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How depressing would it be to one day just accept that we can't travel the stars? I could never accept that..

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I don't find the idea depressing at all; quite the contrary. Reassuring, if anything.

Accepting one's limitations and learning to make the best of them is called "growing up." Without limitations, we would all be lost souls.

I see no reason to believe that humans will ever travel to other stars, but there are infinite other, more meaningful things that we can do. Most of which we probably can't even imagine now.

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I would agree 110%, but that's impossible. So I'll agree 100%.


I think that we humans tend to think that we have an unprecedented control over nature, which is a complete illusion in my opinion.

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I don't this has anything to do with thinking we have unprecedented control over nature. We're not talking about changing the rules that nature abides by, we're talking about figuring out how to make the rules apply to everything. Nature says that C is a speed limit that nothing can go faster than, but there is no rule saying other things cannot attain speeds of say 99.99% of C. The only rule is you cannot go C. We may not know how to get there now, nor may we ever, but it doesn't mean it isn't possible. ...

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Although it is true that we don't know the limits, I think that we should expect that there are limits. If someone was to ask if we will eventually be able to downsize our bodies to the size of elementary particles and navigate through the quantum world, most of us, if not all, would find the question pretty silly. Of course we would never think that it is possible. So why do we "feel" that we can conquer vast distances?

Our bodies are struggling with the physical world everyday. If we fall from tiny heights we get injured, our bodies are getting oxidized by the same oxygen that we breath,...even our cars rust and ware out. We cope with nature but it is not easy. This let me think that this world is not « made » for us, so limits are expected and probably real. This is of course only my opinion.

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Jimmy

If you could stop time, for how long would you stop it?

"...since that time, I have not complained about the weather one single time. I’m glad there is weather." – Alan Bean, Apollo 12

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You did miss one group though... Those are the ones who will refuse to believe that the inevitable disaster really exsists. You know the kind. The "what energy crisis" or "what moon landing" crowd? They are alway a great addition to the throng of naysayers.

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You are quite right; how could I possibly have forgotten the "it's all a government conspiracy" crowd?

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Terry (astrotrf)

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From what I understand from the laser powered rockets, we cannot drive them into orbit on just laser power alone. This is because these craft require a dense atmosphere. What would be more likely is a laser-powered craft that ignited a rocket motor once it got high enough so that the lasers were no longer accelerating it.

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I think you guys all missed the real point on the space elevator concept. Space elevator consists of two major problems, the 'hard' one of building the wire / whatever, then the much easier one of 'powering the climber gadgets'. But, once you solve the 'power the climbers' problem, you will discover, that same power method can power _anything_, and, you can use it to power free-flying 'climbers'.

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...I use the doomsday senario to make a point. It eliminates the arguments of cost,...

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That would still be argued about

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"Gosh, you've... really got some nice toys here"

Dual mount/ambient temperature Hominid Widefield Photon Collectors®
Pleistocene™ ½ watt Wetware Integration Unit.
entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem

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