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from the To-the-Moon,-Alice!-To-the-Moon! dept.
No more sending humans to an asteroid. We're going back to the Moon:
The policy calls for the NASA administrator to "lead an innovative and sustainable program of exploration with commercial and international partners to enable human expansion across the solar system and to bring back to Earth new knowledge and opportunities." The effort will more effectively organize government, private industry, and international efforts toward returning humans on the Moon, and will lay the foundation that will eventually enable human exploration of Mars.
"The directive I am signing today will refocus America's space program on human exploration and discovery," said President Trump. "It marks a first step in returning American astronauts to the Moon for the first time since 1972, for long-term exploration and use. This time, we will not only plant our flag and leave our footprints -- we will establish a foundation for an eventual mission to Mars, and perhaps someday, to many worlds beyond."
The policy grew from a unanimous recommendation by the new National Space Council, chaired by Vice President Mike Pence, after its first meeting Oct. 5. In addition to the direction to plan for human return to the Moon, the policy also ends NASA's existing effort to send humans to an asteroid. The president revived the National Space Council in July to advise and help implement his space policy with exploration as a national priority.
President's remarks and White House release.
Presidential Memorandum on Reinvigorating America's Human Space Exploration Program
Also at Reuters and New Scientist.
Previously: Should We Skip Mars for Now and Go to the Moon Again?
How to Get Back to the Moon in 4 Years, Permanently
NASA Eyeing Mini Space Station in Lunar Orbit as Stepping Stone to Mars
NASA and Roscosmos Sign Joint Statement on the Development of a Lunar Space Station
Bigelow and ULA to Put Inflatable Module in Orbit Around the Moon by 2022
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 13 2017, @04:00PM (5 children)
Mars and beyond will require us to do away with our bodies and reconstitute them on arrival.
What is it to be human will change. Must change. Our bodies are to fragile.
It isn’t just space and the journey. It is the planet too.
Reducing us to mind stored in a new body would allow all the expensive shielding to be reduced to protecting individual boxes that house our minds.
Robotic bodies (of various shapes and therefore uses) will get us through space. We can more easily space walk this way. Fix things outside the ship. Though I believe a ship which is biomechanical will be needed as it can self repair. Whether this is a nano hull or one we create with bacteria that survive in space I don’t know.
We will need psychological training to deal with our new selves but I think what we are is what we think we are. So very possible to overcome these sense of self issues.
Once we find a planet we can adjust our robotic bodies to the exploration of the planet. Gravity issues mostly. Hop to the surface. Test it. What lives there. Are there humanoids? Could we use their bodies to place our minds in or do we need to build our new bodies? More muscles? Less? Lungs able to breathe what? Skin able to resist what? What is the radiation level our new sun shines upon our new home?
We never have needed our bodies. And space travel needs them far less.
Also ask Mr Hawking if he will donate his mind. Course AI is already negating our limited intellect.
Soon we could be the Egyptian Gods populating new worlds.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday December 13 2017, @04:37PM (2 children)
Again, a complete exaggeration. You can go to Mars and come back, and you will have a slightly higher chance of getting cancer. Maybe a +5% chance. You might have a slightly higher chance of getting dementia years later. These could be fixed by nanobots and regenerative medicine, the same kinds of technologies desired for anti-aging on Earth. There will be no need for mind uploading or a new genetically engineered body for Earth-Mars travel. If you're worried about radiation and charged particles, just build a super-heavy launcher like Interplanetary Transport System that can move more mass to Mars, and then increase the mass of your shielding. Don't forget to pack your shit into the walls for additional shielding. All much cheaper and more straightforward than mind uploading and/or new bodies. Once you get to Mars, humans can live in underground or well-built aboveground structures that were prepared in advance by robots.
Your biomechanical Zerg/Wraith ships might be what are required for interstellar travel where a particle hitting a ship moving at 0.1c can be very destructive. But not needed for solar system exploration, even to as far out as the hypothetical Planet Nine distance.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 13 2017, @04:49PM (1 child)
No bodies. Simplicity is most important. It isn’t just protecting them. It is keeping them alive. Dealing with waste or food etc.
Sure to mars it might be of no consequence but interstellar space travel is hard.
Just look at how hard it is to keep the ISS up and working and stocked for just two decades.
No bodies. They aren’t needed.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday December 13 2017, @04:59PM
For interstellar, sure, we can talk mind uploading. It will take a long time to come up with any good method of getting civilization to another star, long enough to work out the details of mind uploading and optional reconstitution in new bodies at the destination. Unless warp drives are realized first and physicists are not optimistic.
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(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Wednesday December 13 2017, @04:42PM
We will need psychological training to deal with our new selves but I think what we are is what we think we are. So very possible to overcome these sense of self issues.
This reminds me of the Max Headroom episode where old people have their consciousnesses uploaded into a computer.
"It's wonderful, isn't it?"
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Wednesday December 13 2017, @04:43PM
Mars and beyond will require us to do away with our bodies and reconstitute them on arrival.
What is it to be human will change. Must change. Our bodies are to fragile.
Looking around at my fellow Americans, most of them really could use new bodies. Heck, most of them could stand to lose half their body weight in their existing bodies.