Would You Move to Space?

garyebickford asks: "Slashdot discussions on the SpaceShipOne flight talked about whether folks would take the flight if offered. It reminded me of a question that used to go around. If you were offered the opportunity to move permanently into space - perhaps an orbital environment, or asteroid (mining?) or another planet, etc. - and you had an 80% chance of living five years, would you take it? What if your chances were 50%?"

Hell yes.

[torpor]

I've been trying to find a quiet, non-NWO spot on this planet to live, but there ain't none left.

Give me a six-pack worth of O2 and enough water to recycle through myself for 10 years or so, and I'll oversee the robotics on any asteroid you want.

Of course, the issue of hydroponics - and what you can and cannot grow - would have to be worked out first.

Just sign me up for the standard "Human Sustenance Science Package" (strictly -NOT- from Ikea, please...) and I'm there. Got my boots on right now.

The possibilities for freedom on this planet have been long-since removed by the powers that be. Gimme another planet, or some other space body, and watch out. My descendants will be back in 50 years to re-claim Earth! :)

Hell yeah, I would.

[Mmm coffee]

In fact, if there was a 100% chance of me dieing within an hour of me getting into orbit, I'd still go if given the chance. I mean, every night I look up at the stars and I just wonder. The chance to experience life outside the womb of mother earth for just one minute... yeah, that's worth trading my life for. I am willing to die just to gaze upon the earth, stars and other galaxies from the outside for just one minute.

In that one minute I would see, learn, and experience more than most people see, learn, and experience in their entire lives. I would have an idea of my place in the universe that few currently have.

All of that near infinite universe and the chance to experience it outside the earth? Yeah, that's worth dieing for. An 80% chance of dieing within five years? I'd consider that a bonus - more time to experience it.

Yeah, I'm an oddball.

For me and for others

[Sierran]

Yes and yes. I'd go. If NASA called and said they had a pre-Challenger O-Ring shuttle that had been sitting in freezing rain for two days and they needed a mission specialist, I'd be on the next plane. Would I live there? If it meant *either* that I could do so undamaged (zero-gee, radiation) by the day-to-day experience, barring accidents; *or* that my doing so would increase the chances others would get to do so, then yes, in a New York Minute, baby.

Utterly iInfantile religious question

[MikShapi]

Being someone who is currently moving his life and family from one side of the world (Israel) to the other (Australia), I can clearly point out that as nostalgically charming as moving into space may sound,

** There is more to making such a decision than the presence (or lack thereof) of vaccum around the place we call home **.

Questions such as these arise:
* What are the prospects of a quality life there? (which leads to further questions like how we measure quality of life - by the amount of green around our house? the amount of accessible online gadget stores that ship to our location?)
* What are the prospects of economic prosperity there? Taxation? Salaries?
* Can I work in my chosen field there?
* Can I practice my recreation activities there? (Think diving, snowboarding, etc.)
* What kind of mentality do the people who live there share?
* WHAT ARE THE ALTERNATIVES?

Hell, that's just the tip of the iceberg. Would I move into space? Tell me what's waiting for me there and what I'm running from here for starters, and I'll consider it.

The only people who'd answer such a question offhand are people who are either miserable with their current lives, don't have any, or are very deep into their fantasy worlds.

That kind of problem can usually be solved using much simpler methods.

Re:Life's Short Enough

[turgid]

I know, what about experiencing an earth-rise, floating in zero gravity with the entire universe beneath your feet, seeing nebula with the naked eye and stars as bright as diamonds. I mean, you can't just live your life in some crappy space port and expect to see anything as mind-shatteringly cool as that. Err, oh wait...

Like I said in my post, it would be nice for a week or two, but the novelty would soon wear off and I'd be craving my earthly paradise. For me it's not worth givin up my life to experience. Going into space might make you value what you have right here a lot more. Didn't the NASA astronauts who walked on the Moon come back with a profoundly changed attitude towards the earth?

Re:Costs:Benefits analysis

[Des Herriott]

If you're out in space mining an asteroid, then you're going to be a minor employee of some large corporation. Unless you, yourself, are capable of reaching said asteroid and claiming it.

