NASA sends a giant rocket to space and a module to the Moon

[Suff]

SLS launched Artemis 1 into orbit to get it ready for the trans lunar insertion burn.

Pretty impressive. It would be even more impressive if SpaceX didn't intend to do a static fire on Starship with 20 raptors in the coming week or two and generate 2 million lbs more thrust. Starship has 33 raptors on the booster.

The upcoming mission to the moon will be really interesting. I grew up with moon missions and it has been a long time.

[Workingman]

We might as well go to the Moon to have a play before moving on to Mars for more playtime. We are not going to terraform either of them; and they are about as far as we can go with manned space travel.

We will do ourselves in long before we get Star Trek Warp drives to let us boldly go where no man has gone before... It currently takes three years to get to Jupiter and six to get to Saturn. Neptune, the furthest planet, is 12 years or more.

Earth 1.0 is home, it is all we have. Get used to it.

[Suff]

Earth 1.0 is home, it is all we have. Get used to it.

I have. It is the billions who have not that are the problem. Not a rocket to space. It was interesting what Elon said. "Yes we need to look after those who cannot look after themselves and we need to protect the biosphere of the planet. However if we can take 1% of the money on that and explore other planets and other places to live we should".

Artemis and Starship are not even 1% They are a rounding error on 0.1%.

[Workingman]

No matter what St Elon says "We" are not going to live on other planets. A very few of us might go and live in biodomes or caves on the Moon and Mars in order to protect themselves from Cosmic radiation and the extremes of temperature, but after a while those people will not be able to come back, no matter how much money we spend - Earth's gravity will wreck their bodies.

The other eight billion of us are stuck on rock number three, and as each day goes by we kill more of it: see various COPs for details.

In about four billion years the Sun will be a red giant and its outer shells will have consumed Earth. Fortunately for humanity we will have disappeared some 3.9999 billion years before that happens.

We have about 1,000 years left, if that, and for most of it will be as agrarians or scavengers during that time.

Forget space travel, Star Trek, Star Wars, 2001, BS Galactica. We are going nowhere.

[Suff]

We are going somewhere in the short term. Well some of us are.

I've been wondering if the first long term resident intelligences on mars will be AI. Elon is also working on that angle and a ship that can carry 100 humans to Mars can easily carry 1,000 AI bots. With minimum maint and only power required to keep them going, they could build the habitats for the first humans.

Be a bit of a facer if they declared independence and told us to go do one though

[Workingman]

AI bots are not "some of us" and no matter what they build they cannot create gravity. On Mars it is only 40% that of Earth. Humans will need to become Martians in order to be able to live there.... but only if they can terraform it. They can't.

The AI bots cannot just build habitats out of thin air. They need heavy machinery for mining and production, stuff much heavier than the 100 humans they will replace, and they are not humans.

It is all a fantasy.

[Suff]

I'll take that bet. Might not live to see it, but this is one time where sheer determination, country levels of cash and incredible ingenuity will win out.

[Workingman]

I'll leave you to your Marvel and DC comics, I'll stick with science.

"We" are going nowhere, certainly not "To infinity and beyond".