cross-posted from: https://retrofed.com/c/ask@piefed.social/p/2414142/if-you-could-visit-any-celestial-body-outside-of-earth-which-would-it-be

Assuming you are properly equipped to handle the extreme conditions of space, of course. Does not have to be a planet, or even in the Solar System. Any planet, moon, asteroid, star, or other celestial body is available in this hypothetical!

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[–] 11 points 2 days ago (6 children)

Venus. There are some fascinating photos.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 days ago (4 children)

    It's a shame we prioritize martian colonization. Venus has a similuar gravity, so close enough to not worry about muscle degradation. We could build floating cloud City above the cruising pressure depths.

    Wikipedia link that explains what I am trying to say better

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  • [–] 6 points 2 days ago* (2 children)

    This says nothing about colonization – only about crewed NASA missions. And:

    NASA never intended to seriously pursue HAVOC, instead using it as a development tool for analysis skills in young engineers.

    It was a pie-in-the-sky concept used as an engineering challenge.

    We prioritize Mars even though it's farther than Venus and has lower gravity because you want to colonize the surface.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 child)

    Tbf, a proper mars colony (as opposed to like some kind of research base analogous to the sorts of thing we have in antarctica) is similarly far off, the challenges compared to venus are just a bit less obvious because the harshness of dealing with, say, dangerous regolith and low gravity are less visually obvious than those of dealing with a crushing and corrosive atmosphere.

    I'm honestly not really convinced that mars or any planet makes a good target for space colonies. Mining/resource extraction maybe, but you cant realistically build any kind of space colony until the infrastructure exists to obtain materials and manufacture everything a society needs in space, just on account of how expensive launching stuff from earth is, and since that infrastructure would need to come before large numbers of people do and therefore must be automated, there's not a particular need to have a space colony on the same site as a resource extraction facility. Given that, I think that the various concepts for centrifugal space habitats make more sense, where you can set your day length and simulated gravity where humans prefer them, and dont need to worry about taking off from or landing in a deep gravity well every time you want to enter or leave the thing.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 day ago

    Yup, fuck gravity wells, once you're out, stay out. Particularly fond of the idea of dropping a nickel iron asteroid into a near pass of the sun (yeah, hella delta-v, probably more efficient to do it in situ, but it's such a nice image) till it's cherry red, setting off a bomb in the middle to make a bubble, patch the holes, fill with air, spin it up for gravity. Quick and dirty homestead. But really O'Neill cylinders are a better choice.

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  • [–] 10 points 2 days ago

    Any place that has life, if it does. Like the theorized oceans under the ice on Europa or Enceladus. I want to see it. Otherwise, maybe Daphnis or Pan in Saturn’s rings. The view would hopefully be spectacular.

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  • [–] 10 points 2 days ago* (1 child)

    I'd like to see Jupiter from the surface of Io, it is about the same distance than the Moon is from Earth but Jupiter is like 40 times the radius and has colours.

    A flyby of the rings of Saturn.

    Outside the solar system, any nebula and go just far enough as to see the entire Milky Way from the top.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 days ago

    I don't think that I have a lot of interest in sight-seeing.

    However, we do have some candidates for potentially-habitable exoplanets, where we don't have enough information due to our distance. Hard for astronomers to gather data. But you can see it


    maybe take photos or whatever.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_potentially_habitable_exoplanets

    Maybe consult with people who study them, get the most-likely candidate on that list and travel there and report back.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 child)

    Statistically speaking there has to be some other life out there. Although, with how rare that is and large the universe is, we'll never find them, and they will never find us.

    But with the magic of your question? I'll go to the nearest planet with another spacefaring civilization!
    I just need to remember to bring my towel.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 day ago (1 child)

    Whichever closest planet has intelligent life that’s amenable to receiving extraterrestrial visitors so I can tell them “don’t worry guys there IS life out there and we’re rooting for you.”

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  • [–] 6 points 2 days ago* (1 child)

    Honestly, a nearly uncountable number of options, and you want me to pick one? I'd like to visit the Greater and Lesser Magellanic Clouds just to see our closest neighbors at the galactic level and look back at the Milky Way. I'd like to visit Andromeda, I'd like to visit all the bodies in our solar system that are large enough to collapse into a spheroid. I'd like to visit Halley's Comet on the far side of its trip. I'd like to visit Alpha Centauri, just to see our closest stellar neighbor. I'd like to visit the nearest star to Sagittarius A*. I'd like to visit a recently collapsed stellar nursery, and a recent supernova. After the more interesting things, I'd like to see a few hundred ringed planets, a few hundred planets in the goldilocks zone of their stars, some single and binary star systems of all the major types, and on and on.

