A new space race?

[yavoon]

cooperative blah blah blah is insanely inefficient. the real strides in space will be made when there is something worth competing for again.

[Eli]

I was talking about competition between China and India, not comparing them to the US/SU.

[Willem]

Originally posted by yavoon
cooperative blah blah blah is insanely inefficient. the real strides in space will be made when there is something worth competing for again.

I don't see a cooperative venture for a moonbase as plausible either. Any development there will follow the same geopolitical models that we have here on Earth, with different countries laying claims to various areas in order to control the resources that will be found in them.

[Willem]

Originally posted by Eli
I was talking about competition between China and India, not comparing them to the US/SU.

Even still, just because their efforts now might seem mediocre, that's bound to change as each of them try to beat the other to the punch. If China sends a man into orbit this fall, as they say they're going to do, you can bet that India probably would try to follow close behind, gearing up their space program in the process. Then both of them will try to take it one step further in order to outdo the other. I think this could get interesting in a few years time.

[badman]

we've ignored the Moon far to long

I think it's still too early for colonizing space. Wait another 50 years, perhaps even 100 and we'll (need to) do it.

[el freako]

The smartest nations will therefore bypass the moon entirely and go for a near-earth asteroid.

[Immortal Wombat]

Originally posted by DaShi
Not Russia?

Sure, but they can't afford to be equal partners, and we don't need to be bailing them out again.

[DaShi]

They can be consultants.

[Immortal Wombat]

check all the units are the same, that kind of thing

[gsmoove23]

The ISS is a dead-end in space. A moonbase has the potential to expand itself without having to lift every gram of construction material from Earth. And, eventually, to build more spacecraft from lunar materials.

And, yes, it's debatable whether we yet have the ability to make a fully self-sustaining artificial ecosystem. But the Moon is close enough for emergency resupply or evacuation, unlike Mars. Mars is much more hospitable, but everything HAS to work right or you're dead.

ISS a dead end? Moon is a stepping stone to the solar system but whats our stepping stone to the moon. Emergency resupply and evacuation will be a hell of alot easier with a functional space station. A moonbase might have the potential to expand but until you get that potential you'll have to lift a hell of alot of bits and bobs from the Earth's surface. It would be more efficient if you had a staging and assembly station in LEO before trying ANY ambitious space projects.

[Willem]

Originally posted by badman

I think it's still too early for colonizing space. Wait another 50 years, perhaps even 100 and we'll (need to) do it.

There's no reason why we can't start taking a few steps now though. We could learn alot just by setting up a very small biological station, with just a few researchers at a time. Or conducting experiments on various mining techniques. There's all sorts of things that can be done before establishing an outright colony. There's already alot of data on the effects of living, working and growing things in zero-gravity, I think we need to start thinking about the next step. And having India or China land a man on the moon might just give the rest of the world the incentive to start looking at the possibilities.

[Immortal Wombat]

I think we need a space elevator before any serious, economically sensible attempt at colonising ET bodies can be made.

[gsmoove23]

The term economically sensible does not exist in the vacuum of space.

[Willem]

Originally posted by Immortal Wombat
I think we need a space elevator before any serious, economically sensible attempt at colonising ET bodies can be made.

A space plane would be much more cost effective. A space elevator would require a huge investment, and there's still alot of questions regarding the safety of something like that. Just imagine the kind of damage that would occur if thousands and thousands of tons of cables suddenly plunged to the Earth.

And colonies don't necessarily have to require a great deal of continued support if we can establish some manufacturing processes that will allow them to become self-sufficient quickly. The resources are all there, we just have to figure out how to exploit them. Some sort of research station could teach us alot along those lines.

[The Viceroy]

You shouldn't discount India so easily. when it comes to space technology and high end technology, they are suprisingly advanced.

Obviously having several hundred million on the bread line, isn't going to help .. but that didn't stop Russia did it .

I can see China making the first moves in this race, but India will not be far behind.