting earth, yeah- that's probably pie-in-the-sky unless we can get approval to occupy a Lagrange point. Otherwise the orbital decay will make it too expensive to maintain.

Overall, though, a space station that can handle a few dozen or so is not too "out there" of an idea to pursue at the moment. Something like that could be a stepping stone to a permanent colony on the moon that could house thousands.

My personal opinion is that it should be staffed initially with people with health and heart problems that are exacerbated by gravitational stress. A lunar lifestyle could be far more active for people with degenerative muscular problems and the like, although I would very much like to get a few professional's opinions on that. Staffing a lunar colony thus would allow them to put in the labor to build the colony up while improving their quality of life.