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[Il Palazzo]

I wouldn't rule out a chinese landing on the moon, but I severely doubt that they'd actually go to mars before the political will disappears.

But it could for example prompt the Americans to rejuvenate their own space program and send people to Mars themselves. After all, can there be a bigger insult to the American ego than not being in the lead in space exploration?

[Impending Doom]

the space program is now just limited to the ISS...

You mean of course the US space program, right? Because the Chinese have just launched the first part of their future space station and have plans for both Moon and Mars exploration.

Joke's on them.  We already went there, and you know what we found?  Nothing.  Lung-destroying dust, evil space crabs, and a whole shitload of nothing.  China can have it as far as I'm concerned.

There is one more thing we found there: water ice. Besides being, y'know, drinkable, water can be broken down into hydrogen and oxygen. In gaseous form, it accounts for around 98% of the air you're breathing right now (not sure how important those other trace gases are, can anybody find that?). Liquid, it's potent rocket propellant. For potential space expeditions, it's a giant orbital QuikTrip.

[TheBronzePickle]

Doesn't the moon supposedly have a boatload of Helium-3 that can be used in nuclear fusion in place of tritium? I've heard that at least once on reasons why we should return to the moon.

[Sheb]

WTH? 79% of our air is Nitrogen, 21% Oxygen, some Argon and no Hydrogen at all. There is at most 1 or 2% water in your air.

[Flying Dice]

WTH? 79% of our air is Nitrogen, 21% Oxygen, some Argon and no Hydrogen at all. There is at most 1 or 2% water in your air.

Nearest thing I can figure is that they mixed up nitrogen and hydrogen, and that they assumed that unbonded gaseous hydrogen mixed with unbonded gaseous oxygen is the same thing as water vapour.

[Impending Doom]

WTH? 79% of our air is Nitrogen, 21% Oxygen, some Argon and no Hydrogen at all. There is at most 1 or 2% water in your air.

Shit. Yeah, I was squinting at a tiny pie chart and the N looked like an H. My bad.

Besides oxygen, what gases present in our atmosphere do we need to survive?

[olemars]

None. Only problem with pure oxygen is if you light a fire. Or make a tiny electrical spark. Also it'd probably atrophy your lungs.

[Flying Dice]

WTH? 79% of our air is Nitrogen, 21% Oxygen, some Argon and no Hydrogen at all. There is at most 1 or 2% water in your air.

Shit. Yeah, I was squinting at a tiny pie chart and the N looked like an H. My bad.

Besides oxygen, what gases present in our atmosphere do we need to survive?

Like he said, we've got hydrogen, oxygen (the gas, not the element), small amounts of argon, and trace amounts of a number of other gases.  O₂ is important to our metabolic processes, nitrogen is important because we can't survive in environments with too high a concentration of oxygen (not to mention issues with the atmosphere catching fire), and AFAIK the others are just there. We also need a certain level of greenhouse gases to trap solar radiation in the form of heat, keeping the surface of the Earth in the range of temperatures needed to support life. 

If we were on a world much closer to the sun, we would want fewer greenhouse gases and a thicker ozone layer (IIRC) to release more heat and block UV rays more efficiently, and if we were further, we would need a higher concentration of greenhouse gases to trap more solar radiation, as it would be less 'thick', to use an improper description of it.

[TheBronzePickle]

Humans can't breathe pure oxygen well because we breathe based on the amount of CO2 in the blood, not 02. Eventually the blood acquires toxic levels of oxygen and we die.

[Il Palazzo]

Humans can't breathe pure oxygen well because we breathe based on the amount of CO2 in the blood, not 02. Eventually the blood acquires toxic levels of oxygen and we die.

Huh? The breathing reflex is regulated by the blood levels of CO2, yes. But how does the rest follow?
The less CO2 in your blood, the less "need" you feel to breathe. That is all there is to it.
Besides, people can breathe pure oxygen - and they do, e.g. the astronauts(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_suit#Operating_pressure), patients treated for decompression-sickness(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperbaric_oxygenation) and the like.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

There are some very promising proposals for asteroid capture.  I think that potentially this could make space exploration fantastically profitable.

Depending on the content of the asteroid, you will either become rich beyond your wildest imaginations or crash the global iron market into the ground, much like the asteroid said iron came from.

