how long...

[Vigormortis]

the answer is never.

I am not one to believe that there is any benefit to colonizing anything that does not harbour life, and I believe the whole of space to be void of life except for our delightful little planet.

Quite a bleak and selfish point of view. Regardless, it's no less valid than any other. As for me, we'll start "colonizing" the moon by 2020. That's not speculation, that's actual fact. Nasa is already designing not only a new Apollo-like craft to take crews back to the moon but is also trying to engineer a permanent base there. As for Mars, it depends on how quickly, efficiently, and reliably we can setup a base on the moon. After we manage that, it's a short hop (not really) over to Mars. As for actually colonizing Mars, that's a long time coming. We'd have to terraform the planet to have any kind of significant presence there, and terraforming would take a very, very long time. Admittedly, not as long as one might think, but long enough. Colonizing the galaxy is pretty much a non-idea. If one could even grasp the shear size of the galaxy, not too mention the time it'd take to travel even a minuscule distance within (it'd take tens of thousands of years to travel to the nearest star using our fastest methods of travel), it's more likely we'll be extinct before that can even happen. The prospect of finding alien life is just as bleak though. Even assuming we manage to invent some kind of faster-than-light method of travel, the immensity of space pretty much guarantees that, even if we look for millenia, we're not likely to find anything. At least, not likely to find any intelligent life anyway. However, who knows, there could be life in the colossal oceans beneath the ice sheets of Europa. Exobiologists and astronomers have been postulating that very theory for years. With massive water oceans and potential thermal vents, there could very well be at least bacterial-like life up there. A mission, yet again by Nasa, is in the works to send a probe up to Europa and drill down through the ice to the oceans below. From there a deep-see drone will begin searching. That missions a long time off, but I hope to be alive when it takes place. The potential discovery of extraterrestrial life, even within our own solar system, would have a staggering impact on our society and our view of our universe.

 

[hypothetical fact]

Never, or at least never in your life time for it to make a difference.

 

[intergral]

Japan wants to colonize the moon by 2025, but too bad America already owns it! (hey, finders keepers...lol)

Besides, anyone who has seen Gundam knows what Japan is REALLY up to... *coughcolonydropcough*

 

[Lord Krunk]

the answer is never.

I am not one to believe that there is any benefit to colonizing anything that does not harbour life, and I believe the whole of space to be void of life except for our delightful little planet.

I find it hard to believe that this one planet is the only one in the entire damned universe that contains life, the universe is (supposedly) infinite so there must be at least some life out there.

Nah, it's not infinite. Proof? Because it's expanding.

However, I agree with you on the fact that there has to be somewhere else that harbours life.

 

[AuntyEthel]

Why would anyone want to live on the moon or Mars? It looks a bit shit.

 

[Dragonrabbit]

Colonizing the moon could very well happen in 30 - 50 years, if anyone had a desire too actually do it.
As for Mars, I think it would come shortly after the moon.
As for those saying never another galaxy because it would take too long, technology, especially transportation, has been improving at a mind boggling rate in "recent" years. In the span of 200 years we've gone from horse back to automobiles to planes to freaking space shuttles, anyone who attempts to say that intergalactic travel in one lifetime clearly is in the wrong mindset... and needs to watch more Trek.

 

[Skalman]

There's probably gonna be a war over who owns the moon, especially if america is involved, which.. you know, they are...

 

[Good morning blues]

The better question is when will a nation, or private company, make a space elevator? Because that is cheaper than repeatedly launching rockets up into space. The nations of the earth will not colonize the moon until we build one of those. Also there's the problem of who gets to colonize what. America claimed the moon, but does that really make it theirs? Until we answer questions like those space colonization is impossible.

China. If I'm not mistaken, China is the only country that has access to space travel technology that did not sign an agreement not to exercise sovereignty over the moon.

As for how long, there's no way to know. There's no money for it right now, and it's impossible to tell what is and is not even possible for travel technology to achieve at the moment. I have no doubt that there's life out there; the universe is simply too big for there not to be. Whether or not humans will ever meet it, I don't know. (Although if we do, they'll probably look more like something from Lovecraft than something from Trek.)

