Regarding the robots vs. humans, I think it probably has something to do with the saying from "the Right Stuff" (whether it was really said or not, I think it's generally accurate): "No Buck Rogers, No bucks."

So what do we do when we get there ?

Very appropriate catch phrase.

Yes, those were documentaries, not fiction.

For the lunar colonies most of the literature I've read talks about setting up mineral extraction facilities as well as some purely scientific research facilities. The bottom line seems to be that in order for any long term colonization of the moon to happen there has to be some kind of economic benefit that results from it.

Yeah, no way I would step foot into one of those molecular blenders. McCoy was right. Not for me.

You may say these things in jest, but Arthur C. Clarke did say, "The Space Elevator will be built about 50 years after everyone stops laughing."


Barring a better propulsion solution to send objects into orbit, of course.

You need to play with some Lorentz transform equations.

Relativistic mass is a thing. Transporters work near-instantaneously, and to send matter at near-light speed becomes prohibitively expensive, the greater sum of the mass.

In a nutshell: Transporters sending actual matter are not only implausible, they're practically impossible, especially if traversing physical Minkowskian spacetime.

By all means, use robots to do what robots do well. Let humans focus on the other stuff.

The other reason to colonize other celestial bodies (e.g. Moon, Mars), or space itself, is what Elon Musk is concerned with... Reducing humanity's risk to be wiped out by a single cataclysmic event. [I don't think it would be climate change, but warfare or a big ol' asteroid are certainly in the realm of possibility.]

The space elevator being discussed in the O.P. is not up from earth, as we do not yet have materials capable to handling it. A space elevator coming up from the moon is a different exercise and within the reach of current technology. While it does not eliminate the cost of rocketing materials up out of earth's gravity well, it does stand to help reduce those costs, as far less fuel would need to be hauled up just to get to the moon, or to the Lagrange point. Less fuel spent on transporting is more fuel or cargo space/weight available for supporting space activities whether human or robotic. Plus, we don't have all the space junk orbiting the moon that we have orbitting earth. The lunar space elevator would stop short of reaching the earth's geostationary orbit, so there is hardly anything out there, relatively speaking. Far less danger to face.

Robot/A.I. technology is getting better, but there are still things that benefit from humans being on the scene. Our robotic exploration of Mars has been amazing, but think about the time delay of radio signals between earth and mars, and how much that limits what is getting done. The moves have to be painstakingly planned, transmitted, and then wait to see how things turned out later.

While mars rovers have wildly exceeded their expected life spans... how much more could they accomplish if a human could make a trip over and dust off the solar panels after they get too covered? Maybe even transport them back to base, do some maintenance upon them and redeploy them where the most research is needed.

i dont want to sound offensive, but this is something people dont really take into acount, but do you know how far is the moon ?that is 25 earths at least ! do you really think we would have in ANY timeframe the hability to build something so massive ? even the lagrange point would still be at least half that.

Every tech has its occasional glitches and incidents: cars crashes, computers go down, airplanes drops from sky, boats sinks; but transporters, once the technology is made and perfected, they are perfectly safe.

Seeing as I have watched our Apollo missions travel to the moon and back, yes, I have taken into account how far it is.

We are on the cusp of having heavy lift capability (SpaceX Starship) on a routine basis. We have robotic manufacturing capability that is sufficient to handle much of the work. So yes, we have the ability.

Is the will there? No, not that I am aware of. It would be a very large up front investment, but could reap significant dividends. Due to the political realities, I don't see a western government taking it on anytime in the foreseeable future. Hard to say if China might find it attractive later on. From the west, it almost certainly would have to be a commercial venture. Elon Musk wants Mars, so he doesn't seem likely to go all in on something that is mainly lunar. Maybe a Bezos or Branson gets fired up about it to get the ball rolling.

Based on humanity's current technological development, you're a lot more likely to see a lunar space elevator than a Star Trek transporter.

Space elevator to the moon isn't something that can pragmatically ever happen IMO. To geosync orbit sure, but not the moon, for obvious reasons.

Star Trek levels of transporter tech can't be done unless one terrifying problem is solved - continuity of consciousness. Otherwise there's no difference between transporting, and being killed and a new instance of yourself being created somewhere else. So some method of, over time, transferring parts of your brain (& therefore presumably consciousness unless some weird science becomes known) over time while retaining the connections between them during the process so that you experience a continuous experience.

In my expert opinion of course

Nicely stated. Agree.

I agree that a space elevator up from earth is not currently feasible, and unlikely to ever be seriously considered. However, that is not what the O.P. is about.



Indeed.

The article title is problematic. What the article actually is about is a space elevator ON the moon, not "to" the moon, as in "from the earth to the moon".

Technology is perfectly safe and works... until it doesn't.

Well said.

Of all the common technology shown in Star Trek the transporter is the least likely to ever become real.

How about the medical tricoder where it somehow revives/heals people? It must be using some kind of high-powered WIFI where it stimulates immune cells. Yeah that's it!