Comments by "Tony Wilson" (@tonywilson4713) on "DEBUNKING OFF-WORLD DREAMS Pt1" video.

  1. I'm also an Australian but I did aerospace engineering in America in the late 80s. One Friday we had a visiting alumni do a special lecture. He'd just finished a project at NASA on the feasibility of terraforming Mars. We were pretty exited to hear from somebody who'd actually done the math on making Mars habitable. This was just BEFORE Challenger and when Space Station Freedom was being designed, so at that time we believed that over the next 10-20 years we were going to build a space station, then a moon base before going further. This wasn't a sales pitch to a pack of space junkie clowns, this was a serious talk to serious students and professors. We were shattered to find it WASN'T going to happen. He wasn't even looking at the technology required, just the math of what it would take to raise the temperature 70-90C and then add billions of tons of oxygen and nitrogen to make a breathable functioning atmosphere. His summation was "As well as planets being massive they don't like being changed." Planets are very complex semi-stable systems and such systems with their own cycles that fight back against disturbances. Remember when Jupiter got hit by the Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 and the big giant black spots. Jupiter just absorbed that and went back to being Jupiter. That talk never got to the technology because NASA had stopped the project once they realised the scope of the task. Its easy in science fiction but near impossible in reality without god like powers. 30+ years later I was discussing this very concept with a climate expert after a space conference. He'd said in his talk that if we hit a certain temperature point we would have to start geo-engineering. I told him we don't know how to geo-engineer and he confirmed that was true but then added we'd inadvertently done it. So you really are right to call it 'Marstubation' and it still is. Its a bunch of charlatans picking bits out of sci-fi and flogging the ideas to idiots via crowdfunding. Its the old adage of "a fool is easily parted from his money." So what of "maths/engineering/science" or what we now call STEM did you end up doing?
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  2.  @individual1-floridaman491  My father was a maths science teacher. I'd love to tell your kids that the future of engineering is bright but we are at on hell of a crossroads. There was a recent comment on the ABC Drum (I think it was Colin Barnett) and what was said was "we have to stop listening to the economists and lawyers and start listening to the engineers and scientists" I found it a great comment but NOBODY has run with it. Sure both parties are spruiking up manufacturing and technology after almost 2 decades of preaching how manufacturing was a "sunset industry" because we were shifting into a "service based economy." When they announced the Australian Space Agency they held meetings in the capital cities to find out what we should be doing. The mantra was "we are hear to listen" and for every suggestion and proposal we got told "NO we aren't that kind of agency. We're here to promote space industry." I was at the meeting in Melbourne and a professor from Monash stood up at one point and pointed out that EVERY student of his had left Australia for work and then asked what this new agency would do. The answer was straight out of "Yes Minister" and giant long word salad of we don't care because we are not here to do anything other than tell everyone how fantastic we are. They put out a roadmap that actually was pretty good. Its maybe the one thing they ever did right. It was all about the future space industries Australia could benefit from. The single biggest thing identified was advanced space based water management for our agriculture sector but such systems would not be available until the mid 2030s. Considering the droughts and water issues we have my answer to that was why wait 15 years and just get on with it. So I wrote a space program based around delivering that water management. the program was named "Dyaramak" which is an Aboriginal name for the Sacred Kingfisher. In Polynesian culture its a water spirit so I figured it kind of suited. When you consider that both our agricultural sector (at over $155Billion per annum with over 300,000 jobs) and our tourism sector (at over $65Billion per annum with over 550,000 jobs) that a program with its prime mission of delivering the next generation of space based land & water management would have a justifiable business case. WRONG. I took that to both the Libs and Labour and BOTH told me to go away while one handed $7 Billion to the Airforce for a space program and the other one cheered. For $7 Billion there is no plan, no budget and will do nothing for the 850,000 Australians who require our land, forests, rivers and oceans for their jobs. I asked for $720 million over 6 years to lay the foundation that would help protect all those jobs and all the economic benefit that came with it. I'm planning to bash both parties with it again shortly just to see if I can startle them into some action.
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