Traversing theoretical wormholes can also be described as really tricky, even impossible.

Assuming they exist at all, which we don't know, it's been proven for a number of the equations for which they are a viable solution that either entering, exiting, or both, would be physically impossible.

In the end, wormholes are about as valid a solution as fairy godmothers.

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...Old Europe, a once-dominant region now reduced to sucking at the geopolitical teat of America... they spent the better part of the last millennium conquering the world and taking the good stuff home with them... And what do they get for their troubles? Ungrateful colonies demanding their independence. And after you taught them how to play cricket!...

-Jon Stewart

I believe mankind will scatter around the "local" parts of the Galaxy with that which is called "generation starships" in science fiction. That is starships with a miniature eco system on board where humans will live for generations to come before they come across a planet good enough for terraformation. Then the terraformation will take a lot of time, as well, during which the humans will still live in the generation starship. I just wonder what it would be like for the first generation that will go to live on that new planet.

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President Josiah Bartlet: Sweden has a 100% literacy rate. 100%! How do they do that?
Leo McGarry: Maybe they don't and they can't add.

Okay, another round-up…

The quote is abstract. You grasp its sense - or you don’t.

Did you even bother to read Kennedy’s two speeches in their entirety? I posted the links. Even the most quotable quotes are better read in full textual context, and with a modicum of knowledge of the historical and social background in which they were spoken or written.

Pretty much agree, Scribbler1 and Steve, but I’ll add my thoughts here, as read by a non-American.

Yes, I would say that most people in the world viewed and admired the missions to the Moon as a demonstration of “American can do”.

And certainly Americans have bragging rights here.

To my mind, however, Kennedy’s words did more than articulate an American philosophy of endeavour.

His words and vision inspired people across the world, in that this idea of progressing through challenge has universal relevance.

This was American leadership in every way

Shucks, Soot, don’t go spoiling my Trekkie fantasies with physics and all that…

I think there may be scope for terraforming Mars in the future. But, if we develop the capacity to undertake inter-stellar travel in our galaxy, whether we do it with "generation starships" or by some other means, wouldn’t we seek an be likely to find Earth-like planets (like the “Class-M planets in Star Trek)?

Yes, it is interesting to contemplate what it would be like to live on a new planet. Perhaps not that much different to what it was like for the pioneers in the US or new settlers in Australia, though I hope we don’t go colonising inhabited worlds. In the end, I think the “new world” novelty would fade in the background. Wherever humans are, wherever humans go, I guess it does not change much the way we relate to each other, or our day-to-day life.

Tethys

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-- Harry S. Truman

Becyase I make a conclusion, I want to hear the reasoning for why it was done.Actually, I was commenting on the quote when I said that.

"We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard,"

It doesn't provide a reason except that "it is hard."

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A federal judge ruled today that graphic pictures of detainee abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison must be released over government claims that they could damage America's image.

Someone should tell them that bad press can be prevented by not abusing prisoners in the first place. Censorship is only needed to preserve the good reputation of those who have tortured and/or murdered already.

If what scribbler said is the meaning, then I have to say, it is a pretty stupid thing to say. Yes, let's waste billions of dollars in resources on something just because it is hard. I guess it's okay when you are spending someone else's money.

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A federal judge ruled today that graphic pictures of detainee abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison must be released over government claims that they could damage America's image.

Someone should tell them that bad press can be prevented by not abusing prisoners in the first place. Censorship is only needed to preserve the good reputation of those who have tortured and/or murdered already.

Slon, are you gearing up to argue that we shouldn't have gone to the moon?

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Obama's New "57 State Patriotic Pin":

All I did was discuss the quote, Steve.

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A federal judge ruled today that graphic pictures of detainee abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison must be released over government claims that they could damage America's image.

Someone should tell them that bad press can be prevented by not abusing prisoners in the first place. Censorship is only needed to preserve the good reputation of those who have tortured and/or murdered already.

Good. So have we.

Guess you're done then, thanks...

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Obama's New "57 State Patriotic Pin":

Deleted - double tap.

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...Old Europe, a once-dominant region now reduced to sucking at the geopolitical teat of America... they spent the better part of the last millennium conquering the world and taking the good stuff home with them... And what do they get for their troubles? Ungrateful colonies demanding their independence. And after you taught them how to play cricket!...

