Monday, January 21, 2008
Space Exploration and Travel - Romance vs. Reality
The romance of science and science fiction, in space travel and exploration, has homo sapiens throughout the universe.
While there are variations in form, for the most part it's still today's organics. Principally owing to the fact it's what we are and relate to.
Present technological capabilities remain quite limited. Today's reality is most space exploration is accomplished through partially robotic tools and instruments, under human operator remote control.
Human presence in space has been basically limited to manned orbital capsules, the International Space Station, and a few landings on Earth's moon. The expenses and efforts involved in these enterprises are enormous. Notable failures have been extremely costly, in every regard.
Thus we have "romance versus reality". The reality of organics has no actual possibility of success, as science fiction typically portrays. Under present technological considerations, our off-planet presence requires (essentially) bringing "Earth" with us. The cost of this is becoming more and more prohibitive. The further "off planet" we attempt to travel only adds to the cost and logistical considerations.
An additional complication is the further we travel, the longer the delay in communications becomes.
Space exploration is necessary. Some believe this is our only hope for species survival and advancement. This is a valid point. Present planetary resources are becoming scarce, as well as more expensive and difficult to acquire.
Taking all in consideration, the answer becomes intelligent robotics, i.e. "self aware" robots, with homo sapiens level intelligence.
Advantages are manifold. No longer would craft require provisioning of food, water, oxygen, waste recycling systems, radiation shielding, etc. Far less weight would be launched, requiring less fuel. Considerations of loss of physical conditioning and bone density on long space voyages become a non-issue.
The time involved in travelling to more distant objectives is also no longer a major psychological consideration. Exploration becomes far less costly and failures no longer carry the same degree of emotional penalty.
For humankind to truly succeed in space exploration, efforts to develop greater information storage densities are necessary, along with advances in robotics. Once it becomes possible to download human consciousness and capabilities into non-volatile nano data storage devices, we will have our presence in space, and elsewhere; but not in our current human form factor.
While there are variations in form, for the most part it's still today's organics. Principally owing to the fact it's what we are and relate to.
Present technological capabilities remain quite limited. Today's reality is most space exploration is accomplished through partially robotic tools and instruments, under human operator remote control.
Human presence in space has been basically limited to manned orbital capsules, the International Space Station, and a few landings on Earth's moon. The expenses and efforts involved in these enterprises are enormous. Notable failures have been extremely costly, in every regard.
Thus we have "romance versus reality". The reality of organics has no actual possibility of success, as science fiction typically portrays. Under present technological considerations, our off-planet presence requires (essentially) bringing "Earth" with us. The cost of this is becoming more and more prohibitive. The further "off planet" we attempt to travel only adds to the cost and logistical considerations.
An additional complication is the further we travel, the longer the delay in communications becomes.
Space exploration is necessary. Some believe this is our only hope for species survival and advancement. This is a valid point. Present planetary resources are becoming scarce, as well as more expensive and difficult to acquire.
Taking all in consideration, the answer becomes intelligent robotics, i.e. "self aware" robots, with homo sapiens level intelligence.
Advantages are manifold. No longer would craft require provisioning of food, water, oxygen, waste recycling systems, radiation shielding, etc. Far less weight would be launched, requiring less fuel. Considerations of loss of physical conditioning and bone density on long space voyages become a non-issue.
The time involved in travelling to more distant objectives is also no longer a major psychological consideration. Exploration becomes far less costly and failures no longer carry the same degree of emotional penalty.
For humankind to truly succeed in space exploration, efforts to develop greater information storage densities are necessary, along with advances in robotics. Once it becomes possible to download human consciousness and capabilities into non-volatile nano data storage devices, we will have our presence in space, and elsewhere; but not in our current human form factor.
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