Is it possible to expand ourselves beyond the Earth? Without getting in to political or social situations, what do humans need to do in the solar system and what are the steps to getting there?

Are we supposed to mine planets? Colonize one of them? Is that even possible or beneficial? How would we use the resources in our solar system if we had the means to do so? What are the means?

Using Michio Kaku's measurements of civilizations, and assuming that human beings made it to Type 1, what could we do to make it to Type 2?

Talk about the solar system and what we can and can't do with it.

I see a big conflict with obtaining resources from outer space. We are also physically limited right? We have to exercise just to keep us being severely weakened when we return to earth's gravity after a period of time. Also time and aging are problems with space travel.

You wouldn't necessarily need manned missions to mine the solar system.

All you need is Science to do all that.

I also meant back on earth. Who would get the resources will we all be best friends? I don't really think so.

Companies will fund missions, and sell what they get. Same as ever.

If we can survive in a space station, I don't think it's too much of a stretch to survive on another planet. Mining could also be done with remote vehicles, like the ones they used to explore Mars.

Please, disregard the social/political aspect of the discussion. Assuming that it is a non-issue in the future is where this thread is wanting to go.

The point is what do you want the resources for, just an ever expanding population, bigger cities, more cans, we need to take leaps in science and technology. Do we make a colony on mars because we can, or to just make another open cut mine, or to alleviate the overpopulation, and then where do we go from there, is it basically just a mineral resource, or are we looking to do something really constructive to expand our future survival.

All of the above?

First step towards man's success in expanding to the rest of the Universe is to reinstate Pluto's status as a planet. Once that's done, then the Plutons will visit earth and share their marvellous technology with us. Then after killing all them after they give us their technology out of fearing they'll strike us, we'll form colonies in outer space, heralding in a new era.


After colony 175, Ambassador of the colonies Heero Yuy is assassinated by the United Earth Sphere Alliance. Angered by this, a group within the colonies plans a retaliatory attack codenamed Operation Meteor. Due to disagreements between the engineers in charge of the mission and those calling the shots, at the last minute the mission is changed. After Colony 195, Operation Meteor starts. 5 Gundams are sent from the colonies to Earth to strike back against Oz and the Romefeller Foundation.

I see sorry.

It's hard to discuss this without getting into the politics or socioeconomics, since it's what's keeping us from being all 'can into space'. I mean, we've had the capacity for about half a century now.

Anyway, enough of me pissing in the punch. If you're interested in this, the anime 'Planetes' is pretty great.

Look, I know you're from the future, but this is all stuff we probably shouldn't know yet. Aren't there, like, rules to time travel?

It's only hard to do that, because that's what people want to do. I'm just asking what humans want from our solar system and what resources or energy it would require to acquire it.

We terraform Mars to avoid overcrowding. Then we could think about moving to the Jovian(?) moons and possibly set up shop there. All while performing mining operations in the solar system.

Well, think of it this way. Humans were originally intended to be just animals, weren't they? Eating other animals, walking about naked, banging things against rocks. But then evolution and intelligence set in. We discovered fire, weapons, how to hunt. Others animals don't use fire to their advantage. They don't use weapons. They do hunt however. Then evolution and intelligence set in once more and we figured out how to make shelter and cook food. Then we learned how to use our environment to our advantage. Then we started building things bigger than ourselves and then we ended up building cities and cars.

Don't you think that the human race is kind of like an animal race that spiraled out of control? I mean, were we always meant to know how to cook, build, colonize, read? Or were we just intended to survive as animals, but we've advanced.

So, I'm not sure. ARE we supposed to mine into space? It's apart of our environment right? Our minds would allow for it, the same way we've been allowed to mine and pillage other lands. I guess space and mining Jupiter for Agfhgfsjdhgjh Gas would just be another human thing when it's done.

Chimps use sticks as weapons to hunt.

Supposed to? We're not "supposed to" do anything, but with the right technology anything is possible.

Technology is just the next phase of our evolution, except we control the direction and pace. Unless we make an effort to do these things, then it just won't happen.

There is no "supposed to" or "meant to", it just is. Through the random order of evolution, we came out as the dominant species, with the niche of intelligence.

Edit: Narmy beat me

Yes, and what I'm saying is that the political/socioeconomic situation directly affects what we're going to harvest and how we go about it. It's like asking about the causes of the Scramble for Africa then saying "no politics or economics please".

SCIENCE! Is the answer!

I think the cost of a mining/resource gathering mission will never be able to make up for the costs in construction, rocket fuel, time etc. Colonization is a much more likely idea.

Okay, apparently we can't talk about this topic at all because we haven't talked about prerequisite topics.

But, if we could, is there anything we could use from other planets in the solar system? Is it possible to harvest gas from another planet? Minerals? What would we need to do to terraform Mars? Is Mars the best candidate? Is terraforming viable?

Carl Sagan talked about it being possible to colonize Mars with enough money, but if there is any form of life, even bacteria, then we should stay away and leave Mars to the Martians regardless of their form.

We could theoretically terraform with a large enough amount of plants and water.