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Humans will never go past Mars (ghostofcarnot.substack.com)

submitted 2 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Space is really spread out, and we will forever lack the means to get around it fast. Space also happens to be highly inhospitable to human life. For these reasons, I submit that no human will ever go farther than Mars.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago (7 children)

Everything is impossible until somebody goes and does it. While going to Mars and beyond is going to be very hard with current technology, there are other possibilities. Even in situ resource utilisation, e.g. making rocket fuel on the moon, would make it drastically easier to get around the solar system.

Then there is nuclear propulsion, which would hugely cut travel times. These are technologies that will likely be viable in the foreseeable future. Then we have fusion, which will probably take a little longer. And then there after things that nobody can even imagine today. Like nobody could imagine a smartphone thirty years ago.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (6 children)

And then there after things that nobody can even imagine today. Like nobody could imagine a smartphone thirty years ago.

I mean, there's people who did, going back pretty far. Just not the exact societal impact they would have. The laws of physics have been nearly complete for many decades, so don't expect a life of true surprises like a person born in 1870 would have experienced.

If you actually read this, OP says there's little point going anywhere in the solar system other than Earth. There's barren rocks right here if that's your thing, and they even come with free oxygen, gravity and radiation shielding. The rest is about interstellar travel.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago (4 children)

I mean, there's people who did, going back pretty far.

People imagined all kinds of portable computers but none resembled a smartphone, as far as I'm aware. If I'm wrong, I'll be happy to learn about examples.