NASA's Warp Drive? Starship Enterprise Makes a Virtual Splash

[Oceander]

I disagree. There are water vapor on these asteroids and comets.Observations of the Solar System's biggest asteroid suggest it is spewing plumes of water vapour into space.Water vapor detected from the largest object in the asteroid belt could be from a number of sources including cryovolcanoes. There are rare sources of elements that are not found on the Earth like iridium in mass quantities.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/massive-asteroid-spurts-plumes-of-water-vapor/

Read the article first, then respond to it, not just to me.

[Dexter]

and so has Stephen Hawking as well..

As well as pretty much every astrophysicist ever. Scientific endeavors need more funding if we are to see real progress is our lifetimes. We may regret it if China manages to start mining asteroids and leading the way in other space endeavors before we do.

[kevindavis007]

As well as pretty much every astrophysicist ever. Scientific endeavors need more funding if we are to see real progress is our lifetimes. We may regret it if China manages to start mining asteroids and leading the way in other space endeavors before we do.

I agree.. Science is one of few things that I don't mind if the Government funds. In fact I prefer spend more on Science than on Entitlements.

[SPQR]

As well as pretty much every astrophysicist ever. Scientific endeavors need more funding if we are to see real progress is our lifetimes. We may regret it if China manages to start mining asteroids and leading the way in other space endeavors before we do.

It does not mean a national mandate to mine asteroids or the moon. Have the corporations pony up the money for exploration.

[Dexter]

It does not mean a national mandate to mine asteroids or the moon. Have the corporations pony up the money for exploration.

Corporations can't pony up the money for exploration if we don't first have the technology to do it. We should be exploring the universe for the sake of science, not just profit. Increasing our understanding of the universe around us is beneficial to all of man kind.

[SPQR]

Corporations can't pony up the money for exploration if we don't first have the technology to do it. We should be exploring the universe for the sake of science, not just profit. Increasing our understanding of the universe around us is beneficial to all of man kind.

If a bunch of corporations come to together they will do it.It will be interests of both parties.  NASA cannot do it alone.Their budget has been severly slashed and all it remains is robotic missions and the ISS.  They are already doing it with the Falcon 9 rocket and that is a private venture

http://science.howstuffworks.com/10-major-players-in-private-sector-space-race.htm
http://www.spacex.com/falcon9

[Oceander]

Corporations can't pony up the money for exploration if we don't first have the technology to do it. We should be exploring the universe for the sake of science, not just profit. Increasing our understanding of the universe around us is beneficial to all of man kind.

With all due respect, corporations - and every other form of business - will pony up the money and will develop the technology - without a smidge of "help" from Uncle Sugar - if/when there's a realistic prospect of a positive return on investment.  And there isn't any "we should" way of getting into, exploring, and exploiting, space - any legitimate use, whether private or public, that an individual or a business wishes to make of space is just as much a "we should" as is anything else.  Knowledge solely for the sake of knowledge is sterile; knowledge has no value until something can be done with it.