after we get started on the moon

[jtkirk1701]

we will need a full time ship in space capable of at least going back and forth to the moon. i agree that private enterprise will do most of the heavy lifting. there is still a security aspect to this situation. we need our first space guard if you will?

 

[ehs40]

i dont think we will need a "space gaurd" untill civilians go into space regularly and even then what kind of crime could be commited up there without killing youself or easily being caught

 

[trailrider]

"security aspect to this situation. we need our first space guard if you will?"<br /><br />'If the Army and the Navy<br /> Ever look on Heaven's scenes,<br />They will find the streets are guarded by<br /> United Space Marines!"*<br /><br />*With ALL DUE RESPECT intended to the USMC! Semper Fi! Hooo-ahh!<br /><br />Ad Luna! Ad Aries! Ad Astra!!

 

[mlorrey]

just as there is no need of government on the internet, there is no need of government in space. Keep space fascism free! <br /><br />Astra Anarchia!

 

[lampblack]

Funny... everyone once figured the internet was so chaotic and free-ranging that nobody would ever tie it down with rules. Yet it started becoming rule-bound shortly after folks figured out they could make real money using it. The government boot-stepped right in to secure the online environment for business.<br /><br />One suspects the same thing will happen with space generally -- and with the moon in particular. It'll remain free (in much the same way the Wild West was free) right up to the point that large groups of entrepreneurs start making major bucks. Then button-down business lobbyists will start proposing new government rules -- and a lot of 'em will stick.<br /><br />I'm not saying this is <font color="yellow">necessarily</font>an entirely bad thing, as we need rules to keep order and ensure a level playing field. But human beings seem genetically driven to create more rules wherever they manage to live or do business -- and it will happen in space, too.<br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#0000ff"><strong>Just tell the truth and let the chips fall...</strong></font> </div>

 

[alokmohan]

gOVT SPENT HUGE AMOUNT OF MONEY FOR SPACE VENTURES FOR MILITARY PURPOSES.IT ALL GOES BACK TO COLD WAR IN 1950S.nO PRIVATE PARTY COULD DO IT.IT WAS BILLIONS THOSE DAYS.

 

[mlorrey]

On the contrary. Gov't only gets to boot stomp on internet users in the real world once they've tracked them down to a jurisdiction they can enforce in. There are plenty of jurisdictions for individuals to engage in any activity online. Fascist governments can't go after pornstars in Netherlands, or email scammers in Nigeria, or offshore online casinos, or mail order drugs from Canada, or uncensored content from many places for people in places like Iran to access. A government has to essentially run one huge national firewall to block its citizens access to things, and to date only a few govts like China and Iran have tried it.<br /><br />When space is settled, it will be even better, because of the vast distances involved and delta-v limitations. For example, were I to build a data haven on an inner moon of Jupiter and hide out there, the governments would need enough delta V to get in and out of that deep gravity well in order to find me, arrest me, shut down my servers, and bring me back to earth (rendition) for trial. The expenditure to accomplish this is huge, while my cost of continuing to broadcast is minimal: some backup transmitters come back on several months after they haul me back to earth, and the backup servers have the sites back in operation. They'd need to go back there AGAIN, and they won't know how many more backup systems there are. If there are lots of people like me all over the solar system running a P2P network, they can't afford to run us all down. Jetting around the country suing college students into oblivion is cheap. Rocketing around the solar system is not.<br /><br />What is more, once you are out there, with your own systems for life support: air, water, food, energy, you just are no longer on any sort of grid, other than communications, no longer dependent upon the government industrial complex, or the banking-credit complex, or the preprocessed food complex, etc.<br /><br />Every settlement everywhere will need policing. Saving the costs

 

[phaze]

I'm not so sure about the Moon.... <br /><br />But I have previously and continue to advocate packing some heat if/when we send our first batch of humans to visit Mars.<br /><br /><br /><br />

 

[tomnackid]

Government is a tool. It is a tool far older than fire or stone knifes--chimps play politics and enforce rules of behavior. In America at least (I can't speak for any other countries) government is a tool wielded by the people. Only an incompetent craftsman blames his tools if things go badly. A competent craftsman either learns to use the tools correctly or replaces bad tools with better ones. I fear that Americans are becoming a country of incompetent craftsmen who have let there tools become dull and rusty and when they do try employ them they end up cutting off a finger and then cursing the knife. Like it or not, government is as human as language. Its up to us to use it wisely.<br /><br />As far as space security goes. The only difference between a launch vehicle and an ICBM is where it lands. Even a conventional warhead hitting a city at suborbital velocities can do a lot of damage (that was the basis of Sanger's "Silver Bird" concept). I don't see how the world can have cheap and easy access to space with out some kind of missile defense system or strict international control of launches and launch vehicles. From a free enterprise standpoint the first option would seem better, though technically more difficult.

 

[ldyaidan]

As much as I would love to believe that once we settle the moon that people would somehow become better than what we are, reality tells me otherwise. Unfortunately, as long as there are people, there will be other people who prey upon them. Once our settlement is over 50 people, possibly sooner, we will have to have some sort of police force. I do, eventually see a world-wide space force/military force, but that may be awhile. Local police forces, however, I see as being necessary very soon after the settlement is started.<br /><br />Rae

 

[Swampcat]

There will be police in space as soon as someone opens a Dunkin' Donuts or Krispy Kreme franchise in orbit. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font size="3" color="#ff9900"><p><font size="1" color="#993300"><strong><em>------------------------------------------------------------------- </em></strong></font></p><p><font size="1" color="#993300"><strong><em>"I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical. Unsuccessful rebellions, indeed, generally establish the encroachments on the rights of the people which have produced them. An observation of this truth should render honest republican governors so mild in their punishment of rebellions as not to discourage them too much. It is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government."</em></strong></font></p><p><font size="1" color="#993300"><strong>Thomas Jefferson</strong></font></p></font> </div>

 

[lampblack]

I hope you're right about all of that. But I suspect it'll be more like the taming of the American West. One by one, the old cowboys will die off -- and every little town will have a sheriff. Then comes the Chamber of Commerce.<br /><br /><br />(edited to note chamber pot's likely arrival)<br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#0000ff"><strong>Just tell the truth and let the chips fall...</strong></font> </div>

 

[john_316]

I support that!!!!!! <br /><br />A modified .50cal Desert Eagle for each crewman and a modified Barret .50 cal sniper rifle or 2 would make great addition to any space crew going to Mars....<br /><br />Maybe a MuDuce as well.....<br /><br /><img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /><br />