The World Changed Last Night

[ElrondHubbard]

May not seem like much to some, but this is the first real step towards making humanity a multi-planet species. In many ways, this is an Apollo moment.

[steffo99]

Soon...

[ChazWood]

yeah...



No.

[Brackneyc]

They ran the launch tape in reverse. Oldest trick in the book.

[pvsampson]

It's cool they have managed to have the reusable craft,but it HAS been done before.

I really cannot see the human species becoming " multi-planet".The distances are vast,and space is a very dangerous place.Even IF we find somewhere that is worth colonising,getting there and setting up would be a logistical nightmare and super expensive,and to be honest...what is the point?

Seriously....why?

[Brackneyc]

It's cool they have managed to have the reusable craft,but it HAS been done before.

I really cannot see the human species becoming " multi-planet".The distances are vast,and space is a very dangerous place.Even IF we find somewhere that is worth colonising,getting there and setting up would be a logistical nightmare and super expensive,and to be honest...what is the point?

Seriously....why?

Once they get a Walmart on the moon, everything will fall into place.

[Fishman15]

Once they get a Walmart on the moon, everything will fall into place.

Well, that didn't work. How about this...ketchup and mustard in the same bottle?

[Nikonguy]

Living less than 80 miles from the Kennedy Space Center I've seen some amazing spectacles before dawn.

[Brackneyc]

Well, that didn't work. How about this...ketchup and mustard in the same bottle?

Oh that sounds interesting sir.

[pvsampson]

Living less than 80 miles from the Kennedy Space Center I've seen some amazing spectacles before dawn.

Need pics..."NIKONguy".

[Bando]

I really thought this was going to be about Oceanside getting banned last night.

[Fishman15]

I really thought this was going to be about Oceanside getting banned last night.

Again???

[Bando]

Again???

Has something to do with solstice and a full moon, I can't hardly keep up.

[Mark1T]

It's all CGI. Wake up, people. We are doomed.


But, really, Elrond, that is very cool.

[Wyomann]

Someone has been reading too many Elrond Hubbard books. It would have been cool if John Travolta stepped off the rocket after it landed though.

[Corbi]

Someone has been reading too many Elrond Hubbard books. It would have been cool if John Travolta stepped off the rocket after it landed though.

Even better would be if an ape walked out. 🐵

[ElrondHubbard]

It's cool they have managed to have the reusable craft,but it HAS been done before.

I really cannot see the human species becoming " multi-planet".The distances are vast,and space is a very dangerous place.Even IF we find somewhere that is worth colonising,getting there and setting up would be a logistical nightmare and super expensive,and to be honest...what is the point?

Seriously....why?

Seriously? Fist, it hasn't really been done before. An orbital booster has never come back and made a soft landing, ready for another mission. If you're thinking of the Space Shuttle solid rocket boosters, this is very different. They landed by parachute in salt water, and had to be completely disassembled and refurbished at great expense before their individual segments could be used again. This is the first real step towards gas-and-go space travel, the thing that will make it affordable for the public.

Of course space is a very dangerous place. Of course the distances are vast. It's one of the most difficult things we will ever do. But at the same time, Earth is also getting more difficult and dangerous. If you're not growing, you're dying. People who are devoted to keeping themselves in the best possible condition should understand this. If humanity chooses to remain stuck on one planet for the rest of its existence, it will go extinct.

Anyway, Elon Musk is fixated on Mars, but this kind of developing technology is not just about going to Mars. The amount of natural resources just scattered among the asteroid belt alone is far greater than anything we could ever recover from Earth. The potential for wealth in space is tremendous, and in greatly lowering the price of space travel, we make that wealth more accessible to us. Just getting off of the Earth is much more logistically difficult than developing the destination. It's this easy reusability that will make space travel and its benefits no longer an impossible dream.

Like I said, it may not seem much now for some of you, but it's a bigger leap than you imagine.

[ElrondHubbard]

Well, that didn't work. How about this...ketchup and mustard in the same bottle?

That would be a sign of the anti-christ, sir.

[Brackneyc]

Seriously? Fist, it hasn't really been done before. An orbital booster has never come back and made a soft landing, ready for another mission. If you're thinking of the Space Shuttle solid rocket boosters, this is very different. They landed by parachute in salt water, and had to be completely disassembled and refurbished at great expense before their individual segments could be used again. This is the first real step towards gas-and-go space travel, the thing that will make it affordable for the public.

