Why space?

[jatslo]

Jatslo said, "<font face="verdana" size="4" color="cyan">Good Color Contrast</font>!!!! <font face="tahoma" color="Magenta" size="6"><b>Magenta</b></font> looks pretty good too, not as clear though."

 

[jatslo]

<h4><font face="verdana" color="cyan">HTML is the tool of choice for many.</font></h4><br /><br /><table width="100%" align="center" bgcolor="lightgreen" valign="left" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" border="0"><br /><tr><br /><td valign="middle"><br /><table width="100%" valign="left" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="1" border="0"><br /><tr bgcolor="black"><br /><td align="center" valign="middle"><br /><br /><font color="magenta" face="monotype corsiva" size="10">Jatslo said, "Hi! Ho! Hi! Ho! It's off to work we go!"</font><br /><br />

 

[nexium]

If your commuter craft accerates at one g (average) for 10,000 seconds the speed is 322,000 feet per second = 220,000 miles per hour. It will take several hours at that speed to reach an asteroid that is passing close to Earth. (most asteroids, comets and moons are much farther away) Perhaps two more hours to slow to the asteroid's speed and make a landing. After working 8 hours on the asteroid, the trip home will take a bit longer as the asteroid is now moving away from Earth. Not practical as a daily commute, but possibly you could work every other week on an asteroid or every other day on the moon, which would be about 13 hours round trip, unless you wasted time going to low Earth orbit or luner orbit.<br />A bit faster acceleration would be tolerable, but two g average for 7200 seconds = two hours would be very stressful for most people. It may never be safe or practical to put any (but tiny) asteroids in orbit around Earth, and an asteroid in an around the moon orbit may be even riskier. Neil

 

[robert_miller]

>> Why space?<br /><br />Other posters have mentioned the quest for knowledge, the search for resources, the added security of having humans on other planets in case Earth ever suffers a catastrophe, etc.<br /><br />In addition, I think a major motivation for people to go to space will simply be the fact that there is room to move. If their present situation becomes intolerable, space provides an unlimited region in which to "move on". <br /><br />I enjoy reading a lot of history, and find it fascinating that in the early days of North American development, European settlers gave up all the conveniences of (what was then) the most developed society. They gave up the big cities, the fine clothes, the nice buildings, museums, art galleries, etc. to go to a place where their very lives were at risk. Why?? Probably because they wanted stimulus, freedom, room to move, a fresh start, whatever.<br /><br />Today, I see some of the same pressures building. Big government seems to be everywhere. And the ability to simply pick up and move is being increasingly restricted. When too many people get irritated, and decide to move from country A to country B, country A either (i) prevents people from leaving, or (ii) pressures country B to adopt the policies that drove people out of country A in the first place. Personally, I would never want my home country to become a place in which we have to carry ID cards at all times, to have to go through checkpoints when we travel from one sector of a city to another, etc. I also don't like the present "Nanny State" trend North America seems to be going on. It seems like government has been taken over by a bunch of nattering old women who want a safe, dull, quiet life--AND THEY WANT TO FORCE IT UPON EVERYBODY ELSE TOO. I am not saying I want people to live their lives like it was a wild party, but the spirit of discover and inquisitiveness seems to be getting killed.<br /><br />Anyhow, that is my opinion. If the option were available, I wouldn