Where are our current space missions?

[rdean]

Sorry but the survival of out species is 100% about turning a profit and converting cash into genetic income.

Some of the greatest scientific achievements of mankind were driven by profit and income. But the ABSOLUTE GREATEST scientific achievements of mankind had NOTHING to do with profit and income.

Science for the sake of science is AT THE LEAST as important as science for the sake of profit. And I feel that I greatly insulted the former with that sentence.

And yet, we learned to make money off those "greatest achievements". Look at the Genome project. How does mapping the genome translate into money? By identifying inherited disease and learning to treat it. Just one example. Another? Developing robust grains resistant to disease. And so on.

 

[TheOldSchool]

We're not talking pure science we are talking engineering. Even applied science is slowing way down as time goes on. An oldie but goodie on the subject would be "The Third Industrial Revolution" by G. Harry Stine 1975. We out ran the technologies constraint in the 1960s and no pure and very few applied scientific breakthroughs have happened since the 1960s usually the anti-virals are the usual example cited for recent breakthroughs in applied science. No new principles of pure hard science outside of neurology have been uncovered in the past 40 years. And most applied science such as the God particle were predicted long ago.

In the next 2 years we are going to intersect a comet, which might be the most astonishing thing the human race has ever been capable of, and reach orbit on a dwarf planet in the asteroid belt. 1 year and a half from now we'll have close up photos of Pluto. A human might walk on mars in the next 20 years.

But that's just engineering and it's stupid right?

You think applied science is dead? Strip the funding for NASA and the rest of the world's major scientific institutions that humanity's best minds aspire to and it will be.
[MENTION=21679]william the wie[/MENTION]

 

[CrusaderFrank]

This stunning infographic shows where our 25 active space missions are - The Week

We have satellites orbiting Mercury, Venus, The Moon, Mars and Saturn. We have rovers exploring the surface of Mars and Voyager probes 11 Billion miles away

Be fun to send a probe to Europa

 

[ScienceRocks]

Be fun to spread humanity throughout our solar system and up our odds

 

[william the wie]

We're not talking pure science we are talking engineering. Even applied science is slowing way down as time goes on. An oldie but goodie on the subject would be "The Third Industrial Revolution" by G. Harry Stine 1975. We out ran the technologies constraint in the 1960s and no pure and very few applied scientific breakthroughs have happened since the 1960s usually the anti-virals are the usual example cited for recent breakthroughs in applied science. No new principles of pure hard science outside of neurology have been uncovered in the past 40 years. And most applied science such as the God particle were predicted long ago.

In the next 2 years we are going to intersect a comet, which might be the most astonishing thing the human race has ever been capable of, and reach orbit on a dwarf planet in the asteroid belt. 1 year and a half from now we'll have close up photos of Pluto. A human might walk on mars in the next 20 years.

But that's just engineering and it's stupid right?

You think applied science is dead? Strip the funding for NASA and the rest of the world's major scientific institutions that humanity's best minds aspire to and it will be.
[MENTION=21679]william the wie[/MENTION]

Have you ever worked engineering? The last major advance in mathematics was Chaos, discovered in the meterological department of MIT, which was last I checked an engineering school.

 

[TheOldSchool]

We're not talking pure science we are talking engineering. Even applied science is slowing way down as time goes on. An oldie but goodie on the subject would be "The Third Industrial Revolution" by G. Harry Stine 1975. We out ran the technologies constraint in the 1960s and no pure and very few applied scientific breakthroughs have happened since the 1960s usually the anti-virals are the usual example cited for recent breakthroughs in applied science. No new principles of pure hard science outside of neurology have been uncovered in the past 40 years. And most applied science such as the God particle were predicted long ago.

In the next 2 years we are going to intersect a comet, which might be the most astonishing thing the human race has ever been capable of, and reach orbit on a dwarf planet in the asteroid belt. 1 year and a half from now we'll have close up photos of Pluto. A human might walk on mars in the next 20 years.

But that's just engineering and it's stupid right?

You think applied science is dead? Strip the funding for NASA and the rest of the world's major scientific institutions that humanity's best minds aspire to and it will be.
[MENTION=21679]william the wie[/MENTION]

Have you ever worked engineering? The last major advance in mathematics was Chaos, discovered in the meterological department of MIT, which was last I checked an engineering school.

