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Would it be possible to get these measurements and weights in units of Corgis and baby Elephants?

That was its estimated size and weight before entering the Earth's atmosphere. It broke apart at an altitude of 21 miles according to this Facebook post that contains the full NASA statement.

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I think we will see a lot of robots/probes being sent out instead of humans. Too much risk/variables associated with a human life, there will be so little a human can do in space currently as opposed to a computerized system that we can control 24/7..

for example food, oxygen, illness, etc.. a robot would essentially require a power source and steady connection

Francis? Do you want the clamps? Because that's how you get the clamps!

the moon is actually not all that far away, its only a three days travel with near instantaneus comunication, right now the biggest limitation is that rockets take months of preparation to launch anything and you have a limited number of them but taking into account that spacex is right now able to launch with only a 2 week window and that starship will be much more capable than falcon 9 we could reach a point in the next 10 to 15 years were we are able to do daily missions to space or even multiple missions in the same day, it only took spacex 10 years to reach this current rate of launches after all

at that point responce times to any emergency happening on the moon would not really be any slower than the responce to emergencies on earth, a couple days at most which unless its a literal catastrophic emergency would be more than enough time for most stuff

this all sounds imposible right now, but so did reusable rockets launching once per week 10 years ago

mars will be far harder, i fully expect a mars landing in before 2050 but i do agree that full colonization will likely take longer

moon colonization i do see it much feasible, we already were able to put humans on the moon and keep them there safe for 12 days over 50 years ago, the moon is going to start colonization in the next couple of decades and that is just the first step

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Some things a gun just won’t stand up too. A 1000 pound meteorite is definitely on the list.

This is all I want out of life. Fuck this I'm going university.

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I keep seeing this story and it remains unclear: are they estimating that this was its size when it entered the atmosphere, or upon striking the earth?

it will be high initially, as more and more infrastructure is build and more and more of space is developed the price drops, its basic economics things start expensive and then over time become cheap

I've read all these comments so far, and only one person has mentioned briefly the hazards of space travel. If you do any minor internet research, going to Mars (just Mars) is such an uphill battle for human survivability. The technology for space suits is not there yet in regards to keeping out dust that would eat up the material that makes up the suits and are definitely and extremely toxic to human beings. Drones are definitely a more feasible bet, but even drone technology needs the same protections that an astronaut suit would need to keep them from malfunctioning constantly on another planet. If something breaks, who is there to fix it? And then there needs to be contingencies for the contingencies because convenience is literally a world away.

There are a lot of contingencies to plan develop and to plan for when it comes to spacefaring. There are a lot of danger scenarios we may not be able to preemptively plan for either until we are on the surface of our destination cosmic location and most likely suffered some losses. Each cosmic body would be its own set of obstacles.

There are numerous startups working quietly on problems just like these in anticipation of space travel eventually becoming a viable commerce and not just speculative. You can bet NASA, along with all other possible government bodies associated with space travel, are invested in these startups.

Still, space travel is still so fatal to humans and machines. Add in the delay in communication if you're as far away as the moon, efficient fuel, self-sufficient energy and resources IN SPACE and not waiting for them to be re-supplied, and there's still a lot of hypothetical technology that needs to be developed.

The space race isn't really as hot as it was during the Cold War, because the political one upmanship game is using other means these days, but the push toward innovation is still happening. I don't think by 2050 it will be dramatically noticeable, like how we're not all in flying cars these days like people in the 1980s thought we would be, but maybe by 2100.

But who knows! Excelsior!

Well, that is what the word "may" means. Not saying it will always be impossible. It is plausible that it will never be possible.

the range expressed doesn't match the years asked about

never say never, people are usually always mistaken when they say that something will always be imposible

In 50-100 years everything will most likely be ai and robots driven and money doesn’t exist anymore. Humans will just have fun and watch everything unfolding. At that point space exploration is as simple as driving to the next store.

and i think some severly understimate just how long 30 years are, starship will more than certainly fly sometime this year and once it flies once you can expect that spacex will quickly develop and improve uppon the design, because even if it only scratches what is needed that slightly scratch is only step 1 and again, 30 years is a fucking long time a lot of stuff can and will change in 30 years far faster than many people expect

https://medium.com/lessons-from-history/the-cias-secret-time-travel-experiment-4dcf7842b588

The CIA in 1984 got into this deep. Here’s the released CIA unclassified project for such things.

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In 800 million years the sun will be 10% brighter and someday the sun will eat the earth. So yes they will come a day where it justifies the expense.