Space news and Exploration II

[ScienceRocks]

Kepler is now recovered and stable.

Mission Manager Update: Kepler Recovered from Emergency and Stable

 

[mamooth]

Air Force weather satellite explodes in orbit -- Defense Systems

Interesting, that such an old satellite still had enough energy stored inside to literally explode.

 

[sealybobo]

You are aware of course that Obama with support of the Democrats stripped NASA of anyway to reach orbit or space? We must hire private enterprise to deliver materials to the space station and must use Russia to send people into space.

We have no space vehicle and no plans to make another. Ohh did I mention that Obama and the democrats cut NASA's budget to the bone?

Where's the money to come from? Oh yeah it's all Obama's fault. How about taking a few billion from the military's 700b.? After all with a Nasa budget of around 17b, 2 or 3b would be a real shot in the arm.Congress got the will to do that? Do you Sarge?

"A NASA authorization bill drafted by the Republican majority of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology proposes to slash NASA's funding to $16.6 billion for 2014 — $300 million less than it received in 2013, and $1.1 billion less than President Obama requested for NASA in 2014. The bill — which authorizes spending levels but provides no actual funding — would roll back NASA’s funding to a level $1.2 billion less than its 2012 budget."

LINK: Space.com

2aguy is on another thread trying to make the same argument that liberals hate space travel.

Clearly the corporations must be eyeballing this and seeing how they can make a fortune ripping us off in space and here

I've given up. I love exploration and seeing this nation leading in science but that is coming to a end. Maybe I'll personally watch China do these things as we go backwards.

Don't give up.

Finding a new planet that orbits a distant star isn't such a big deal anymore — astronomers have discovered around 2,000. But no one knows if any of these planets has a moon. Finding the first moon outside our solar system would be a big deal partly because when it comes to places that life could call home, moons may outnumber planets. Any alien life that's out there might well be on a moon. NASA's planet-hunting Kepler space telescope has revealed that around 2 percent of sun-like stars have a rocky planet orbiting in the region where temperatures are right for liquid water to exist. But there are five times more gaseous planets in that habitable zone and those gas giants could be orbited by smaller, potentially habitable moons. This question about the occurrence rate of moons is really salient to the question of whether we're alone in the universe or not," says Kipping. "Because it does seem that gas giants are at the right position for life more often than rocky planets."

I'd certainly like to see a moon that is at least the size of Mars," he says. "When you get to that size, then you can start talking about moons that maybe hold on to an atmosphere for a long period of time." Even in our own backyard, Jupiter and Saturn are circled by moons called Europa and Enceladus that are thought to have oceans. But whatever water might be there is hidden beneath miles of ice. For now, scientists can only wonder what might be swimming around down there. It could be that 100 years from now we'll know that the Earth is one of a handful of bodies in the solar system that’s habitable and most of them are moons.

Hot On The Trail Of Alien Moons

 

[FA_Q2]

You are aware of course that Obama with support of the Democrats stripped NASA of anyway to reach orbit or space? We must hire private enterprise to deliver materials to the space station and must use Russia to send people into space.

We have no space vehicle and no plans to make another. Ohh did I mention that Obama and the democrats cut NASA's budget to the bone?

Where's the money to come from? Oh yeah it's all Obama's fault. How about taking a few billion from the military's 700b.? After all with a Nasa budget of around 17b, 2 or 3b would be a real shot in the arm.Congress got the will to do that? Do you Sarge?

"A NASA authorization bill drafted by the Republican majority of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology proposes to slash NASA's funding to $16.6 billion for 2014 — $300 million less than it received in 2013, and $1.1 billion less than President Obama requested for NASA in 2014. The bill — which authorizes spending levels but provides no actual funding — would roll back NASA’s funding to a level $1.2 billion less than its 2012 budget."

LINK: Space.com

2aguy is on another thread trying to make the same argument that liberals hate space travel.

Clearly the corporations must be eyeballing this and seeing how they can make a fortune ripping us off in space and here

I've given up. I love exploration and seeing this nation leading in science but that is coming to a end. Maybe I'll personally watch China do these things as we go backwards.

