Future/Upcoming Space ideas and/or missions

[Shade_Wilder]

 

The sheer difficulty and cost of blasting off from Earth's gravity and into space requires a huge amount of planning and preparation, and thus ideas that we have now likely won't see fruition for several years, if ever. That said, it is always interesting to see what might be on the proverbial 'Drawing Board' for the future.

First, and in my view the most vital, is the development of manufacturing capacities in orbit, yet I can find little concrete information on plans for it. Simply put, the more manufacturing that we can move into space (or perhaps to a Lunar base) means easing the burden of sending up stuff (if you can even pack it better for later assembly, we'll almost certainly see better equipment in space) and, eventually, when we are able to collect and process raw materials in space we'll be able to bypass blasting into orbit all together. But, that is another day and almost certainly on the Moon.

The CNN article (link below) notes several ideas that will receive 'start-up' funding from NASA, including 'self-growing bricks' for future bases, a new kind of 'Helicopter' that can function on the Jovian moon Titan, the use of fluids to act as a mirror for telescopes to provide maximum adaptability and flexibility in the future, different mirrors for future space-based telescopes, and a new method of 'seeing' radio waves.

(https://edition.cnn.com/2023/02/04/world/nasa-niac-space-exploration-concepts-scn/index.html)

Those who are into this sort of stuff can take a 'deeper dive' with the NASA link (below) which details a few more projects that are receiving 'seed money' this year.

(https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-selects-experimental-space-technology-concepts-for-initial-study)

Finally, as I have said before, Space.com is a great site for those interested.

(https://www.space.com/space-missions-to-watch-this-year)

The last two years or so will be noted by future historians as a time when humanity's quest for the stars really took huge strides with Webb, Artemis, DART, etc. My sense is that we won't see as spectacular advances this year or next, but rather return to a steady progress in increasing our knowledge and capacities in space. If/when we are able to set up lunar bases with infrastructure, the old saying "The Sky's The Limit" won't apply anymore.

Who knows? Perhaps one of these ideas will be the thing that the Vulcans notice and initiate First Contact. 

 

[Karolyn]

Instead of vostly, dead end space missions, we really ought to be researching the colonisation and small scale terraforming of places like Antarctica under sealed domes. Because Antarctica is positively hospitable, when it's compared to the moon and Mars, yet is remote enough to constitute good practice. And would in the meantime yield Antarctic ores as compensation

[TheDirtyDurian]

On 2/20/2023 at 12:08 PM, Karolyn said:

Instead of vostly, dead end space missions, we really ought to be researching the colonisation and small scale terraforming of places like Antarctica under sealed domes. Because Antarctica is positively hospitable, when it's compared to the moon and Mars, yet is remote enough to constitute good practice. And would in the meantime yield Antarctic ores as compensation

Or use the vast sums of money to solve the problems we've got where we're living now 

[palooka]

Think a Moon base would solve a lot of problems. 

Not in my lifetime but maybe in 20+ years - if the ratbags that control countries, ie North Korea, China, Russia, Iran, include USA etc., can get over their paranoia and power hunger and the world work together to further this area, then there are huge mind-blowing possibilities that will benefit all humanity.

Think of what could be achieved with all the money being channelled into arms by those country's were channelled into world Space exploration.