Of course space is a very dangerous place. Of course the distances are vast. It's one of the most difficult things we will ever do. But at the same time, Earth is also getting more difficult and dangerous. If you're not growing, you're dying. People who are devoted to keeping themselves in the best possible condition should understand this. If humanity chooses to remain stuck on one planet for the rest of its existence, it will go extinct.

Anyway, Elon Musk is fixated on Mars, but this kind of developing technology is not just about going to Mars. The amount of natural resources just scattered among the asteroid belt alone is far greater than anything we could ever recover from Earth. The potential for wealth in space is tremendous, and in greatly lowering the price of space travel, we make that wealth more accessible to us. Just getting off of the Earth is much more logistically difficult than developing the destination. It's this easy reusability that will make space travel and its benefits no longer an impossible dream.

Like I said, it may not seem much now for some of you, but it's a bigger leap than you imagine.

We aren't leaving this planet, ever.

[ChazWood]

Anyway, Elon Musk is fixated on Mars

Well I suppose its healthier than a Uranus fixation.

Permission to carry on sciencing.

[ElrondHubbard]

We aren't leaving this planet, ever.

“A man who views the world the same at fifty as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life.”

~Muhammad Ali

[Brackneyc]

“A man who views the world the same at fifty as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life.”

~Muhammad Ali

At 20 I might have said it was possible. Today I know better.

I also don't think the mother ship is in the tail of Haleys Comet.

I won't judge you if you are sitting there in a purple jogging suit with a Dixie cup full of kool-aide.

[ElrondHubbard]

But when you were 20 it wasn't possible. It's not mysticism, it's not new age. It's this strange phenomenon called progress.

And you don't know better, because the possibility was just proven. Are you denying what just happened? I guarantee you that tech companies all over the world are paying very close attention!

[Brackneyc]

But when you were 20 it wasn't possible. It's not mysticism, it's not new age. It's this strange phenomenon called progress.

And you don't know better, because the possibility was just proven. Are you denying what just happened? I guarantee you that tech companies all over the world are paying very close attention!

Neither of us will live to see it. Is that better.

[ElrondHubbard]

My kids and grandkids will. That's what's important to me at this point.

[ChazWood]

Hey now. I think you two need to get you'z some Christmas spirit!

Here's a lovely video to help get you'z in the holiday spirit from our friends at Boston Dynamics.

[Brackneyc]

My kids and grandkids will. That's what's important to me at this point.

May they live to see a world at peace as well.

[pvsampson]

Seriously? Fist, it hasn't really been done before. An orbital booster has never come back and made a soft landing, ready for another mission. If you're thinking of the Space Shuttle solid rocket boosters, this is very different. They landed by parachute in salt water, and had to be completely disassembled and refurbished at great expense before their individual segments could be used again. This is the first real step towards gas-and-go space travel, the thing that will make it affordable for the public.

Of course space is a very dangerous place. Of course the distances are vast. It's one of the most difficult things we will ever do. But at the same time, Earth is also getting more difficult and dangerous. If you're not growing, you're dying. People who are devoted to keeping themselves in the best possible condition should understand this. If humanity chooses to remain stuck on one planet for the rest of its existence, it will go extinct.

Anyway, Elon Musk is fixated on Mars, but this kind of developing technology is not just about going to Mars. The amount of natural resources just scattered among the asteroid belt alone is far greater than anything we could ever recover from Earth. The potential for wealth in space is tremendous, and in greatly lowering the price of space travel, we make that wealth more accessible to us. Just getting off of the Earth is much more logistically difficult than developing the destination. It's this easy reusability that will make space travel and its benefits no longer an impossible dream.

Like I said, it may not seem much now for some of you, but it's a bigger leap than you imagine.

Well,you are right with the shuttle.

As to leaving and colonising,it isn't going to happen without intervention from an alien species.It has nothing to do with choosing to remain stuck here,it has everything to do with the fact that the distances are TOO vast to attempt.Humans will become extinct,it is the way of things and will happen.The only reason we are here is because of time and circumstance.If the dinosaurs weren't wiped out,then they would still be here and mammals would not have evolved...because they would not have had the circumstances to do so.The extinction event changed EVERYTHING,even the atmosphere which allowed us to "evolve" to where we are now.

Dinosaurs changed,but they did not evolve,in the true meaning of the term.For hundreds of millions of years they did the same thing,in the same way,in the same places.If the climate changes caused by the extinction event had not have happened,they would be doing those same things now...because it worked.

Why should we be looking to settle on another world?Do the powers that be know something we don't? Nope.If it was that important then there would already be bases on the Moon.The technology is available and it is possible to do.So why haven't we done it?

