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Comment by manderley | Hacker News Reader

Maybe. But what does that get us? We'll never be a spacefaring species, the universe is way too big (we can't even explore our solar system in any meaningful way) and energy requirements for faster travel are simply too high. Not to think of all the issues with spacetime at fast speeds.

There are tons of serious problems to solve here on earth, no need for another huge waste of money.

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> We'll never be a spacefaring species, the universe is way too big (we can't even explore our solar system in any meaningful way) and energy requirements for faster travel are simply too high.

I can state flatly that heavier than air flying machines are impossible. — Lord Kelvin, 1895

https://www.xaprb.com/blog/flight-is-impossible/

I know - you would think that with sixty-five whole years since the first satellite launch we'd be able to meaningfully explore our solar system already. It only took a few thousand years to fully map and explore the Earth's surface and you'd think exploring multiple planets and billions of miles of space would be 100x faster than that.

That money could be much better spent, like on tanks we will never use.

We have explored our solar system, we’ve sent multiple probes to most planets, done a flyby of Pluto, landed on Mars, Venus and several asteroids, driven multiple rovers on Mars. Put rovers and boots on the ground on the Moon. We’ve extensively mapped almost all the solar system.

Not everyone agrees with you, which is why humans are capable of a wide range of behaviors and investments.

If we didn't have interest in space, there would be no SpaceX, Starlink, Mars rover, planetary missions, etc.

I personally think we're about to reach the terminal generation in 100-200 years with advancements in ML, and we won't be worried about sending human bodies anywhere. Just engines, sensors, and computers.

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