When speaking about space exploration, what would be the next big leap for mankind?

Who knows, but I would like to find out what people think the next amazing feat humans will accomplish, you can use a little imagination to. Personally I think it will be a massive step when private organizations start regular space missions like NASA does, I believe it will jumpstart a global desire to venture into space. Sadly, most of us won't live long enough to experience travelling through space on a regular basis.

However, we may see the beginnings and probably the most awesome stages of these space travelling infrastructures being developed. Alright enough blabbling from me. Asked by kylejames 49 months ago Similar questions: speaking space exploration big leap mankind Science > Space & Astronomy.

Similar questions: speaking space exploration big leap mankind.

Sample return from another planet, or better yet, life discovered on a satellite of Saturn We have rocks from the moon, but no spacecraft has ever returned from another planet or one of its satellites. I hope we don't continue to waste money on manned spaceflight. I enjoy it as much as the next person, but even though it is exciting, it is enormously expensive and always will be as long as we use chemical rockets for propulsion.

Even Burt Rutan cannot get us to the moon and back without spending many, many billions of dollars. Sending people to Mars would be a staggeringly collosal waste of money, which could instead be invested in thousands of robot space probes to explore the solar system. I personally can't wait to see space probes going to some of the moons of the outer planets that are known to contain vast amounts of liquid water deep below the surface.

A robot probes that sits at a geyser gushing water on Enceladus may just find life. That would be the discovery of the millenium.

It will probably be commercial prospecting Asteroids have many rare and useful elements that are hard to find on Earth. The Moon will probably be scoured for the remnants of asteroids that impacted. First with robotic seekers, then with robotic miner, and then with human maintainers.

Once that happens, and it becomes at least semi-profitable, housing will have to be set up on the Moon for the maintenance crew, and tourism on the Moon will follow soon after that. It will take many decades for traveling to the Moon to be as safe as flying on an airliner now, but it is only a matter of time and technology. Then the Moon bases will be come self sufficient with some sort of conversion process of the resources on the Moon, and that will open up the rest of the solar system.

First Mars, then the larger asteroids, and then Mercury and the moons of Jupiter. Each will have unique hindrances to human population, but nothing that technology cannot solve. A good source of material like this are books by Ben Bova.

He has a unique picture of the future of space flight. I hope this helps. Manimal's Recommendations Titan (The Grand Tour) Amazon List Price: $7.99 Used from: $1.15 Average Customer Rating: 3.0 out of 5 (based on 4 reviews) Mars Amazon List Price: $7.99 Used from: $0.01 Average Customer Rating: 3.5 out of 5 (based on 78 reviews) Powersat Amazon List Price: $7.99 Used from: $0.50 Average Customer Rating: 3.5 out of 5 (based on 14 reviews) Moonwar Amazon List Price: $7.99 Used from: $0.01 Average Customer Rating: 3.0 out of 5 (based on 24 reviews) The Rock Rats (The Grand Tour; also Asteroid Wars) Amazon List Price: $6.99 Used from: $0.01 Average Customer Rating: 3.0 out of 5 (based on 17 reviews) The Silent War: Book III of The Asteroid Wars (The Grand Tour; also Asteroid Wars) Amazon List Price: $7.99 Used from: $1.14 Average Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 12 reviews) Jupiter: A Novel (The Grand Tour) Amazon List Price: $7.99 Used from: $0.01 Average Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 50 reviews) .

You may be right about the privatization situation. It may also be our first manned trip to Mars. I would personally like to see the development of a space elevator, which would make getting cargo to orbit 10 to 100 times cheaper than with the Shuttle.

--or the development of a functional, portable fusion drive, which would make exploration and colonization of the inner planets practical, and mining of the asteroid belt practical... --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- But with the Shuttle program slated to end in 2010, we can't even get vital scientific instruments into orbit: blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/12/the-... The $1.5 Billion Space Station Experiment Begging For A Ride By John Borland December 03, 2007 | 9:12:29 AMCategories: Physics Later this week, the Atlantis space shuttle will carry the European Columbus science module to the International Space Station, a key element for scientific missions that will be conducted there over the next half-decade. But the Washington Post today shines a light on a $1.5 billion experimental module that could have far more scientific impact – and which may never make it up to the station. The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) is a device that would detect the passage of antimatter particles, which has been in the works for 12 years and is now nearly finished in Geneva.

Scientists from around the world have worked on it, with sponsorship from the U.S. Dept. Of Energy, all contingent on NASA's promises that it would be lifted to the ISS eventually. But now its future looks bleak, the Post reports.

Shuttle crashes, and resources diverted to the manned lunar and Martian exploration plan announced by President Bush in 2004, have cut down the number of shuttle launches planned. Only 10 launches remain before the fleet is retired. That means the AMS, which could help scientists understand dark matter and much about the apparent imbalance of matter and antimatter in the universe, could wind up stuck on Earth, the Post reports.

By John Borland December 03, 2007 | 9:12:29 AMCategories: Physics.

