Your Predictions for the Future

[NASAFanboy]

Can Sal_vager do me a favor and teleport it to Science labs?

[NASAFanboy]

2015--New Horizions

2016--SLS gets canceled last minute due to administration change.

2017--SpaceX goes bankrupt due to capsule issue.

2021--American part of ISS de-orbited.

2023--NASA shut down due to claims of "sustainability"

...

2065--Chinese moon landing, American political parties blame each other, consider restarting NASA, but decline, again due to claims of "sustainability"

2078--Chinese moon base, claim moon. American parties consider effort to retake moon, but decline due to claims of sustainability.

2107--Moon base becomes self-sustaining.

2132--Large nuclear war on Earth over population issues, due to sustainability not proving to be sustainable. Moon base survives by not getting involved.

2159--plant-damaging virus wreaks havok on moon colonies, resulting in increased tension.

2163--War on the moon, plant resources destroyed.

2164--Last human dead.

1,036,721--Voyager and Pioneer space probes rendered unintelligible by interstellar winds.

1,670,339,212--Europans/Endeladans show Earth to be uninhabited, uninhabitable mess. Mission to send maping probes declined due to being considered unsustainable.

Explains why we have not met an intelligent race....

[simonh]

You forget why we went in the first place. We were at war, Cold War.

Vry true. In fact if it hadn't been for the fact their arch rival Russia had beaten the USA to launching a satellite AND putting a man in space, it's unlikely the USA would have even gone to the moon in the first place.

We simply abandoned the moon, turning our sights to Mars and beyond. Russia has declared its plans, so has Bigelow declared its own, sort of dragging NASA onboard.

I don't know about turning any sights on Mars. Kennedy set a definite goal of going to the moon and marshalled the political will for a concrete, funded programme for achieving it. No such programme has ever been put in place for a Mars mission.

Bigelow has big plans, and their mission does appear to be viable but when it comes right down to it, it's just a flyby. Even if it happens, we're not actually all that much closer to a manned landing, which would be several orders of magnitude more expensive and technically challenging.

Simon Hibbs

[Malaugrym]

I really not sure of that. America is a democratic, and they squander all their money on Middle-Eastern wars and cannot decide on anything.

Technically, this is no longer true. America has instead become a plutocratic polyarchy. Apologies for off-topic posting.

[Custard Donut (In Space)]

I think one event which might get the whole world watching, something to match the moon landing would have to be a manned mission to Mars, i think it stands a great chance of happening when one of the big super powers decides they have something to prove, but i have no idea when that might be.

[Karriz]

2018 - a large asteroid is discovered to be in a collision course with Earth, impact predicted for 2020.

2019 - despite having the resources and technology to change the asteroid's course, humans don't do anything because "there's not enough money". "I mean, it's the only reason to do anything at all, right?"

I would not be surprised if something like this happens. But okay, let's be a bit more optimistic.

2018 - first commercial space station (Bigelow, SpaceX)

2019 - Orion spacecraft tested in deep space

2021 - NASA mission to an asteroid

2027 - China lands on the Moon

2030 - commercial Mars mission

2070 - large colonies on Moon and Mars, gas giant moons explored

2175 - humans arrive at Proxima Centauri

Well, I hope I get to see some interesting stuff in my lifetime.

[Netris]

2019 - despite having the resources and technology to change the asteroid's course, humans don't do anything because "there's not enough money". "I mean, it's the only reason to do anything at all, right?"

That's a really silly way of thinking. How could one earn big money if there's no Earth ?

Edited May 13, 2013 by Netris