Planets that are possibly Habitable, BUT are within our neighborhood.

Planets that are possibly Habitable, BUT are within our neighborhood. ;) Within 25 light years!

Tau Ceti 11.9 light years


Tau Ceti e - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia

Tau Ceti f - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia

Kapteyn at 12.8 light years

Kapteyn b - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia

Kapteyn b is within the estimated habitable zone of its star.[2] It is the closest suspected habitable exoplanet to our solar system other than Tau Ceti e

Gliese 682 c at 16 light years!

Gliese 682 c - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia

Gliese 667Cc 22.7 light years
Gliese 667 Cc - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia

Moot. Would take 70,000 years or so to get to Proxima @ 4.2 ly
 
No, we are hardly in the position to talk about exploring planets around other stars, except with our telescopes. That will require a trans-C drive, if such is possible. We have the capability to explore our own solar system, however. Doing so will require a good deal of resources and our best minds. Thus far, no nation has shown the determination to use space exploration as anything but a national ego trip. When we really get serious, we will find within our own solar system, many wonders. Cheaper than war, and the returns are so much greater.
 
No, we are hardly in the position to talk about exploring planets around other stars, except with our telescopes. That will require a trans-C drive, if such is possible. We have the capability to explore our own solar system, however. Doing so will require a good deal of resources and our best minds. Thus far, no nation has shown the determination to use space exploration as anything but a national ego trip. When we really get serious, we will find within our own solar system, many wonders. Cheaper than war, and the returns are so much greater.

Um, no we don't. Away from the Earth's protective magnetic field you're subejct to unfiltered solar radiation. While you could go to Mars or other planets, you wouldn't be alive long enough to make it back. To say nothing of how even in low-orbit the shuttle gets pelted by micrometeorites. An inter-planetary trip going much faster would result in a much more powerful kinetic energy impact. Your ship would be destroyed.

Robotic exploration is the only near-term possibility. Sending people is redundant. A ship has to be much bigger, slower, and inefficient to keep its crew alive. Minus the crew, can be smaller, cheaper, faster, and pack in more science than life-support.

Love the idea and all, but it's impractical right now. Plus, until we learn how to live ecologically on this planet, I don't think going to other ones makes much sense.
 
I think we would be better off looking for resources on nearby planets in our own solar system to make this one a better place to live.

Looking to steal from other planets? :) You cannot help being you :)
Yeah, that would be unfair to all those invisible people living on the planets, wouldn't it? Excellent point, genius. :rolleyes:
 
I think we would be better off looking for resources on nearby planets in our own solar system to make this one a better place to live.

Looking to steal from other planets? :) You cannot help being you :)

They're ours for the taken. ;) We're the intelligent life form in this solar system. Sick of this leftist argument and more so that there's nothing more then possible simple life.
 
The problem isn't the want, the problem is the how. With current state of the rocketry, it'd take us 100,000 years just to travel to the star nearest our own, Proxima Centauri, 4.2 light years away.
Yeah, this just isn't gonna happen unless the method of warping space/time suddenly occurs to us.

.

A anti-matter ship can do 10% of C. So around 42-50 years to get there....Why not start doing the testing?
 
The problem isn't the want, the problem is the how. With current state of the rocketry, it'd take us 100,000 years just to travel to the star nearest our own, Proxima Centauri, 4.2 light years away.
Yeah, this just isn't gonna happen unless the method of warping space/time suddenly occurs to us.

.

A anti-matter ship can do 10% of C. So around 42-50 years to get there....Why not start doing the testing?

What testing? How much radiation is found in open space? What's the impact energy of a grain fo sand at 10% c? I don't know how much off the top of my head but I imagine it's rather a lot. :)
 
From geeks geekier than I:

"A .50cal Browning (heavy machinegun round) has a muzzle energy of about 18,000J.

A 0.5mg (milligram) grain of sand moving at 1000 kilometers per second (a tiny, tiny fraction of the speed of light) has a kinetic energy of 250,000J."

10% light is 30,000KM/sec so 30 times 250KJ equals 7.5 million Joules.

"Although this is a lot of energy, there is an interesting question about what would actually happen on impact and how the energy would be dissipated. Would the speck punch a hole? Make a dent? Explode what it touched? Just burst into a splat of atoms and disperse?"

We know what would happen from ballistics testing of tiny rocks simulating meteorite impacts. In the words of one of the doctor guys in the opening scene of "Ultraviolet,"

"Nothing good." :)

Even very low-mass rocks impacting at hyper sonic velocity create relatively large explosions ejcting plasma sparks and resembling a grenade explosion (half stick of TNT.) And those are just pebbles at ~25,000 MPH impacts as with meteorites. A grain of sand at 10% C is gonna put a stop to your trip really well.

On the upside, it'll kill you so fast there wont be time to worry about it.
 

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