Settling the Solar System - Pete Worden, Director of NASA Ames

[SpaceChronologyCom]

He's not entirely up to date on some scientific aspects of NASA activity. The Dawn spacecraft is a true "spaceship" as he classifies the onboard ion-drive propulsion system, which it already utilizes. It is currently orbiting Vesta and will proceed to Ceres in the future (both in the main belt)

Good lecture nevertheless! My jaw dropped when I read in-situ habitat development via synthetic biology.

[jnrolf]

No wonder NASA is in trouble with leadership like this.... Mmmmmm? -100

[henik9]

SpaceX > NASA

[1schwererziehbar1]

nasa sucks.

if you're not going to put people on mars, then give us back the money, we payed for it!

[atheelogos]

@1schwererziehbar1 the money they'd give back is only a few pennies. You don't pay as much as you think for Nasa.

[bighands69]

@1schwererziehbar1

The budget that nasa currently has is not for going to Mar's. It does not even come close.

Nasa stratagy is to develop the technologies platforms to go to the moon and then on to mars and it is not going to happen over night.

There is not one country on earth that is currently capable of doing manned missions to mars. It is going to take about 20 years to develop the technology to get to Mars.

[OntDinRS]

@bighands69

We have the technology to settle on mars now. The Russians plan to send the first Russian, Italian and Chinese men to mars before 2020 and colonise it before 2040. 2040 being the time when America has planned to actually send people to mars.

WHO is taking the initiative here? America who is being fueld by corporate greed to begin mining the moon for helium-3, or Russia, who wants to genuinely expand humanity into the stars.

[bighands69]

@OntDinRS

Russia does not have the technology to send a manned mission to mars it would take anything from 3 months to 18 months and that could depend on the capabilities of the mission.

The types of engineering systems required to make a realistic safe mission to mars will require advances in nanotechnology, bio-sciences and robotics.

Russian research technology as a whole is 20 years behind america. Remember the Russian space program never even got to the moon never mind mars.

[CalumnMcAulay]

@bighands69 I dont actually know what technology Russia have but they obviously think they have the ingenuity skill and technology to be able to create a holographic body by the year 2045 - check out 2045.com - its a cool site!

[bighands69]

@CalumnMcAulay

More than likely a holographic body will be achieve many years before 2045.

It will more than like occur in the next 20 years and probably allot sooner.

In the 2020s computers will have the processing power of the human brain and the controls of micro lasers will offer enough computation control to create holographic representation.

Have you read the works of Ray Kurzweil such as the singularity is near that is an eye opener for technology and its development.

[etbadaboum]

Damn I love that channel !

[koneye]

You haven't sent a man to the moon for decades and now we are going to Mars , pff , get with the program

[bighands69]

@koneye

all the science that was used to get to the moon still exists and has been further advanced that it was in the Apollo program.

The power of a smart phone was more that what the guidance system and computers on the Apollo craft were.

Combine the Apollo program program with Today's computational systems and Nanotechnology and robotics will take us to Mars quicker than what people realize.

[LucienZakhaev]

Why turn mars green when we can engineer our biology to fit the martian environment?

[Alectr0n]

@LucienZakhaev The timescales involved in current terraforming plans mean that it will be easier to just engineer technological solutions for ourselves. Turning Mars into a fertile planet would be a very interesting project if we have extra resources though.

[bighands69]

@Alectr0n

Massively distributed Nanotechnology would really be the only solution to terraforming Mars. In about 20 years we will have the nano technology capabilities to make this a reality.

[Alectr0n]

@bighands69 You're damn right it will if we don't self destruct first. Try and survive long enough to see it happen bro.