I strongly believe we'll never permanently settle anything beyond earth, for reasons pointed out by this article among others.
That said, please prove me wrong, I would be so very happy to be wrong.
That said, please prove me wrong, I would be so very happy to be wrong.
1. Lack of interest.
2. Lack of time.
#1 is the biggest problem as far as we know right now. #2 is a problem only if we destroy our planet to the point where we can't expend resources or time, or we overpopulate and run out of resources, or a natural disaster sets us back too far or kills us.
We have sufficient resources right now, we're just not focused on the effort enough. If every government said, "You, need to change what you are doing and start helping us get off of this planet," and changed laws and regulations to encourage or enforce this, it would happen. Is that realistic? Not really. That's the reason that Musk and others are focusing so much on space. Because, if they don't do it, then who?
Would't be better if they tried to "fix the planet" instead? Boring, I know. But much more easier and possible and most importantly, proper.
It would be, but based on what I hear, it's too late. Also, you can't easily keep Earth from being hit by a giant meteor or a large CME that takes out all of our electronics and sends us back to the bronze age.
F-35 was a lot more important, what would we do if we had to stop interfering in the middle-east?
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budget_of_NASA [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Martin_F-35_Lightning...
1. http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/washington-deploy-f-35-fighter-jets...
To clarify I wrote: "what would we do if we had to stop interfering" as in "if we didn't have a fighter jet for future interference" when the current line goes EoL.
> For one thing, if we (meaning you, i.e. the USA) stopped 'interfering' in the middle east the F-35 program would be completely unaffected.
I don't really buy that, at least in the broader sense, if the US didn't have an agenda which involved active interventions in the middle east and around the world, the F-35 wouldn't be worth the glamorous budget.
Take every nation's budget and transpose the numbers under "space exploration" and "defense spending". Also change the risk profile of space exploration to be more in line with a military operation willing to spend lives to achieve territorial goals.
We would have manned outposts on/orbiting every major body in the solar system inside of 50 years. With permanent colonies on Mars at least.