Space Colony

[SmoothDime]

I just wanted your guy's opinion on when the first off earth colony will be established. By colony I mean a colony of humans living somewhere off earth(moon, orbit or mars) and being able to live and reproduce within the colony(supplies obviously coming from earth). When and where do you think this will first happen?

[Yeldarb]

The international space station is getting pretty close.

[Byrnzie]

I'd say give it at-least 50 years, for a fully working colony (most likely on the moon or in orbit) but it could / will most likely take alot longer, due to the bean counters, heck NASA isn't even sending maned missions to space anymore because the space shuttles aren't perceved usable or safe and they don't have enough funds to develop a replacement.

[B3NKobe]

Yeah 50 years or maybe even 70 for a space colony, it will most likely happen when im all old & rinkly!! Once NASA lands a man on mars & all goes smooth I think things will cruise along alot faster, the space station is also ment to get pretty big although production on that has slowed down lots since the shuttle disasters,

[GreenLantern]

I think it is going to be much much longer.

There is just no need for it. I mean if are planet was dying or the sun was going to explode then i'm sure the process would be rapidly sped up. But as for right now, there is no need to spend bazillions of dollars with no tangible reward.

[RabBell]

Kind of agree with Yeldrab about the space station, but I think we already have it

If you remember 20 years ago USA and USSR hated one another. No trust, just the cold war. Now look today, a space station with both USA and Russian astronauts/cosmonauts...how times change. I think it's an unbelievable acheivement which doesn't get said enough :thumb:

[onsitus]

They should spend some money on the earth before going to put a mess on another one.

[fester8542]

Kind of agree with Yeldrab about the space station, but I think we already have it

If you remember 20 years ago USA and USSR hated one another. No trust, just the cold war. Now look today, a space station with both USA and Russian astronauts/cosmonauts...how times change. I think it's an unbelievable acheivement which doesn't get said enough :thumb:

So your proposing an Al Queda/US space colony?
:P

Seriously though I dont see it for 75-100 years. I think we should work our our differences on earth before we decide to bring them somewhere else.

oops.. or what onsitus said

[Ψ]

:lol: hehe fester is funny

[dgrhm]

I don't think we'll have a permanent settlement until we have a need to colonize and space travel becomes affordable for the masses.

I could see a lunar base for scientific, industrial, and military purposes being on the moon within 50-100 years.

With the advent of commerical space travel, and the potential for technology that could build a space elevator, we could see affordable space travel in our life times. That being said, we have a lot of technical hurdles to overcome to make extra-terrestrial living possible.

Cosmic rays and humans don't mix well.