Basically a space probe on a microchip with a sail propelled by a laser. They can reach alpha centauri in 20 years. They travel 1/5 the speed of light.

Each space probe costs as much as an iPhone.

Very interesting. That would make exploration of the closest stars very plausible and affordable.

To bad that these things will always have such a large time horizon.

 

[sealybobo]

You are aware of course that Obama with support of the Democrats stripped NASA of anyway to reach orbit or space? We must hire private enterprise to deliver materials to the space station and must use Russia to send people into space.

We have no space vehicle and no plans to make another. Ohh did I mention that Obama and the democrats cut NASA's budget to the bone?

Where's the money to come from? Oh yeah it's all Obama's fault. How about taking a few billion from the military's 700b.? After all with a Nasa budget of around 17b, 2 or 3b would be a real shot in the arm.Congress got the will to do that? Do you Sarge?

"A NASA authorization bill drafted by the Republican majority of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology proposes to slash NASA's funding to $16.6 billion for 2014 — $300 million less than it received in 2013, and $1.1 billion less than President Obama requested for NASA in 2014. The bill — which authorizes spending levels but provides no actual funding — would roll back NASA’s funding to a level $1.2 billion less than its 2012 budget."

LINK: Space.com

2aguy is on another thread trying to make the same argument that liberals hate space travel.

Clearly the corporations must be eyeballing this and seeing how they can make a fortune ripping us off in space and here

I've given up. I love exploration and seeing this nation leading in science but that is coming to a end. Maybe I'll personally watch China do these things as we go backwards.

Basically a space probe on a microchip with a sail propelled by a laser. They can reach alpha centauri in 20 years. They travel 1/5 the speed of light.

Each space probe costs as much as an iPhone.

Very interesting. That would make exploration of the closest stars very plausible and affordable.

To bad that these things will always have such a large time horizon.

What's a time horizon? They are hoping they can get them there in 20 years and send the info back in 4. That's not too long to wait.

So we have telescopes finding thousands of moons and planets that could hold life and these spaceships cost as much as an iPhone to make. We can send out as many of these chips as we want and if any life is intelligent maybe they'll find them. What would we do if we discovered a spaceship like this from another planet?

Or id love to find a planet that has everything we need but no intelligent life.

What if we found a planet with humans but they are more like native American Indians? Would we do it the same way again? I would hope not but suspect we would.

And what if they were 1% smarter than us? How would they welcome us? Would they experiment on us like we would them?

Id love a planet with no humans and no dinosaurs

 

[FA_Q2]

Where's the money to come from? Oh yeah it's all Obama's fault. How about taking a few billion from the military's 700b.? After all with a Nasa budget of around 17b, 2 or 3b would be a real shot in the arm.Congress got the will to do that? Do you Sarge?

"A NASA authorization bill drafted by the Republican majority of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology proposes to slash NASA's funding to $16.6 billion for 2014 — $300 million less than it received in 2013, and $1.1 billion less than President Obama requested for NASA in 2014. The bill — which authorizes spending levels but provides no actual funding — would roll back NASA’s funding to a level $1.2 billion less than its 2012 budget."

LINK: Space.com

2aguy is on another thread trying to make the same argument that liberals hate space travel.

Clearly the corporations must be eyeballing this and seeing how they can make a fortune ripping us off in space and here

I've given up. I love exploration and seeing this nation leading in science but that is coming to a end. Maybe I'll personally watch China do these things as we go backwards.

Basically a space probe on a microchip with a sail propelled by a laser. They can reach alpha centauri in 20 years. They travel 1/5 the speed of light.

Each space probe costs as much as an iPhone.

Very interesting. That would make exploration of the closest stars very plausible and affordable.

To bad that these things will always have such a large time horizon.

What's a time horizon? They are hoping they can get them there in 20 years and send the info back in 4. That's not too long to wait.

