Submitted by camidon on Wed, 04/26/2006 - 4:55pm

What is the rationale behind sending out a ship?

  • What are the precedents for other expensive projects? Religion or competition come to mind. Competition is for power or wealth or survival. Did some religious leader have a vision? Does one nation think another will colonize the galaxy? Or is a natural disaster going to affect earth? We should pick one. -- DaveK - 25 Jul 2004
  • I lean towards the combination of religous/entrepanaural/government involvement. -- EmptyKube - 31 Jul 2004
  • I would think there would be one prime mover and the others tag along. -- DaveK - 01 Aug 2004
  • I think the days of big space projects by one government are drawing to a close. I think that projects will be multifaceted, with different parties bringing different motivations and interests. Financing will likely model say public radio....a combination of government contribution, met by public and buisness contributions. Maybe even some entrepanuar selling shares in the project to raise funds. I can see that because even though there won't be a "return", any new technologies developed while building the mission could be licensed here on Earth to other companies after launch. Say the thing is the brainstorm of one guy: CM's Wilson character. He begins farming the idea out to people who might be interested, starts a fund raising organization, starts collecting members. Eventually he convinces a few Senators to pop in some federal funding, but only if he can match it with public funding. Maybe some Bill Gates like charavter takes interest, maybe some fanatical religous sect looking to spread the seed of humanity around the galaxy. Wilson doesn't care, he just wants to build his dream. Eventually the project evolves into a corporation of many differnet sources all with their own reasons for participating but united by the single goal of getting the thing launched. There may even be srguments over which faction would lead the actual mission. This could carry over to the type of government on board. --EmptyKube - 01 Aug 2004


  • I was just reading EmptyKube 's blog (which I love) and following his gnostic links which lead me to the following: a religious group would take to space to get closer to god. This is a theme that some of our more scientific minds might poo-poo, but is still a valid philosophy for many (remember the hale-bopp episodes???). A ship like this would want to be generational, because it could take a long time to find god; and this leads to an isolated situation for the voyagers which can create the conditions for natural evolution. It would also be a platform where other possibly unrealistic decisions (wrt nanotech, FTL, etc) could be supported and/or avoided. -- AnnelieseFox - 01 Aug 2004


  • thank you for the comments about my blog:) its kind of personal, but i'm having fun. I like the idea of usTng a religous group the way you suggest. And I'm glad my gnostic links helped to inspire. -- EmptyKube - 01 Aug 2004
  • Good thoughts here. Here's how I'm leaning: There must be a driving force to go back into space, and I envision two. A) religion is a great force, as a mechanism to find God, and B) Competition between industrialized nations. As to A) I do think this is a great motivator, but my one question would be, what about the cost? How would this religion pay for it? How do they acquire the funding and then the technology? I could see them utilizing the current technology of a time to send out a ship of their own eventually, but I don't think they would be the first. B) What I'm leaning towards is another space race developing. This one brought around by China. In other posts, I have discusses creating a SEAU (SouthEast? Asian Union--China, Japan, Korea, India, etc), and I believe this foreseeable economic block would/will seriously consider moving into space, albeit slowly. Once other countries or unions (EU, USA) see this move back towards space, I see it as inevitable that they will try to follow with competing ships and technology. What happened to kick America into Space? It was the Russian initiative and the launch of Sputnik, and I think a futuristic space race is quite plausible and possible. Also, I love the idea of one man (i.e., Wilson) having this idea, and spouting his ideas to different agencies and countries. I could see him grow disillusioned and bitter towards the US, and then the Chinese snatch him up... Then this initial story could end with his disappearance and no one in the US ever hearing from him again... Hmmm... -- CmAmidon - 28 Sep 2004