1969 man landed on the moon.

[Psyber]

The amount spend on space exploration in the last 50 years would easily wipe out hunger and homelessness in the entire world.
We landed on the moon...fantastic. We have let BILLIONS starve to death. But that wont get anyone a day off work/school.

If we had gone on with space exploration after the moon landing, and used Dyson's heavy lift nuclear powered rocket system, we could have put up multiple solar satellites as planned when Jimmy Carter was US President, and we would now have plentiful clean energy, power for desalination, and water for growing food .
The proposal included free electricity to poor countries in return for using their deserts to house collector stations to receive the energy beamed back by microwave laser.
It was to have been a joint US/USSR enterprise and the crews were already training together under the guidance of Professor Chester Pearce of Boston University.

As it is we seem to have missed the opportunity and may never be able to afford it again, it looks like we will now all starve as a consequence...
The green movement's opposition to anything "nuclear" may have wiped us out as a species.

There is some hope left, however...
The quest for Helium 3 to develop controlled fusion may yet get us back out there, if we don't succumb to the idea we should save a few more now and all die later, and so put it off until we really can no longer afford to do it...

[devilsadvocate]

Don't get me started on Nuclear Psyber!!!

The anti-nuclear debate is so ill-informed and based on hyping up people's emotional fear it's ridiculous that anyone actually buys it. But fear is a bloody strong emotion I guess.

Take the SA nuke dump debate. We are geologically the best place in the world for Nuclear waste, backed up by a stable government. But the dimwit greens and closed minded, anti-progress Adelaidians would prefer that we keep all our nuclear waste stored closer to home like under the library, at Flinders and SA Uni and at the RAH. Good thinking people!

Nuclear - the ONLY way forward.

But why don't we just ignore that and just keep burning coal!!!

[fish]

The green movement's opposition to anything "nuclear" may have wiped us out as a species.

Psyber I pronounce you the new king of hyperbole!

[Psyber]

The green movement's opposition to anything "nuclear" may have wiped us out as a species.

Psyber I pronounce you the new king of hyperbole!

I really don't think it is really hyperbole..
If we don't have a change of mind soon while we can still afford it, if we still can, the future holds only slow death through overpopulation, pollution, and shortages of food and water.
There will be some faster deaths from rioting and war as the shortages bite.
It may take several hundred years..
My concern is that we may have missed the chance.

[fish]

...the future holds only slow death through overpopulation, pollution, and shortages of food and water. There will be some faster deaths from rioting and war as the shortages bite.

All that because the green movement opposes anything nuclear?

That is Hyperbole with a capital "H".

[redandblack]

And in bold 40 point type.

[Psyber]

...the future holds only slow death through overpopulation, pollution, and shortages of food and water. There will be some faster deaths from rioting and war as the shortages bite.

All that because the green movement opposes anything nuclear?
That is Hyperbole with a capital "H".

All that because the whole of our society is caught up in the emotion and fear and is suppressing the sort of technology that would enable us to expand our living space.
This technology would ensure we did not finish up impoverished by our overpopulation in a limited environment, and peter out slowly as a result.
The Green movement's anti-nuclear position is just the outer hysterical edge of that short-sightedness.

I am pleased to note that some of the central figures in the Green movement are starting to see the light and come out in favour of nuclear technology, although I think they would still go into paroxysms at the thought of using Dyson's heavy lift space tugs powered by hydrogen bombs, despite the studies that suggest they would add less to the background radiation than continued use of coal, and would in the end facilitate building an effective solar energy system.

[redandblack]

Psyber, I still have doubts about Dyson's heavy lift space tugs powered by hydrogen bombs.

Call me old-fashioned, but I'm a bit of a Dyson space tug sceptic

[Psyber]

Psyber, I still have doubts about Dyson's heavy lift space tugs powered by hydrogen bombs.
Call me old-fashioned, but I'm a bit of a Dyson space tug sceptic

What aspects of the technology are you concerned about?

[fish]

All that because the whole of our society is caught up in the emotion and fear and is suppressing the sort of technology that would enable us to expand our living space

Psyber methinks you are the one caught up in emotion and fear, with your dire predictions of a "slow death through overpopulation, pollution, and shortages of food and water" and that we will "all starve as a consequence" if we do not go nuclear.

[fish]

All that because the whole of our society is caught up in the emotion and fear and is suppressing the sort of technology that would enable us to expand our living space

Psyber methinks you are the one caught up in emotion and fear, with your dire predictions of a "slow death through overpopulation, pollution, and shortages of food and water" and that we will "all starve as a consequence" if we do not go nuclear.

Oh I forgot to mention that we will be wiped out as a species too.

[Bully]

IMO they should go back to the moon. Why not? It was to beat the russians during the cold war saga that they went, but i think going back there would be a start of something big. Who knows in 100-100,000 years humans could maybe live on the moon or astronauts to stay there.

My point is they have built the international space station but thats it? the last few pieces went into place during the last trip there i heard? why have the stopped? i thought maybe they would continue and build bigger. What i would love to see it one day the international space station get so big you could see it from earth. that would be the best step!

[Psyber]

All that because the whole of our society is caught up in the emotion and fear and is suppressing the sort of technology that would enable us to expand our living space

Psyber methinks you are the one caught up in emotion and fear, with your dire predictions of a "slow death through overpopulation, pollution, and shortages of food and water" and that we will "all starve as a consequence" if we do not go nuclear.

Oh I forgot to mention that we will be wiped out as a species too.

I blame the movie "Soylent Green", and the Asimov novel "The Caves of Steel" - they've obviously gotten to me.
Seriously though, given our economic commitment to growing populations and increasing GDP to fund the debts we build up, what is going to happen to us when we can't go on expanding and outgrow our resources - water, land for agriculture, and energy sources that don't kill us via pollution.
There is some evidence it is beginning to happen, but we keep avoiding thinking about it, and keep hoping it will go away...

Those who believe we are causing climate change, too, really need to consider this, as if they are right we either need to stop our economic growth or get the industry off the planet fast.