Anyway, there's plenty of profit in space exploration already, if not from the technological leaps it causes alone then from the strategic advantage of setting up off-world infrastructure. Plus, we haven't even gotten close to getting a total exploration of the moon or Mars, and everything else is practically untouched.

Space is the future, and only those who take the risk of grasping for it shall reap the benefits.

[TheBronzePickle]

Humans can't breathe pure oxygen well because we breathe based on the amount of CO2 in the blood, not 02. Eventually the blood acquires toxic levels of oxygen and we die.

Huh? The breathing reflex is regulated by the blood levels of CO2, yes. But how does the rest follow?
The less CO2 in your blood, the less "need" you feel to breathe. That is all there is to it.
Besides, people can breathe pure oxygen - and they do, e.g. the astronauts(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_suit#Operating_pressure), patients treated for decompression-sickness(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperbaric_oxygenation) and the like.

Sorry, I mean humans can't breathe pure oxygen at atmospheric pressure. That's when it reaches toxic blood levels, because the lungs end up absorbing too much of it. Since breathing is based on CO2, you won't stop breathing just because you have too much O2, and you'll die.

The two examples you show operate at either below atmospheric pressure or in a situation where the extra oxygen is needed because of a deficiency in the person's ability to take in oxygen.

[Aqizzar]

...the strategic advantage of setting up off-world infrastructure.

Space is the future, and only those who take the risk of grasping for it shall reap the benefits.

This is only important if there's anywhere else in space you're planning to go.  I've yet to hear of anything in the solar system that we have any business sending live people to.  The Moon I'll grudgingly concede, because I forgot about the helium, and the Earth could be running out of helium within thirty years.

Now don't get me wrong, I love space exploration as much as the next nerd.  I'd love to break the confines of gravity and travel the stars on a giant bomb.  I love the romance of the Space Race, and I think The Right Stuff is one of the best movies ever, not least because it's all true.  Call me back in five hundred years when we have pure-energy rockets and magic warp gates, so I can go someplace worth seeing in person within a lifetime.

[mainiac]

I wouldn't rule out a chinese landing on the moon, but I severely doubt that they'd actually go to mars before the political will disappears.

But it could for example prompt the Americans to rejuvenate their own space program and send people to Mars themselves.

God I hope not.  Mars has very little of value compared to the moon or asteroid capture.  It's only good for politicians looking for filler to make speeches.  Anybody else remember Bush's plan to go to Mars?

[Il Palazzo]

Sorry, I mean humans can't breathe pure oxygen at atmospheric pressure. That's when it reaches toxic blood levels, because the lungs end up absorbing too much of it. Since breathing is based on CO2, you won't stop breathing just because you have too much O2, and you'll die.

The two examples you show operate at either below atmospheric pressure or in a situation where the extra oxygen is needed because of a deficiency in the person's ability to take in oxygen.

With the oxygen toxicity at too high pressures I agree. But you've got some weird understanding of the breathing reflex. Yes, breathing is based on CO2, in the sense that high concentrations of it cause you to breathe. The way you describe it, it looks as if it were the other way around, that is low concentrations of CO2 caused you to breathe(or high concentrations caused you to cease breathing), which doesn't make sense.

I wouldn't rule out a chinese landing on the moon, but I severely doubt that they'd actually go to mars before the political will disappears.

But it could for example prompt the Americans to rejuvenate their own space program and send people to Mars themselves.

God I hope not.  Mars has very little of value compared to the moon or asteroid capture.  It's only good for politicians looking for filler to make speeches.  Anybody else remember Bush's plan to go to Mars?

There's always the value of making people feel good about themselves. I've no idea what magnitude of an investment would going to Mars entail, but let's assume it'd be like 1% of the whole US budget for twenty years - incidentally it's the percentage of one's taxes that one can opt to give to a charity rather than the budget in this funny country I live in - and that the only tax revenue is the income tax(for the sake of clarity). I would happily agree to pay 1% extra in taxes to see people go to Mars in my lifetime, and perhaps have my kids grow up in a world where it happened. Hell, I'd perhaps even pay as much as 5% more, and know that I'm getting something fun and inspiring out of it, instead of e.g.some war in Asia.

Oh, and if I can have the Chinese or the Americans do it without my taxes, all the better!