So we have telescopes finding thousands of moons and planets that could hold life and these spaceships cost as much as an iPhone to make. We can send out as many of these chips as we want and if any life is intelligent maybe they'll find them. What would we do if we discovered a spaceship like this from another planet?

Or id love to find a planet that has everything we need but no intelligent life.

What if we found a planet with humans but they are more like native American Indians? Would we do it the same way again? I would hope not but suspect we would.

And what if they were 1% smarter than us? How would they welcome us? Would they experiment on us like we would them?

Id love a planet with no humans and no dinosaurs

The time horizon is how long these things take to return results. In the grand scheme of things, 24 years is not long. In a lifetime, that is very long indeed. I would love to se the results of a few of these things. Unfortunately I need to wait a minimum of 24 years to do so.

It would just be nice if it were closer to a few years. Understand that 24 years is only for a single system that is as close as they get. For the vast majority of exploration, this simply would not work. Getting the results from a single system would be damn amazing though.

 

[sealybobo]

2aguy is on another thread trying to make the same argument that liberals hate space travel.

Clearly the corporations must be eyeballing this and seeing how they can make a fortune ripping us off in space and here

I've given up. I love exploration and seeing this nation leading in science but that is coming to a end. Maybe I'll personally watch China do these things as we go backwards.

Basically a space probe on a microchip with a sail propelled by a laser. They can reach alpha centauri in 20 years. They travel 1/5 the speed of light.

Each space probe costs as much as an iPhone.

Very interesting. That would make exploration of the closest stars very plausible and affordable.

To bad that these things will always have such a large time horizon.

What's a time horizon? They are hoping they can get them there in 20 years and send the info back in 4. That's not too long to wait.

So we have telescopes finding thousands of moons and planets that could hold life and these spaceships cost as much as an iPhone to make. We can send out as many of these chips as we want and if any life is intelligent maybe they'll find them. What would we do if we discovered a spaceship like this from another planet?

Or id love to find a planet that has everything we need but no intelligent life.

What if we found a planet with humans but they are more like native American Indians? Would we do it the same way again? I would hope not but suspect we would.

And what if they were 1% smarter than us? How would they welcome us? Would they experiment on us like we would them?

Id love a planet with no humans and no dinosaurs

The time horizon is how long these things take to return results. In the grand scheme of things, 24 years is not long. In a lifetime, that is very long indeed. I would love to se the results of a few of these things. Unfortunately I need to wait a minimum of 24 years to do so.

It would just be nice if it were closer to a few years. Understand that 24 years is only for a single system that is as close as they get. For the vast majority of exploration, this simply would not work. Getting the results from a single system would be damn amazing though.

Then lets focus on Europa first

Jupiter's moon Europa doesn't look like a particularly inviting place for life to thrive; the icy satellite is nearly 500 million miles (800 million kilometers) from the sun, on average.

But beneath its icy crust lies a liquid ocean with more water than Earth contains. This ocean is shielded from harmful radiation, making Europa one of the solar system's best bets to host alien life.

That's one of the reasons Europa is so alluring to scientists. It has all the elements thought to be key for the origin of life: water, energy, and organic chemicals, the carbon-containing building blocks of life, scientists said at an event called "The Lure of Europa,"

- See more at: Jupiter's Icy Moon Europa: Best Bet for Alien Life?

Hell, there's life in our solar system probably and we just don't know it yet.

6 Most Likely Places for Alien Life in the Solar System - See more at: 6 Most Likely Places for Alien Life in Solar System

A lot more moons out there than there are planets.
Why We’re Looking for Alien Life on Moons, Not Just Planets

 

[FA_Q2]

I've given up. I love exploration and seeing this nation leading in science but that is coming to a end. Maybe I'll personally watch China do these things as we go backwards.

Basically a space probe on a microchip with a sail propelled by a laser. They can reach alpha centauri in 20 years. They travel 1/5 the speed of light.

Each space probe costs as much as an iPhone.

Very interesting. That would make exploration of the closest stars very plausible and affordable.

To bad that these things will always have such a large time horizon.

What's a time horizon? They are hoping they can get them there in 20 years and send the info back in 4. That's not too long to wait.

