More than 50 years ago :1rotfl::1rotfl::1rotfl:

And less than in the future, especially with world population growth estimates at 10.4 billion within the next 75 years

I'd rather spend money on space exploration than handing it out to those that produce nothing

I believe the post was referring to the ancient alien theories. All the arguments in your post could be dismissed if we were colonized by far advanced alien species.

Not saying I believe ancient aliens. Just putting context to the post you responded to.

Well, the “screwing up” part is arbitrary but I’m somewhat like-minded about life from Earth having been in space far longer than we think.

First, technology has existed in the lifetimes of most of us for humankind to travel not just to the moon but to at least some of the other planets as well. Anyone ever hear of Project Orion? First proposed in the 1960s, Project Orion could have used the technology of the time to propel spacecraft via use of channeled nuclear explosions as propulsion. At first it was a combined project of NASA, DARPA and the U.S. Air Force and had the potential to reach Mars in a matter of a few weeks rather than the two-plus year trips currently talked about, and the inner Gas Giants in months. Tests were run with chemical propulsion in place of nuclear, and showed great promise until the 1963 nuclear test ban treaty put a stop to any further testing. Nevertheless the promise was there as well as the technology to actually put it into practice. The military promise alone of such a thing, especially given the mindset of our military, sort of makes it hard to believe that our military WOULDN’T pursue it. And it wouldn’t have to be on Earth: The far side of the moon, which has been reachable for decades, would serve as an ideal place, with the entire bulk of the moon serving as a shield from any prying earthbound eyes.

Second…”life from Earth” doesn’t necessarily limit such life to HUMAN life. Life has existed here for…what? 4.5 billion years? It is entirely possible IMO for life, even civilizations, to have existed here untold millennia ago with all traces being lost over time. But even if we limit it to (somewhat) human life, we humans in various forms have lived here, according to the fossil record, for millions of years and with Neanderthals and modern Homo Sapiens (somewhat later on the scene) being here for half a million years at least. It sort odd beggars belief that we’ve Been here for so long in more-or-less human form and capability, only to get smart enough to exist outside our atmosphere in the lifetimes of many if not most of us. It is entirely conceivable that such civilizations along with their technological records being totally obliterated and undiscoverable to us.

Will we find such evidence? I think so. But not here. Maybe on surfaces of space bodies without continental drift and volcanism. The Moon, maybe. Or Mars. Or Ceres. Or even the moons of Jupiter—places with little or no atmosphere and surfaces that are not in a state of constant churning. It IS possible.

:1rotfl:

That sounds a lot like: If you don't clean up your room, you can't go out to play.

Yes Mom.

///

If we were "colonized" or more likely genetically manipulated by those aliens, it would have been the aliens, not humans that visited those worlds. Besides, it is highly unlikely that anything organic could stand on the "surface" of Jupiter.

Also, consider modifications of the Drake equation with the numbers we now have from space-based telescopes. It suggests that in the observable universe there are 40 TRILLION civilizations equal to or more advanced than our own. However, the distances are so great that it is unlikely any 2 would stumble over each other. Plus, Einstein would have to be wrong and FTL travel possible, or the technology to create stable artificial wormholes would have to be possible. And even then we are an insignificant planet at the edge of an insignificant galaxy far from the center of the universe that didn't even have EM transmissions of any power until 90 years ago. Could we have been found and helped by benevolent aliens in the distant past---possible, but highly improbable. Yes, there are mysteries such as the Great Pyramid, Puma Punko and Gobekli Tepe that we can't explain, but applying Occam's razor, more likely they were built with human technology and labor that was lost to us over the millennia than "aliens"

Or Matt Damon...

That's because we screwed it up!

Maybe these guys can help...

https://64.media.tumblr.com/14797206...36e7628421.gif

The problem with ETs is there is nothing much other than speculation, no yardstick, the only spot we know about is good ol mother earth, one data point in a expanse of time and space that we cannot really comprehend , aside from all the things that had to go just right for life to get started here, human psychology will normalize whatever we see and think, so we look at an emesity that we cannot grasp and of course there must be other intelligent life, but with one data point??

Visit area 51 and you will understand.

Of course, at area 51 they are reverse engineering an intergalactic coffee maker, with every layer of the onion they learn, your PC talks to other PCs keeps improving itself, 3-4- 5 years in improves itself to the point it stops working, you call support and talk to someone who never had english as a first language , maybe no language spoken on earth, you make 4-5 calls get different answers some solve the problem some don't but all different answers because not even the aliens understand it

Sometimes I think the aliens are in control, especially since we started watching Resident Alien.

A lot of good things have come out of space program technology. If we want to stay ahead of Russia and China when it comes to “Space”, we had better continue to allocate resources to such endeavors as technology to land and perhaps inhabit Mars. As cruel as man is to man, we may destroy earth and most of the people as some fanatics pushes certain buttons.

Good Things
 

Please explain what good things have come out of the space program that are worth trillions of dollars spent????????????