I just wondered: does anyone know of an anti-space exploration movement (set aside the nuclear aspect)? I know that some people believe that the money spent for space projects could be much better used to solve our problems here on Earth. It would be interesting, if there is one, to look at a site of anti-space people and see their arguments.
Personally, I believe that space exploration should have high priority. The main argument is that a catastrophe on Earth (such a catastrophe will happen soon or later, and will be either natural or human-triggered) could extinguish the human species. If humans are already established on other worlds when this catastrophe happens, then humanity has better chances to survive, so we should begin pioneering space exploration now, without delay. But the reasons for going to space are not only saving life, but also research and understandig of our universe and origins, technology development, natural expansion of our civilization, etc.
However, I have talked to people who do not see things the same way. They believe that going to space before solving our problems on Earth would be a waste of money and would export the problems to the orher worlds as well as create new problems.
I believe that humanity will never be free of problems and that this is ALL RIGHT. Without problems, no evolution!
The last time I dropped in on the site for GNAWaNPiS (Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear power in Space), they were pretty much against anything to do with space, linking it all with the military/industrial complex's aims of putting nuclear weapons in orbit.
When Casinni was getting ready to launch "with its evil cargo of plutonium", I saw an op-ed from a leader of that movement saying effectively that there's no moral difference between enjoying looking at pictures from a space probe and getting your rocks off watching an LGB hit an Iraqi bunker.
It all comes down to getting the people enthusiastic about pretty pictures extravaganzas and space in general, to soften any resistance to nuclear power for space probes, which leads inexorably (so they say) to warheads and laser battle stations and eventually an iron boot stomping on a human face forever.
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"A devotee of Truth may not do anything in deference to convention. He must always hold himself open to correction, and whenever he discovers himself to be wrong he must confess it at all costs and atone for it."
Monhandas K. Gandhi
I tend to see a lot of the problems of the world as subsets of the same basic problem: supply of cheap energy. I suspect that many of the world's problems will fall before the crushing pressure of cheap energy supply. Here's why:
Given sufficient energy supplies, any chemical reaction can be driven to completion: ergo, we shouldn't view petroleum based fuels as an energy source, but as an energy carrier. As an energy carrier, synthetic petroleum can be an efficient energy storage and transportation medium. Synthetic alcohol can be a cleaner alternative, but the production of both can be energy intensive. Another thing that tends to make them costly is the catalysts needed: The Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis reaction which converts Producer Gas (CO + H2) to hydrocarbons with fairly high efficiency typically uses an iron-oxide bed seeded with platinum group metals. Typical catalytic promoters for various reactions are Platinum and Rhodium--among two of the more expensive precious metals. With clean nuclear power, supplimented by power from solar power satellites, and platinum group metals brought back from the asteroids--we can literally synthesize most or all of our petrochemical needs from anything containing carbon: municipal waste, agricultural waste, etc.
Given sufficient energy, it is possible to recycle anything. It is possible to break down chemical wastes in a plasma arc reduction fascility--no chemical bonds can survive complete ionization! Using something like a giant mass spectrometer it should be possible to use a magnetic field to 'preen' away chlorine and florine atoms away from carbon and hydrogen so that things like CFC's can be actually physically recycled. It may even be possible to vaporize and ionize a mixed stream of solid and liquid waste into component atoms. Such a scheme would even allow us to mine former landfills for raw materials. But this is extremely energy intensive, but given sufficient energy supplies this shouldn't be a problem at all.
Given sufficient energy, it should be possible to distill or otherwise desalinate sea water. Billions of gallons of fresh water, pumped inland, can be used for agriculture and other uses. This is not just in the U.S., it is anywhere. Imagine places like the arid regions of Africa recieving all of the freshwater they need.
Given sufficient energy, it could be possible to grow crops within a Agricultural 'Tower'--a kind of food production skyscaper. By constructing multiple decks with either lights or solar-fiber optic light distribution systems and enclosing the whole structure, it should be possible to grow all kinds of produce year round without the worry of pests and without the need for pesticides. Fertilizers could be enclosed too, so the dangers of agricultural runoff should be minimized. It should be possible to create a rather intense agricultural system without significantly stressing the biosphere, I would imagine. And Ag Towers could be built nearer to the cities where the products are consumed, reducing the need for long haul transportation. Many specialty crops could be accomodated too, I imagine. Doing something similar in South America may help the residents there make a living without destroying the Amazon Forest.
Given sufficient energy, almost anything is possible. In space are vast energy and material resources. Going there to tap those resources seems logical and essential. Our very long term survival will require it. We have sufficient potential nuclear energy resources to last us a long, long time on Earth. But eventually we will grow beyond the bounds of our material resources--so we will still need to look to space: the moon, asteroids, comets, etc. for resources for the next centuries and millenia.
I'm sure it won't be utopia, but I suspect that much of the political strife of the planet basically stems from lack of water, food, resources, and energy. I suspect that many of the problems facing us can be solved with the energy and materials available in space.
Yes!! And I would even add: space exploration not only for energy resources, but also for technology development in the energy sector.
What you write looks like science-fiction, but it is absolutely true: given enormous amounts of cheap energy, almost everything becomes possible. GoogleNaut, why don't you turn SF writer?
Thanks. I've actually thought about doing some Science Fiction--I love the genre. Eventually I hope to publish sellable material. But I would love even more to successfully tackle the Big Problems facing us all.
Cheap, clean energy and the material resources to utilize it can be the catalytic driver for us to tackle this Geo-Cultural Problems. Applied technology can help us today, and reinvestment will help us develop new technologies tomorrow.
We must refocus our narrow human viewpoint to a much longer term--because sustainability demands patience and longterm dedication. We must think in terms sustainability for centuries and millenia if we are to survive as a species. Once we expand out into the solar system nothing short of a nearby supernova explosion can stop us from expanding out into the galaxy eventually. And then humanity's evolved descendents will have to take the "Big Leap" from there...
In a vulgarization book, Carl Sagan proposed a way of conolizing the neighbouring star systems without needing interstellar travel: If human colonies settle inside asteroids, they can propagate from asteroid to asteroid. Given time, patience and dedication (as you say), eventually the asteroid folks end up conolizing the Oort's comet cloud and beyond. It is possible - I don't know if this is even known - that the closest star systems also possess Oort's clouds, and that they overlap each other.