-Jon Stewart

That's an interesting concept and it got me thinking.

Since there are no habitable planets in the "local' regions of the solar system we're talking about a voyage over vast distances requiring tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of years.

That's just taking into account the voyage from here to a hypothetical "there" (and completly ignoring the facts we don't have the faintest idea where to go or how to go about getting there).

But for the sake of argument let's say that we have a realistic destination a few hundred thousand lightyears away and a means of getting there in whaat we'll call a first-generation, generation-starship.

Again, we're dealing with timescales, in the simple transit alone, that exced the the entire timespan of terestrial human civilazation, possibly by several orders of magnitude.

How will we prevent "wars" onboard our spacecraft? We haven't established, here on Earth, a system of governance or justice that provides for anything approaching "peace and security" in the long-term. Even the most ambitious and successful empires have only lasted a few hundred or a thousand years at the most, after which they generally devolve into a period of chaos. What makes us believe we can provide for the governance, management, and administration of a mobile "mini-civilization" that would have to be a few thousand members strong?

How will we keep the "residents" of our interstellar biosphere commited to the mission? Naturally the first generation will be, they signed on for it after all. How about the second generation, the third, the hundredth?

We don't know enough about genetics to selectively breed scientists and engineers and doctors and pilots. What if after the first twenty generations there is nothing on the spacecraft but actors and philosophers and acrobats and artists?

Sure there'll be an educational system organic to the spacecraft, but I'll tell you what, I'm a fairly bright guy (no genious but no dope either). I understand and enjoy law and politics and religion and human relations to a degree that many people would find incomprehensible and quite frankly ridiculous. But I'm fucked when it comes to math as elementary as logarithmic functions. There is no way I could be trained in the physical sciences, it's just over my head.

That's what your post got me thinking. Just think of all the problems we face here on Earth that we would, of inevitability, have to bring with us on a (relatively) small and cramped, scary, dangerous mission into the unknown.

I wonder if we have what it takes as a life form to accomplish what science may eventually be able to provide for?

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...Old Europe, a once-dominant region now reduced to sucking at the geopolitical teat of America... they spent the better part of the last millennium conquering the world and taking the good stuff home with them... And what do they get for their troubles? Ungrateful colonies demanding their independence. And after you taught them how to play cricket!...

-Jon Stewart

Well said. Kennedy was a brilliant speaker.It appears to be a serious possibility. The problem I see is when the discussion turns to the time the Sun says lights out. When the Sun goes out, so does Mars along with Earth.

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Not a day goes by that I don't see something that reinforces my belief that people are idiots.

Except for the fact that almost the whole country was behind the space program. To us back then, that WAS a good use for the money.
That, plus the fact that we felt letting the Soviet Union get there first and then claim the Moon for Mother Russia would have been unacceptable.

Besides, we HAVE been paid back in research and invention spun off from the space program.

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Not a day goes by that I don't see something that reinforces my belief that people are idiots.

It seems to work well for the military, so the concept could be adjusted to have a military-style chain of command and certain rules in place that all the specially selected crew would agree to. And even if it were an American-style republic it could work with some minor adjustments as well. After all, the US has held together fairly well for 321 years so there's no reason to think a smaller version wouldn't work in space.That's easy. They won't be able to come back. That alone would keep ME pretty committed to the mission.

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Not a day goes by that I don't see something that reinforces my belief that people are idiots.

Sorry, Steve, but you're not a moderator, so you can't close threads. I'll discuss as long as I want to and can.

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A federal judge ruled today that graphic pictures of detainee abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison must be released over government claims that they could damage America's image.

Someone should tell them that bad press can be prevented by not abusing prisoners in the first place. Censorship is only needed to preserve the good reputation of those who have tortured and/or murdered already.

Then they should have financed it privately.What exactly does putting a flag on the moon do? "Claiming" it? How do you claim it if you can't live there and defend it? What difference does it make?Are you saying it could not have been done privately or without going to space/to the moon?

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A federal judge ruled today that graphic pictures of detainee abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison must be released over government claims that they could damage America's image.

Someone should tell them that bad press can be prevented by not abusing prisoners in the first place. Censorship is only needed to preserve the good reputation of those who have tortured and/or murdered already.