So let's see, we've got to figure out how to:
- Solve the problem of radiation exposure on the Moon (cosmic and solar)
- Solve the problem of micrometeorites.
- Make a fully self-contained biosphere. On another planet.
- Get 13,000 people to the Moon, preferably alive.
...yeah.
I guess we could do it in 8 years if we devoted the equivalent of about 150% of the country's GDP to it. No problem.
13,000 people to the moon? Look at the size of the rockets that sent the first astronauts to the moon. To get 13,000 people to the moon, you're going to need about 4000 of those rockets. Yeah, I think we could possibly pull that off for 150% of the country's GDP, if you give up the "preferably alive."
This isn't just an engineering challenge, you're slamming your head into the laws of physics. Honestly I don't know how we'll be able to get a serious reduction in the cost of launching things short of something really revolutionary like a space elevator.
I've posted about this time and time again. Thanks. Under the laws of physics, as currently understood, we will never be able to colonize planets outside the solar system, period. Could we discover something completely revolutionary? Here's a question not answered, what the heck is dark energy? The universe appears to be full of the stuff (ditto dark matter.) What if we could harness that? But, until (IF) there's something completely different from what we know, we're going no where.
The US stopped being ambitious decades ago
30 years ago this type of comment would have people excited and the media excited. Now people think it's a joke.
This is why China will dominate space in the 21st century and beyond. The USA has lot its nerve. The EU is broke. Japan is stagnant.
In reality Star Trek will be mostly Chinese crew with the token westerner manning the comms.
In reality, there's no guarantee that there will EVER be a "Star Trek" ability to travel among the stars. It's not a matter of engineering, it's a matter of physics as we know it. People treat this as if it's a predestined future, and only a matter of time. I would be thrilled for a discovery that would allow such a thing. There's this law: conservation of energy, for now, it's a pretty big hurdle to overcome. AND, we'd essentially have to figure out a way around that law, else a source of energy that isn't chemical, and isn't nuclear. For, we know how much energy there is in chemical means, and we know how much energy there is via nuclear reactions; neither is sufficient.
However, in regard to thinking that the US has lost the space race - who was it who put rovers on Mars that lasted for a long time? What about the discoveries of those rovers, such as evidence that Mars once had a near neutral (non-acidic) liquid water environment? Who launched the WISE satellite which will help discover asteroids and other objects whizzing about the solar system? Which (though not its purpose) will answer the question about a possible orbiting red dwarf. Who took that ultra deep field image?* What about the knowledge we've gained from the Cassini spacecraft? How about the various satellites we have studying the sun, which will help us predict space weather further in advance, giving advance warning to fragile electronics aboard satellites, and also ultimately help protect our entire electrical grid which could be wiped out (setting us back years) by a massive enough solar ejection (it's happened in recorded history - in the 1800's before we had the grid.) What about the Kepler satellite which is discovering new planets by the hundreds? I could go on for a long time, and these discoveries and new knowledge greatly eclipse the knowledge we've gained from manned space missions.
Someone above mentioned something about laboratories on the moon and Mars. Wonderful! Send robots up to work in those laboratories. Think of all the great improvements we could see in artificial intelligence, robotics, etc., that might be accomplished by endeavoring such a project. And realize, there's not a thing up there that we can do that robots cannot for a fraction of the price.
*It would be unfair not to note that the image was taken by Hubble, which would have been pretty near sighted due to a flaw that was repaired by shuttle astronauts. In fact, if it weren't that major screw-up, it's possible that the entire shuttle program would have done anything (other than the ISS) that couldn't have been done without manned space flight. Nonetheless, the James Webb space telescope, when/if launched, would be far more powerful, and won't be placed in a low earth orbit where human tinkering can fix it.
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