If we last long enough to colonize other planets...

i'm convinced.

 

Anything is possible. It's all to do with funding. Sadly not enough is going towards science.

 

I think it's gonna be a big fat conspiracy that will end in the secret aliens taking over.

I will post more details once ToyCen explains it all to me

 

Obama just scrapped the Moon program so don't count on it happening anytime soon.

 

We do not have the ability. We don't even know how to send people to Mars without them dying from exposure to cosmic rays on the way.

 

I may be wrong, but you may be wrong as well. Neither of us knows for sure. At least I said "I don't think." You seem to be absolutely sure that we will be able to, something you can't possibly know.

Also, I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the fact that it would be impossible for any organization on Earth to really control a planet in a different system when the travel time there and back would be hundreds if not thousands of years. Even the time for simple communication would be years.

 

If you think about it there's really not much of a difference between countries and companies. They're essentially the same thing, as you can see from the movie Pandora the invaders really was just one company, but the way they acted was similar to a government already (complete with soldiers an all).

If colonization does indeed happen my guess is companies will have first dibs. At the rate things are going now countries don't really have the funds to finance such a huge undetaking, so it will be up to companies to do it. Anyway companies can ask help from their government anyway so its probably academic (like in Pandora).

 

Companies IMO.

Spoiler

http://www.tomorrowsthoughtstoday.com/fast/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/gundam.jpg

 

Sure we have the ability. We could do 10000 Saturn 5 launches if we needed to. We know how to shield people from cosmic rays with lead...and probably an imitation of the magnetosphere. It is a matter of cost.

 

And we also know how to construct ships that are large enough to house (and provide food and water for) many people for thousands of years?

 

I guess it depends on where the planet is. Mars and the Jovian satellites communication time would only be a few hours at most. If we have vehicles that can move at a significant portion of light speed there are several star systems only a few light years away.

Anyway the British, Mongols and Romans were able to rule an empire for a few centuries where it took month or even years to communicate with the more far flung parts. Its been less than a hundred years since we've been able to communicate relatively quickly with the other side of the Earth and really only about 40 years in anything approaching realtime.

 

The rate of transferfing information is a lot quicker now. If some offworld colony becomes rich and self sufficient, I doubt they'd like taxation without equal representation much.

 

What we need is a space elevator.

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