Hows about you apply your infinite wisdom and help get us a couple permanent settlements on the moon and mars?

 

[rightwinger]

This stunning infographic shows where our 25 active space missions are - The Week

We have satellites orbiting Mercury, Venus, The Moon, Mars and Saturn. We have rovers exploring the surface of Mars and Voyager probes 11 Billion miles away

Be fun to send a probe to Europa

Be fun to send a probe to Uranus

 

[Delta4Embassy]

This stunning infographic shows where our 25 active space missions are - The Week

We have satellites orbiting Mercury, Venus, The Moon, Mars and Saturn. We have rovers exploring the surface of Mars and Voyager probes 11 Billion miles away

And the ISS for covert meetings with aliens.

 

[SmedlyButler]

This stunning infographic shows where our 25 active space missions are - The Week

We have satellites orbiting Mercury, Venus, The Moon, Mars and Saturn. We have rovers exploring the surface of Mars and Voyager probes 11 Billion miles away

Be fun to send a probe to Europa

Be fun to send a probe to Uranus

That probe almost went right over my head.

 

[rdean]

In the next 2 years we are going to intersect a comet, which might be the most astonishing thing the human race has ever been capable of, and reach orbit on a dwarf planet in the asteroid belt. 1 year and a half from now we'll have close up photos of Pluto. A human might walk on mars in the next 20 years.

But that's just engineering and it's stupid right?

You think applied science is dead? Strip the funding for NASA and the rest of the world's major scientific institutions that humanity's best minds aspire to and it will be.
[MENTION=21679]william the wie[/MENTION]

Have you ever worked engineering? The last major advance in mathematics was Chaos, discovered in the meterological department of MIT, which was last I checked an engineering school.

Hows about you apply your infinite wisdom and help get us a couple permanent settlements on the moon and mars?

Mars, yes, the moon? Not so sure. I read that the moon may be covered with a thin layer of dust, but the moon itself was so hot that when it did cool, it became very solid and that makes it difficult to dig. And it left the heavier metals near the center of the planet so mining is probably costly and worthless. Mining asteroids probably makes more sense. We would have to figure out how to guide them and make them stop spinning.

Perhaps we go with building a huge space station instead. With such a small amount of gravity, it takes an equally small amount of energy to move things around. You could actually build giant rotating arms which could create gravity for living quarters and the hub, for cheap manufacturing and assembly. It's just a thought.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Have you ever worked engineering? The last major advance in mathematics was Chaos, discovered in the meterological department of MIT, which was last I checked an engineering school.

Hows about you apply your infinite wisdom and help get us a couple permanent settlements on the moon and mars?

Mars, yes, the moon? Not so sure. I read that the moon may be covered with a thin layer of dust, but the moon itself was so hot that when it did cool, it became very solid and that makes it difficult to dig. And it left the heavier metals near the center of the planet so mining is probably costly and worthless. Mining asteroids probably makes more sense. We would have to figure out how to guide them and make them stop spinning.

Perhaps we go with building a huge space station instead. With such a small amount of gravity, it takes an equally small amount of energy to move things around. You could actually build giant rotating arms which could create gravity for living quarters and the hub, for cheap manufacturing and assembly. It's just a thought.

I think the Lunar dust has tons of heavy metals and rare elements and yes, it is very hard to dig through.

I think Heinlein had some ideas on mining in the "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress"

 

[william the wie]

Have you ever worked engineering? The last major advance in mathematics was Chaos, discovered in the meterological department of MIT, which was last I checked an engineering school.

Hows about you apply your infinite wisdom and help get us a couple permanent settlements on the moon and mars?

Mars, yes, the moon? Not so sure. I read that the moon may be covered with a thin layer of dust, but the moon itself was so hot that when it did cool, it became very solid and that makes it difficult to dig. And it left the heavier metals near the center of the planet so mining is probably costly and worthless. Mining asteroids probably makes more sense. We would have to figure out how to guide them and make them stop spinning.

Perhaps we go with building a huge space station instead. With such a small amount of gravity, it takes an equally small amount of energy to move things around. You could actually build giant rotating arms which could create gravity for living quarters and the hub, for cheap manufacturing and assembly. It's just a thought.

It would need a clean up of orbiting trash and garbage to pull off but otherwise quite doable.