So don't kid yourself that you'll be living free, or indeed reaping any kind of "bounty" other than the montly paycheck from your employers. Granted, the first few individuals to do this sort of work are likely to get some highly lucrative danger money; but if & when asteroid mining becomes routine, it'll be a pretty unglamorous life.

Freedom

[heikkile]

Several posters here have expressed an opinion that going to space would be the only way to find "freedom", what ever they mean with it. In my humble opinion, things would not be very much different out there for a long time. We would be bringing our earthly culture with us, with even more strict rules and regulations. For a long time any possible habitat would be owned by large corporations, and/or by earthly nations. In any case, they would be sure to insist on their red tape everywhere.

Of course at some point said colonies would get their independence, and presumably could offer some "freedom" for newcomers. Of course, acquiring independence has traditionally been a bloody mess, and as often as not has lead to a very unfree dictatorship...

Once independent, the new colonies would be kindly requested to sign trade treaties etc, and as a condition to doing so, promise protection for intellectual property etc. Until and unless they'd be totally self-sufficient, the colonies would have to agree to limit music downloads and software piracy and everything else the earthlings demand...

All in all, going to space will happen, it will be exciting, dangerous, and rewarding, but it will not provide much "freedom" in any way. That's my prediction.

One word: Outland

[smchris]

The drugs and hookers would have to be _really_ good. But forgetting to put your helmet on during decompression can be a mind-blowing bummer.

This overlooked movie has always been my standard to judge all movies about what "fun" it would be to work in the greater solar system.

for me, before the wife...

[way2trivial]

before my marriage, I had a discussion with my wife about things we wanted of each other, my wife had 'demands' and I had one,

in all sincerity, I expressed the following..
should the opportunity arise where I could go into space, even on a one-way trip (generation ship, suicide mission, whatever) and she could not go, (denied for whatever reason) I wouldn't go, but if she had the same opportunity, and declined to go,(doesn't want to leave the kids, doesn't want to leave the planet,) I'd go without her. she looked at me, said "ok" and immediately started laughing.

I meant it, most truly, and remind her about it occasionally..

Re:Costs:Benefits analysis

[aleonard]

Out where the asteroids are, you're so far from Earth that it would look similar to how Venus looks from here.

Near-earth asteroids. I don't know if anyone really thinks mining the asteroid belt will be doable for a very, very long time. But there are thousands of large rocks near the Earth (like one which the BBC has said is estimated to hold, at current prices, $20 trillion in minerals), and we can be mining those for a very long time before ever touching the Mars-Jupiter belt.

Re:Costs:Benefits analysis

[justanyone]

This interests me. I've heard about mining asteroids, and speaking of the percent of them that are iron, nickel, copper, platinum, etc.

I have questions

1. In gold mines, what percentage is ore vs. gold?
2. Likewise platinum mines?
3. what method is used to separate gold from the ore?
4. what techniques could be used to separate desired metals from the ore, given constraints of lifting smelter equip. to space, and operating in zero or generated (centriptal) "gravity"?
5. how much energy is required to heat iron to boiling, and given that, has anyone tried (in an actual college-experiment) to ionize it and run it through a high-impulse engine?
6. would the constraints of a space-based nuclear-thermal powerplant be sufficient to run this king of engine?

In terms of which asteroid to use, more questions:

1. has anyone made an actual list of viable cantidate asteroids?
2. what conceivable delta-v could we impart to a hunk of rock that's medium sized, say 100 to 500 meters diameter?
3. what is the ideal asteroid size for such a venture? Probably small so we could get it done before, oh, say, NEVER...
4. Do we have a list of near Earth asteroids that fit the description, or is 100 meters too small to find?
5. presuming we'd want to drill into the asteroid to set up temporary shelter (radiation protection, etc.), has anyone worked out how to do this with shaped charges, directed energy (reflected light), or other drilling techniques?

Just some musings / wonderings / ideas, here...

I had an idea for a smelter once: break off a chunk of asteroid, wrap it in silvered mylar to reflect radiant heat back in, put it at the center of a giant parabolic reflector dish, melt it using solar energy, spin it to generate gravity, and the densest materials will condense on the outside at the equator, right? Of course, if you seal it up ahead of time the outgassing may include oxygen, nitrogen, etc., which you can separate by liquid diffraction (?).

-- Kevin J. Rice (justanyone.com [justanyone.com])