02 MAR 2015 by ideonexus
The Cosmic Perspective
The cosmic perspective comes from the frontiers of science, yet it's not solely the province of the scientist. The cosmic perspective belongs to everyone.
The cosmic perspective is humble.
The cosmic perspective is spiritual—even redemptive—but not religious.
The cosmic perspective enables us to grasp, in the same thought, the large and the small.
The cosmic perspective opens our minds to extraordinary ideas but does not leave them so open that our brains spill out, making us susceptible ... 1 
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notes08 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
The Case for Robotic Space Exploration
In a dispassionate comparison of the relative values of human and robotic spaceflight, the only surviving motivation for continuing human spaceflight is the ideology of adventure. But only a tiny number of Earth's six billion inhabitants are direct participants. For the rest of us, the adventure is vicarious and akin to that of watching a science fiction movie. At the end of the day, I ask myself whether the huge national commitment of technical talent to human spaceflight and the ever-presen... 1 notes
notesOnly a tiny percentage of Earthlings get to go into space, for the rest of us it's a vicarious experience.
07 MAY 2012 by ideonexus
Human Space Exploration is Overrated
Perhaps what we should do is genetically engineer new forms of Intelligent life that can survive the stress of space yet still conduct scientific experiments. Actually, such creatures have already been made in the lab. They're called robots. You don't have to feed them, they don't need life support, and they won't get upset if you don't bring them back to Earth. People, on the other hand, generally want to breathe, eat, and eventually come home.
It's probably true that no city has ever held...Folksonomies: space exploration space flight
Folksonomies: space exploration space flight
1 notes
notesWe don't remember most of the astronauts, but we do have favorite space photos taken by all the robots we've sent out into the solar system.
01 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
The Greater Good of Science
There was a time – and very recently – when the idea of the possibility of
learning the composition of the celestial bodies was considered senseless even by
prominent scientists and thinkers. That time has now passed. The idea of the
possibility of a closer, direct study of the universe will today, I believe, appear still
wilder. To step out onto the soil of asteroids, to lift with your hand a stone on the
moon, to set up moving stations in ethereal space, and establish living rings around
th...
1 As described by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, who predicted space exploration through reactive vehicles and expressed his hope through a better world through his research in 1912.
01 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Space Exploration Costs the Same as Exploring the World
The Solar System is much vaster than the Earth, but the speeds of our
spacecraft are, of course, much greater than the speeds of the sailing ships of the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The spacecraft trip from the Earth to the Moon
is faster than was the galleon trip from Spain to the Canary Islands. The voyage
from Earth to Mars will take as long as did the sailing time from England to North
America; the journey from Earth to the moons of Jupiter will require about the
same time as did t...Folksonomies: economics space exploration
Folksonomies: economics space exploration
1 Europe spent as much money proportionally to discover America as it would cost us to venture to Mars.
01 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
The Century When the Dreams of Man are Realized
At the very beginning of the twentieth century competent scientific and lay
opinion held that airplanes were impossible. The end of the century, barring the
dark specter of nuclear or ecological catastrophes, will probably see joint Soviet
and American manned space expeditions to the nearer planets.
This is the century in which some of the oldest dreams of Man have been
realized, in which mankind has sprouted wings and realized the aspirations of
Daedalus and da Vinci. Air-breathing, man-car...Folksonomies: culture space exploration
Folksonomies: culture space exploration
1 notes
notesSpace Exploration only happens to one generation, and when it did, there were people alive for whom the planets were only distant untouchable points.
01 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Space Flight May Mature Us as a Civilization
In all the history of mankind, there will be only one generation that will be first
to explore the Solar System, one generation for which, in childhood, the planets
are distant and indistinct discs moving through the night sky, and for which, in old
age, the planets are places, diverse new worlds in the course of exploration.
There will be a time in our future history when the Solar System will be
explored and inhabited. To them, and to all who come after us, the present
moment will be a piv... 1 notes
notesIt's the first step in realizing our place in the bigger picture.
01 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
The Military is Good For Space Exploration
The experience of space exploration gives no unique philosophy; to some
extent, each group tends to see its own philosophical view reflected, and not
always by the soundest logic: Nikita Khrushchev stressed that in the space flight of
Yuri Gagarin no angels or other supernatural beings were detected; and, in almost
perfect counterpoint, the Apollo 8 astronauts read from lunar orbit the Babylonian
cosmogony enshrined in Genesis, Chapter 1, as if to reassure their American
audience that the exp... 1 notes
notesThe competition against other militaries unites them against the public. Space flight would move them into a peacetime occupation.
29 OCT 2011 by ideonexus
Government Maps the Terrain for Private Enterprise
There is fundamentally no business case for private enterprise to advance a space frontier. When you advance a frontier, you are making mistakes that the capital markets choose not to value. You have to create patents to enable things that you don't know will work. Anytime you are the first person to do something on that scale, the history of human civilization has demonstrated that the only funding available to do that via governance.
And so what then happens is the patents get issued. The ...Neil deGrasse Tyson explains how government explores and maps out the terrain before private enterprise comes along behind after the costs and risks have been determined.
02 JUN 2011 by ideonexus
Randal Monroe on Space Flight
The universe is probably littered with the one-planet graves of cultures which made the sensible economic decision that there's no good reason to go into space--each discovered, studied, and remembered by the ones who made the irrational decision.Envisioning a universe filled with the planetary grave sites of civilizations that did not see the economic worth of space exploration.