Movies might make it seem possible,and glamorous and adventurous but in reality we have enough problems with getting along together on our own planet.

There is no way we will ever get along on a planet,MILLIONS or BILLIONS of LIGHT YEARS away from here.Getting there is literally impossible. Except in movies.

[Mark1T]

Nothing stopped Santa. Marinate on that!

[ElrondHubbard]

Well,you are right with the shuttle.

As to leaving and colonising,it isn't going to happen without intervention from an alien species.It has nothing to do with choosing to remain stuck here,it has everything to do with the fact that the distances are TOO vast to attempt.Humans will become extinct,it is the way of things and will happen.The only reason we are here is because of time and circumstance.If the dinosaurs weren't wiped out,then they would still be here and mammals would not have evolved...because they would not have had the circumstances to do so.The extinction event changed EVERYTHING,even the atmosphere which allowed us to "evolve" to where we are now.

Dinosaurs changed,but they did not evolve,in the true meaning of the term.For hundreds of millions of years they did the same thing,in the same way,in the same places.If the climate changes caused by the extinction event had not have happened,they would be doing those same things now...because it worked.

Why should we be looking to settle on another world.Do the powers that be know something we don't? Nope.If it was that important then there would already be bases on the Moon.The technology is available and it is possible to do.So why haven't we done it.

Movies might make it seem possible,and glamorous and adventurous but in reality we have enough problems with getting along together on our own planet.

There is no way we will ever get along on a planet,MILLIONS or BILLIONS of LIGHT YEARS away from here.Getting there is literally impossible. Except in movies.

So many ways to respond to this. Fist, dinosaurs are still with us. They have feathers. Mammals were already around long before dinosaurs went extinct, although it's true that their huge explosion in diversity didn't happen until afterwards. Also, it's true that humans have evolved because of happenstance. But that's where the agreement ends. Unlike the dinosaurs, we have the ability to choose not to go extinct. We aren't helpless dry leaves blown around by the winds of evolution. Not any more. We are unlike all previous species in that respect.

Part of implementing that choice is to take advantage of the resources beyond Earth. We agree that the distances are vast, but distance alone is not the issue. Once you've gained the velocity to escape from Earth's gravity, you can coast most of the rest of the way to your destination. It's not like an ocean where you have to keep sailing against the current, or vast landscapes where you have to keep walking. The energy is expended right at the beginning. Ad we can do that. We've already acheived Earth orbit. It's said that Earth orbit is "halfway to anywhere", and its true, because half or more of the energy it takes to go anywhere in the solar system is expended just leaving the atmosphere and getting to orbit. What the SpaceX accomplishment just demonstrated is that now we can do that relatively cheaply.

Rocket fuel is cheap. The great expense has always been in throwing away the hardware with every mission, or with the Shuttle, rebuilding it after every mission. Now we don't have to do it any more. That's a huge leap.

There are so many other technologies that are converging now to make the other aspects of the goal easier. Computer power, solar cells, metallurgy, 3-D printing. Rocket engines can be mass produced relatively cheaply now. The rockets themselves are made of lighter and stronger materials, allowing more weight to go to the payload rather than the fuel tanks. New types of propulsion systems, like ion drives, are not only extremely efficient, but they're becoming more powerful and more practical to move vehicles around in space.

So this rocket landing is just one step -- a big one -- in a whole series of developments that is going to make space more accessible to humanity.

And you ask why aren't there already bases on the Moon? I think that's kind of like somebody in 1902 saying "if human flight were important, we'd already have aircraft carrying passengers." Well, in 1902, we didn't have the technology to build aircraft that could carry passengers, just like we don't have the technology to build bases on the Moon in 2015. We have the fundamental capability to do it, but not to make a profit off of it. Airplanes carrying passengers didn't happen until it became potentially profitable to do it.

Right now space is already profitable, the industry for telecommunications satellites alone is already beyond $186 billion a year.. That is continually growing. And that's just a small slice of the potential profit to be made in space. That's with the old-style technology of expensive, expendable rockets. Having affordable access to space will create huge upward pressure in that market. Why should we settle on other worlds? Because that's where the money is.

This development gives Moon bases the potential for profitability. It makes the asteroid belt potentially accessible and profitable. It makes Mars potentially profitable. Nobody's talking about living on planets millions of light years away. This is about expanding into the back yard of our own solar system. That step alone will change everything about how we view the world.

This ain't the movies. It just happened.