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[GiglameshDespair]

They always died pretty easy to me. Mainly when they combusted alongside 6 tanks of rocket fuel.

In the 1960s there were plans for intercontinental vacuum-tunnel maglev trains.
LAter there were ideas maglev properties could be used to accelerate cargo into orbit, which would be a lot cheaper than using rockets for it.

[mainiac]

but a little gravity is surely better than none.

Not really.  None is preferable because it allows for much simpler construction and transportation within a site.

[MadMalkavian]

If we contact a sapient extraterrestrial race before I pass on sometime around 2055 and they don't murder us all I may die a happy man. That's all I really have to say about this, unless you want me to link you guys to my collection of science-fiction stories about humans in space doing awesome things.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

It's highly unlikely that we'll run into any sapient aliens in the next few thousand years, much less 42.

[MadMalkavian]

It's highly unlikely that we'll run into any sapient aliens in the next few thousand years, much less 42.

I like to be optimistic as that helps me to not cut myself knowing that I have nothing to live for.

[alway]

It's highly unlikely that we'll run into any sapient aliens in the next few thousand years, much less 42.

Yep. Won't happen. Though I suspect it's fairly likely that we will discover extraterrestrial life in that time period. Which would be seen as an unusual collection of spectrum in a space telescope looking at an exoplanet...

Because we won't have the ability to do interstellar travel any time soon, and any sentient aliens capable of finding and reaching us wouldn't need to bother introducing themselves, because their sub-nanoscale technology already knows more about us than we do.

[10ebbor10]

Now that 3d printing has advanced, we could potentially print replacement parts to requirements when we need them at the location. A Moon colony would allow easy refuelling and launching, so so would a colony on one of Mar's moons. I remember reading about one of them being highly porous: underground caves provide both a location for a base and radiation shielding for any inhabitants. I wonder how much gravity mar's moons have? You'd have to supplement them with centrifuges, of course, but a little gravity is surely better than none.

Water can be mined and used to both refuel spacecraft, restock the Mars/Moon base and send it back to earth as pure water. We're going to need more water soon, and desalination isn't going to cut it.

Ores as well, of course.

The thing is, with enough investment, these things become cheaper enough they become worthwhile. With all the resources of space for us to take... what couldn't mankind accomplish?

Not really, the moon has significantly more gravity than a NEO, and a comparatively lower water content. (Ie, less avaible fuel).

As for Mars's moons, they're just captured asteroids. You can reach orbital velocity using a bike and a plank.

And sending back water to earth is not going to happen. Especially not from the moon. I'm pretty sure that you'd end up wasting more energy on sending it up (and down again) than you'd get from desalination here. I mean, even the most energy expensive desalination installation uses a mere 25 Kwh/m³. => 9*10⁷ Joules

The lunar escape velocity is 2.38 km/s. Resulting in an energy need 283*10⁷, just to get the mass of the water in orbit.

There, it's physically impossible to come up energy positive.

[Another]

Humans need supervision because they'll be doing a lot more work than mere robots. They'll need to be repaired and maintained*, and robots will need to make quick corrections if humans start doing something wrong**.

*You can't just bring spare parts or a 3D printer to fix a broken human.
**With a rich history of mission-suicide level errors out of the blue.

Fixed that for you.

[mainiac]

And sending back water to earth is not going to happen. Especially not from the moon. I'm pretty sure that you'd end up wasting more energy on sending it up (and down again) than you'd get from desalination here. I mean, even the most energy expensive desalination installation uses a mere 25 Kwh/m³. => 9*10⁷ Joules

You don't land the water, silly.  You use it in orbit to save on launch costs.

[10ebbor10]

Water can be mined and used to both refuel spacecraft, restock the Mars/Moon base and send it back to earth as pure water. We're going to need more water soon, and desalination isn't going to cut it.

I'm not the silly one. Not always, anyway.

[WillowLuman]

It would be better to stop growing as a population on Earth than to keep importing space water until we've got 40 billion people crowded on the planet. Honestly, it would be better to just spread out into space than spread the living space so thin that you get 40 billion people living crowded, dirty, short, unhappy lives for generations.

[10ebbor10]

Well, ISON might turn out pretty well. Potentially visible in daylight even.

[WillowLuman]

...in the UK. Damn

[10ebbor10]

...in the UK. Damn

Actually, it should be decently visible on the entire Northern Hemisphere.

[Sheb]

PTW