is there any way

[fuck me No.3699025]

I can be an astronaut? i was surfing /adv/ and just now learned that nasa is basically shutting down. plus herp derp we have robots why send humans derp

my whole life is like, ruined now. I wanted to go to space :( I wish i was born earlier. Now I have to become a godamm millionaire to go.

[Anonymous No.3699040]

build your own rocket.

[Anonymous No.3699042]

>sending un-augmented humans into space
>2011

Just because You "want" to go doesn't mean it's practical. I understand that wanting to go there ourselves is important, i'm just saying the basic version of the human body isn't exactly the best thing to be taking into the cosmos.

[Anonymous No.3699051]

>>3699042
transhumanist scum detected

[fuck me No.3699058]

>>3699040
yeah, when i become a millionaire

[Anonymous No.3699723]

>>3699051

Baseline human scum detected.

[Anonymous No.3699738]

>>3699723
I'd like to refine your post. It's not that he's baseline. We all are nearbaseline as of yet. It's that he seems to consider advancement from his current condition a bad thing.

[Anonymous No.3699742]

Don't worry, free market will fix it.

[Anonymous No.3699745]

>>3699025
> is there any way [to] fuck me

[Anonymous No.3699749]

The technology:
http://techland.time.com/2011/04/06/spacexs-falcon-heavy-most-powerful-private-rocket-ever/
http://www.universetoday.com/73536/nasa-considering-rail-gun-launch-system-to-the-stars/
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/science/article4799369.ece

The will:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8bIQLiKi3g
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/02/lord-british-wants-to-take-you-to-space-and-hes-closer-th
an-you-think.ars/3

The time (and one of the main kicks in the ass to get it started):
http://www.hplusmagazine.com/articles/forever-young/manhattan-beach-project-end-aging-2029
http://www.ted.com/themes/might_you_live_a_great_deal_longer.html
http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/07/sierra-sciences-working-towards.html
http://www.sens.org/sens-research/research-themes
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3329065877451441972#
http://www.nature.com/news/2010/101128/full/news.2010.635.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/nov/28/scientists-reverse-ageing-mice-humans
http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-06-biologists-yeast-cells-reverse-aging.html
http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-06-dna-reverse-premature-aging.html


The economic benefits:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroid_mining
>At 1997 prices, a relatively small metallic asteroid with a diameter of 1 mile contains more than $20 trillion US dollars worth of industrial and precious metals.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near_Earth_Objects#Near-Earth_asteroids
>As of May 2010, 7,075 near-Earth asteroids are known,[14] ranging in size up to ~32 kilometers (1036 Ganymed).[16] The number of near-Earth asteroids over one kilometer in diameter is estimated to be 500 - 1,000.
http://www.virgingalactic.com/

[Anonymous No.3699778]

businesses will take you to space. there is a market for it; the only problem now is making it cost effective.

[Anonymous No.3699803]

>>3699025
>i was surfing /adv/ and just now learned that nasa is basically shutting down
No, you fucking moron. We stopped sending men into space on Space Shuttles. That's it.

It was an archaic design, anyway.

[Anonymous No.3699907]

robots will carry on missions,and humans will go just for fun in space

[Anonymous No.3699918]

>>3699025
So going to space is one of your lifelong dreams and you're only now learning about the budget cuts and program shutdowns that have been going on for 10 years?

In any case, you'll have more of a chance in the near future than you ever would have had in the past thanks to private enterprise and the shift in the big acronym agencies towards funding enterprise instead of doing large in house projects.

Before you'd have had to go into the military as a pilot and be consistently the best in your class or luck out and get in as part of a scientific mission or a public outreach program and be the best of thousands of applicants.

Even now all you need is 200 grand and loose wallet strings thanks to guys like Virgin galactic and that figure's only going to drop in the future.

My favorite thing at the moment is the UK based SKYLON project which is developing a single stage to orbit spaceplane. (essentially take off from a runway, go to space, do something, land again on a runway, do everything again the next day.) It's everything the space shuttle wished it was and it's projected to bring launch costs down from £15,000/kg to ~£650/kg. They've just got a massive grant to develop the engines and hopefully we should be seeing launches in the next 15 years or so.

[Anonymous No.3699939]

OP, in a few year's time we'll probably be sending more astronauts into space each year than any year during the shuttle program. Even if the cost per kilo on private ventures ends up the same as on the shuttle, it's still a lot cheaper for NASA because a small capsule costs a lot less to send up than a big shuttle. Those capsules can take seven astronauts at a time, the same as on the shuttle. And as the previous poster pointed out, you have a chance to go as a space tourist if you flunk NASA's astronaut training.

[Anonymous No.3699958]

The next 5 - 10 years will be interesting. Several companies offering services into LEO and Suborbital flight

SpaceX
Orbital Sciences
Blue Origin
XCOR
Virgin Galactic

And then of course there's Soyuz