    And if all that was an option, why wouldn't I want to live forever?

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  • [–] 6 points 2 days ago (1 child)

    Well I hear enough about Alpha Centauri, so a planet there.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 days ago

    In this solar system, I think I'd like to visit one of Jupiter's moons like Europa.

    Outside the Sol system, I think I'd like to go to the Trappist 1 system to see if any of those exoplanets have liquid water.

    Of course the number one place to visitWherever Olive Garden makes their never ending bread sticks.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 days ago (2 children)

    Sagittarius A. Just to see what it's like

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  • [–] 4 points 1 day ago*

    Betelgeuse (red supergiant). Super impressive in Elite Dangerous, real thing would be something to see.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 days ago

    The Sun

    That'd be a nice, quick end.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 day ago*

    I'd wanna walk on the surface of the sun.

    "You got a death wish or something?"

    No; I am assuming there would be sufficient tech to actually go to the sun and walk/swim on it. I bet it feels gnarly as hell and nobody else would think to do it.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 day ago (5 children)
  • [–] 6 points 1 day ago (4 children)

    I wanna land on Europa. Because I was told not to.

    All these worlds are yours except Europa. Attempt no landing there.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 day ago (3 children)

    Is that a reference I'm not getting?

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  • [–] 3 points 1 day ago (2 children)

    Quote from Arthur C Clarke's 2010 (sequel to 2001)

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  • [–] 1 point 1 day ago* (1 child)

    Thanks. Never got around to that one - yet

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  • [–] 1 point 5 hours ago

    It’s very good. As are the following sequels: 2061 and 3001. But then again Clarke Is one of my favorite golden age authors. I also highly recommend the Rama series: Rendezvous with Rama, Rama II, The Garden of Rama, Rama Revealed. Gentry Lee wrote two more in the same universe but I haven’t read them: Bright Messengers and Double Full Moon Night

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  • [–] 4 points 1 day ago
    [–] 3 points 1 day ago

    I'd like to see the exoplanet that rains gemstones and amonia in a 1000kmh gale over lakes of mercury or whatever mad environment they were hypothesising, I forget.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 days ago (2 children)
  • Well, in Red Dwarf, there was word of 'a moon which was shaped exactly like Felicity Kendal’s bottom ... '

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  • [–] 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 child)

    Definitly Titan. I wanna make love on the shore of a liquid methane sea.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 day ago

    Kepler-442b

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  • [–] 2 points 2 days ago

    PSR J2322−2650 b, to watch the eternal sunset while walking in the diamond rain! Well, not exactly walking, as there is no solid surface on this planet.

    More realistically, I'd like to visit Venus, Titan, Europa and Enceladus. Venus and Titan have opposite extreme conditions while maintaining a dense atmosphere and a solid surface, so it might be quite interesting to watch closely and compare. And Europa with Enceladus have a good chance of keeping extraterrestrial life in the depths of their oceans.

    And of course, landing on 1I/Oumuamua and 3I/ATLAS would be thrilling!

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  • [–] 2 points 1 day ago (1 child)

    Not sure if this is in the spirit of the question, because I know nothing of celestial objects.

    I'd want to go for away to see the milky way from outside, like how we can see the horsehead nebula.

    Failing that I want to go to the exact centre of the universe, or the very edge.

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  • [–] 2 points 16 hours ago

    Set sail to the most habitable world outside of Earth! Whatever we deem the most likely exoplanet to be earthlike on the day our fusion drive starts the acceleration burn, that's where I'd want to go looking if there's a second evolutionary tree to explore.

    How did they solve heat management? Did they develop photon-sensing organs like we did? What's the mechanism for passing genetic information between iterations (maybe they don't call them generations)? Do they flap their meat to communicate, the way earth animals' vocal tracts do? Are they made out of meat?

    And if there is no life, I'd learn a lot about geology, the local solar system and, subsequently back home, all the more appreciate what we've got going on Planet A ❤️

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  • [–] 3 points 2 days ago
    [–] 1 point 4 hours ago

    I wanna go to URANUS

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  • [–] 1 point 1 day ago
    [–] 1 point 1 day ago

    A few neighbours that are supposed to be earth-like.

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