Later this week, the Atlantis space shuttle will carry the European Columbus science module to the International Space Station, a key element for scientific missions that will be conducted there over the next half-decade. But the Washington Post today shines a light on a $1.5 billion experimental module that could have far more scientific impact – and which may never make it up to the station. The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) is a device that would detect the passage of antimatter particles, which has been in the works for 12 years and is now nearly finished in Geneva.

Scientists from around the world have worked on it, with sponsorship from the U.S. Dept. Of Energy, all contingent on NASA's promises that it would be lifted to the ISS eventually. But now its future looks bleak, the Post reports.

Shuttle crashes, and resources diverted to the manned lunar and Martian exploration plan announced by President Bush in 2004, have cut down the number of shuttle launches planned. Only 10 launches remain before the fleet is retired. That means the AMS, which could help scientists understand dark matter and much about the apparent imbalance of matter and antimatter in the universe, could wind up stuck on Earth, the Post reports.

Later this week, the Atlantis space shuttle will carry the European Columbus science module to the International Space Station, a key element for scientific missions that will be conducted there over the next half-decade. But the Washington Post today shines a light on a $1.5 billion experimental module that could have far more scientific impact – and which may never make it up to the station. The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) is a device that would detect the passage of antimatter particles, which has been in the works for 12 years and is now nearly finished in Geneva.

Scientists from around the world have worked on it, with sponsorship from the U.S. Dept. Of Energy, all contingent on NASA's promises that it would be lifted to the ISS eventually. But now its future looks bleak, the Post reports.

Shuttle crashes, and resources diverted to the manned lunar and Martian exploration plan announced by President Bush in 2004, have cut down the number of shuttle launches planned. Only 10 launches remain before the fleet is retired.

That means the AMS, which could help scientists understand dark matter and much about the apparent imbalance of matter and antimatter in the universe, could wind up stuck on Earth, the Post reports.

That's an easy one- the space elevator. In theory at least, carbon nanotubes have enough tensile strength that if we could create continuous lengths of them, we could make a cable strong enough to stretch from the earth's surface to a geosynchronous satellite (and beyond, because you need a counter-weight. ) From what I've read, the engineering is likely to be possible with our current level of knowledge, if we can figure out how to make the cable.

If we build this (actually, these- we'd want more than one), then we can get things into space without reaction mass, at dramatically lower costs than with rockets. And once you get to geosynchronous orbit, you're effectively out of Earth's "gravity well", and can get anywhere else in the solar system with just a push and patience (more push means less patience, of course! ) Until we build this, the $10,000 or so per KG it currently costs to put things in orbit makes the idea of lots of manned space flight is pretty hard to rationalize..

Hard to pin it down. My generation looked into the possibilitly of Mars--afterall, our old man's generation put us on the moon, and that's a hard record to equal or beat. Alas, the chance of getting the astronaut back alive is very, very low.So we passed on it, and thanks to Bill Gates, and hundreds of others, we went into electronics, and you're reading this on one of those electronic devices.

My generation had been under the impression--the next BIG mission--is what the space shuttle was about. Sure, sent the satilites up there by the zillions, but a nice BIG space station would have been the icing on the cake--especially if you could refuel and refit a shuttle and shoot it to Mars. Well, we all know what happened to that idea.......nothing.

Maybe take us back to the moon? No, not even so we can reach Mars--it can't be cheaper to launch from the moon than it is from a spacestation in a medium orbit...there's no gravity at all up there when using centrifical force against it. Space elevator?

Great, economical, idea to send everything into space cheaply--no go, no one ever beat the cable/chain problems. Kylejames, do you remember the Jettson's cartoon to tv? George Jettson had a air car.

That's what we need Kyle. , an energy 'drive' that is clean, heafty enough to left a lot of weight. What we need is George Jettson's air car engine.

I'd recommend a deeper study in to energy and subatomics. Take this knowledge and learn how to make or bend gravity to our will--yep, that would do it. We could have air cars, cheap electricity and big spaceships going to Mars and beyond.

Taking all of the above, and applying it to your question I'd have to say I expect to see more of the same we have seen in the last twenty five years. But!...if they figure out a way to use an 'energy drive' or somebody decides to build a 'BIG' spacestation, THEN things will start popping! Keep you fingers crossed.

BYE! .

Again blowing up massive quantities of money to send another exploration in space. Wonder why the recession doesn't end? " "What should be the policy of the next administration on space exploration in general and manned exploration esp.?" "Why in big cities did city planner not create enough space for vehicles?

" "Space is big, really really big, you just don't realize how incredibly vast space is..." "How big can the space bag get? " "do you think it is possible for mankind to to live in a underwater world as the are now attemting to do in space?" "What website's offer live view of space objects via Astronomy Observatory? I reside in USA on east coast.

" "What is the connection or relationship between space exploration technology and telecommunication technology?" "Do you think that our exploration of space will ever bring us to living on other planets? " "I found a comm. Space that I'd like to put my food business in.

Anything I should know before speaking with the agent?

Again blowing up massive quantities of money to send another exploration in space. Wonder why the recession doesn't end?

Space is big, really really big, you just don't realize how incredibly vast space is...

I found a comm. Space that I'd like to put my food business in. Anything I should know before speaking with the agent?

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.