 

[rossatdi]

Once we've cracked an refined nuclear fusion technology I believe it would be only a matter of decades till we can a permanent installation on the Moon. At the moment we currently have a working fusion plant but it needs a lot of work to actually produce more than it consumes.

 

[Radelaide]

I think humans are a stupid species. We should be happy with what we've got and just leave some things as a mystery.

/negative post.

 

[curlycrouton]

We've already met with alien races.... on the moon!

There are several colonies of people living up there, in the low G environment, as voluntary hosts for a species of alien symbiots. Up there, they live, free of the petty prejudices that consume mankind down here. They live, they train, they develop and they breed. They wait together, these xenomen, biding their time, awaiting our eventual armageddon. Then they will return. God help those who are left when this happens.

Gentlemen

We have been discovered. Prepare for premature assault on Planet Earth.

 

[Knight Templar]

You might as well try to guess the names of people passing you, at least then you can have fun.

 

[fedpayne]

First, think how unlikely it is that any of you will ever meet me. Then think of meeting people in space.

 

[Milford Cubicle]

But if you think of how small the actual likelihood that even this planet was able to maintain life, it shows just how small the likelihood of the exact same thing happening elsewhere. I will not put it past there being some "type" of life out there in the quantities of space, but it will most likely be something that resembles bacteria or viruses.

No it doesn't at all. It shows how small YOU THINK the likelihood is. You have absolutely no idea how likely it is for other life-bearing plants to exist. No-one does. It could be none, it could be millions.

 

[odatnarat]

i think this thread is a bit geeky, but its fun to read all your opinions about this.. haha

scary though haha

 

[sirdanrhodes]

We will do it the day everyone starts to use capitals and grammar!

 

[iseko]

the answer is never.

I am not one to believe that there is any benefit to colonizing anything that does not harbour life, and I believe the whole of space to be void of life except for our delightful little planet.

I find it hard to believe that this one planet is the only one in the entire damned universe that contains life, the universe is (supposedly) infinite so there must be at least some life out there.

But if you think of how small the actual likelihood that even this planet was able to maintain life, it shows just how small the likelihood of the exact same thing happening elsewhere. I will not put it past there being some "type" of life out there in the quantities of space, but it will most likely be something that resembles bacteria or viruses.

Intelligent life, is another thing, and I highly doubt that we will ever see another race, considering how evolution works. The actual steps towards having intelligence, throughout the evolutionary process, is so random(random in the sense of mutation, not selection), and taking even one step out, will likely not yield the same results as we have now. So life, maybe, intelligent life, big negatory.

If the chances are 1/10^100 there is other intelligent life out there. Maybe we will never meet them because they are to far away. Doesn't mean they arn't out there. I wonder if you ever had a seminar about how big the universe that we know of really is. It's not a flame against you but I think you havn't. Else you wouldn't be thinking it isn't possible.

I'm not saying there is other life in the universe! Just that it is damn well possible.

 

[Reaperman Wompa]

We won't fully colonise any worlds, only places for mining all their resources, aliens exist but I forsee a long wait for first contact, and why bother with the moon, It's a cold rock that's absolutely useless. Maybe for launching missiles, or a space defense station but crap all else.


And rocket ships are stupid, space is too big for us to try and spread out.

 

[aussiesniper]

Honestly I think who ever gets enough atmosphere for combustion to work on the moon can claim it.
or if we build something that can shoot projectiles without combustion.

We already have built weapons that require no combustion. Railguns, coilguns, and crossbows are all combustionless weapons that have been produced by civillians already. They're just not that effective at the moment.

And now to contribute to the conversation:

I think that life exists outside of this planet, but that it's so very far away from us that we'll never meet it, and that it's probably much less evolved than us. It's probably going to be more evolved than microscopic life, but it's not going to be the highly evolved or technologically advanced aliens that we have created in fiction.

 

[TheTemby]

well we got to the moon with dos hardware 10 or so years ago apparently and we have some a long way since then in the field of electronics... soooo it shouldnt be that long, 5-15 years would be my guess