We're not adapted to intercontinental sailing either but we overcame that.

Being realistic is one thing but completely giving up on pushing out the frontier of our capabilities is shameful IMO. Literally mailing it in isn't a substitute for space travel.

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bandrami 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

"Giving up" seems like the wrong rubric here because you haven't even identified the goal that putting people into space would accomplish so I can't judge whether or not doing that would actually further anything. Whenever I press people on this it generally comes down to "because it's there", which was also a bad reason to climb Everest.

	▲	ElectronCharge 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		I can think of three worthwhile goals at a minimum: 1) Access the vast resources available elsewhere in the Solar System. 2) Move most polluting and destructive heavy industry off of Earth (this will take big advances in propulsion technology). 3) Provide good habitats for humans and ideally much of Earth's ecosphere elsewhere in the Solar System. Certainly the human population alone could rise to the hundreds of billions if desired/needed. Surely it'll take a lot of progress to achieve those goals, but they're within reach of our current scientific knowledge. Interstellar travel, on the other hand, is much more of a stretch goal! ;-)

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amanaplanacanal 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The nice thing is that the continent at the end of the voyage, we were adapted to. This time, not so much.

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ekianjo 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

If you have a closed off base where you end up it does not matter. Nobody expects astronauts to breathe air on Mars anytime soon.

	▲	bandrami 4 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		What are they doing there that robots (remote operated if necessary) couldn't do at 1/1000th of the cost?
	▲	echelon 4 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Going there is malinvestment when you consider what else we could be spending the money on.

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otohiwagt 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Yup. And if we end ourselves in this physical form, which I don't think any of us knows 100% for certain, a process which possibly could take place again.

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echelon 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

> adapted to intercontinental sailing either but we overcame that.

We carried the seeds of our civilization to new continents which carry our gas mixture, food resources, temperature, gravity, and a million other parameters that the human body plan needs. The destinations were completely hospitable.

Good luck in space. It is beyond hostile and offers nothing for our survival. Also, there's really no economic reason to go there.

Space belongs to the robots.