Boiling point

Now I never said that another Ice Age would be bad, I think there's far to many people on the planet as it is. I've seen an estimate of max sustainable population for our planet, and it stated around 10billion, and we're currently at something like 6.6 billion.

http://www.ibiblio.org/lunarbin/worldpop

Regarding the midwest flooding, I'm refering to those area's near the mighty Mississippi, which floods on a regular basis every time it rains to much. It would be inconceivable to believe that all the water released from the ice caps would'nt make its way into the atmosphere. Heavier rainfall will flood river basin areas around the world.
The increased cloud cover will also trap UV rays in which will initially increase temperatures, known as the greenhouse effect, and will be followed by a drastic drop in temperatures - hence an Ice Age.
All current research points to a fact that the events leading into and out of an ice age happened rather suddenly, maybe 50 years. From the messed up weather patterns we've been experiencing wolrdwide since the early 80's, that means we may be looking at permanent skiing conditions within 30 years....
In classic human fashion, we'll wait until the last conceivable moment to try and do something, but this time it wont work. I'm not trying to save the planet, I'm just stating a fact just because I can.
Its one solution to overpopulation anyways. If it doesn't happen, well be looking at mass famine, rampant disease, and constant warfare. The Japes can have his Four Horsemen of the Apocolype.

That is true, but for them to admit it after denying it for so long, means they've finally given up the charade.

 

Nope. That's as likely as George W. Bush being elected for a third consecutive term.
We're technically at the end of an ice-age right now. That's not to say it won't come back around to bite us, though.
The maximum sustainable population on this planet is coming up pretty quickly, though. I remember arguing with several of my classmates about how many people were on this planet in 2002. At that point, we had just broken 6 billion. A lot of my peers had said "No, there can't be more than 4 billion people on the planet."
Yep.

 

Dont get me wrong, I'm not opposed to the human race expanding, but if we're going to keep growing, we've got to start colonizing other planets. This rock's just not big enough. Its like living with your mother your whole life.

 

We're not overpopulated. We're overconcentrated.

 

Simple solution to a complex problem.

 

Make our planet a big desert? But why?

 

That looks like a picture of Mars, Frigo.

 

The price of admission is simple, sorta. You need to develop cheap, reusable launch methods, preferably something along the lines of a space elevator or even anti-gravity. It doesn't matter what, it just has to be cheap and effective. Right now it costs at least $5000 per pound just to put something in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), probably twice that if you want to get it into actual space. That means to put a 180 pound man plus a space suit into LEO, your looking at something like a million dollars just to leave this rock! So if you start thinking of putting up a space vehicle, orbital station, or a space casino full of booze, whores, and every imaginable vice into orbit, your looking at a Bill Gates fortune just to conduct business right now.

Second, you'll need technology to manufacture building materials on Mars to reduce costs and expand your base of operations once you get there. My recommendations would be to develop robotic workers who could be sent ahead of the expedition and have basic living quarters established before you get there.

Third, you'll need a way to grow your own food and generate oxygen and water. With the discovery of sub-surface water already there, its only a matter extracting it and purifying it into potable water. Then crops could be grown to generate both food and oxygen.

Fourth, is people. I'm looking at expanding my own empire to take in Chinese refugee's and American prisoners, both of which are in an over-abundance and for which their host countries are willing to pay me quite generously to take off of there hands. My amazons will provide policing and entertainment, and my terminator bots make up the Army.


http://www.marssociety.org/

 

I read an interesting article on Wikipedia that mentioned some guy's book about Titan. I don't remember the title, but bassically he thinks Titan maybe the most hospitable extra-terrestrial body in the solar system. The air-pressure on the surface of Titan is sufficient for humans to live in, so living quarters there could be kept at the same pressure as the surrounding atmosphere, making them much more simple to design. There is also an abundance of chemicals/elements in the soil and atmosphere that could be used to creat fertilizer for crops, and water. I think even fuel too...

As Maximus said, our priority in space exploration right now should be to devise a more efficient means of reaching orbit. Once we can get up into space without spending money out the arse space ought to start paying for itself. There are plenty of incentives to go out there:

(.) Metals to mine out of the asteroid belt

(.) Provided we devise proper fusion technology Saturn (as well as Jupiter) posess the elements needed for such reactors (fusion reactors) in great abundance. Saturn is preferrable to Jupiter because the Jovian system is rife with lethal amounts of radiation, where-as Saturn is pretty tame.

 

You seem to forget that Saturn has a gravitational field 30 times stronger than that of earth's. Taking ANYTHING from Saturn would be a bitch. Just go for the rings. The things are 130,000 miles wide, so there's plenty of crap to take from there.

 

If you try to blast-off from the 'surface' yeah, otherwise it's not that hard. You could even "float" platforms in the upper atmosphere, have people live on them, and the gravity wouldn't be very intense. Infact it would likely be weaker than it is on Earth. If what you said was true then Voyager and Cassini would have been pulled right into Saturn, not to mention Jupiter.

 

To get out of Saturn's atmosphere, you need to be travelling at around 35 kilometers per second. Cassini did a few flyby's of saturn, took photos of phoebe, and landed on Titan. It never stopped moving, and was never pulled in by the gravitational field...technically. The slingshot effect was very useful in that instance, along with Voyager's encounter.
The only way for any of the planets to collide with one another is to stop moving, have intersecting orbits, or to be pushed into one another by an outside force.
Gravity is strongest at the source, not millions of miles away.
Going into Saturn's atmosphere would be a very big mistake, unless you can survive speeds in excess of 79,000 mph. Couple that with the gravitational pull, you end up with some soupy space explorers.

 

This is not the case if you stay in the very upper-most regions. On the whole it's atmosphere is thick enough for Earth to fit in it.

 

It's also less dense than water, if you average everything out.
...I see your point, but mostly I'm just done talking about something I won't be alive to see.

 

Yes but you have to consider the next generations of little Gross's.

 

Provided you aren't too far over the hill...

You never know. I'm hoping NASA sticks with "Bush's Vision for Space", because then we'll have manned missions to Mars and the Moon by 2020.

Granted, with changing administrations and the world political climate it might easily get put back on the shelf for another 50 years.

Back in the day NASA had planned to have manned missions to Mars by 1980, this being befored their budget was slashed.

 

I've no doubt that these things will come to pass in my lifetime, provided NASA has a stable budget. The thing is, regardless of if I in fact see an expedition to Titan take off, it would be decades before the ship ever reached it. Well, decades if we don't yet have the H-bomb propulsion system working.
I'm 19, and I'll probably be around until 2065 or so.

 

A little bit optimistic, aren't you? :lol:

 

Uh...yeah?