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Re:Japanese startup Ispace raises $90M, targets landing on m... by pavel_lishin on Thursday December 14, 2017 @11:58AM (#15923943)
> cheaper, faster, and easier

We don't know that, right? We don't know how much it would cost to develop the tech; we don't know how long it would take; we don't know how difficult it would be.

It might actually be cheaper to send canned apes throughout the solar system, than human minds in robot bodies; we just don't know yet. This is at best a Fermi problem, where we can start throwing numbers out and hope our estimates are within a few orders of magnitude.

Re:Japanese startup Ispace raises $90M, targets landing on m... by melling on Thursday December 14, 2017 @01:13PM (#15924792)
We send what we have now then iterate. Release early, release often. Funding robotics, AI, etc is not a NASA funded goal but goes under defense budget, tax deductions for industry, etc.

The real problem is getting the money for space. No one wants to write a big check for Mars. They’ll write big checks for the Pentagon, automation in manufacturing, and strategic national goals.

Re:Japanese startup Ispace raises $90M, targets landing on m... by pavel_lishin on Thursday December 14, 2017 @03:39PM (#15926777)
I was talking specifically about mind uploads.