So we have telescopes finding thousands of moons and planets that could hold life and these spaceships cost as much as an iPhone to make. We can send out as many of these chips as we want and if any life is intelligent maybe they'll find them. What would we do if we discovered a spaceship like this from another planet?

Or id love to find a planet that has everything we need but no intelligent life.

What if we found a planet with humans but they are more like native American Indians? Would we do it the same way again? I would hope not but suspect we would.

And what if they were 1% smarter than us? How would they welcome us? Would they experiment on us like we would them?

Id love a planet with no humans and no dinosaurs

The time horizon is how long these things take to return results. In the grand scheme of things, 24 years is not long. In a lifetime, that is very long indeed. I would love to se the results of a few of these things. Unfortunately I need to wait a minimum of 24 years to do so.

It would just be nice if it were closer to a few years. Understand that 24 years is only for a single system that is as close as they get. For the vast majority of exploration, this simply would not work. Getting the results from a single system would be damn amazing though.

Then lets focus on Europa first

Jupiter's moon Europa doesn't look like a particularly inviting place for life to thrive; the icy satellite is nearly 500 million miles (800 million kilometers) from the sun, on average.

But beneath its icy crust lies a liquid ocean with more water than Earth contains. This ocean is shielded from harmful radiation, making Europa one of the solar system's best bets to host alien life.

That's one of the reasons Europa is so alluring to scientists. It has all the elements thought to be key for the origin of life: water, energy, and organic chemicals, the carbon-containing building blocks of life, scientists said at an event called "The Lure of Europa,"

- See more at: Jupiter's Icy Moon Europa: Best Bet for Alien Life?

Hell, there's life in our solar system probably and we just don't know it yet.

6 Most Likely Places for Alien Life in the Solar System - See more at: 6 Most Likely Places for Alien Life in Solar System

A lot more moons out there than there are planets.
Why We’re Looking for Alien Life on Moons, Not Just Planets

I would love to see some serious research done on Europa (and other possibilities within our own solar system). I have been an advocate for increasing NASA's budget and scope by a lot for a long time.

Unfortunately, we seem to be more focused on war than science

 

[sealybobo]

Kepler is now recovered and stable.

Mission Manager Update: Kepler Recovered from Emergency and Stable

NASA's Kepler mission has verified 1,284 new planets. This is the single largest finding of planets to date. This more than doubles the number of confirmed planets from Kepler and gives us hope that somewhere out there, around a star much like ours, we can eventually discover another Earth.

Analysis was performed on the Kepler space telescope which identified 4,302 potential planets. For 1,284 of the candidates, the probability of being a planet is greater than 99 percent – the minimum required to earn the status of “planet.” An additional 1,327 candidates are more likely than not to be planets, but they do not meet the 99 percent threshold and will require additional study. The remaining 707 are more likely to be some other astrophysical phenomena. This analysis also validated 984 candidates previously verified by other techniques.

Before the Kepler space telescope launched, we did not know whether exoplanets were rare or common in the galaxy. In the newly-validated batch of planets, nearly 550 could be rocky planets like Earth, based on their size. Nine of these orbit in their sun's habitable zone, which is the distance from a star where orbiting planets can have surface temperatures that allow liquid water to pool. With the addition of these nine, 21 exoplanets now are known to be members of this exclusive group.

 

[HUGGY]

Where's the money to come from? Oh yeah it's all Obama's fault. How about taking a few billion from the military's 700b.? After all with a Nasa budget of around 17b, 2 or 3b would be a real shot in the arm.Congress got the will to do that? Do you Sarge?

"A NASA authorization bill drafted by the Republican majority of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology proposes to slash NASA's funding to $16.6 billion for 2014 — $300 million less than it received in 2013, and $1.1 billion less than President Obama requested for NASA in 2014. The bill — which authorizes spending levels but provides no actual funding — would roll back NASA’s funding to a level $1.2 billion less than its 2012 budget."

LINK: Space.com

2aguy is on another thread trying to make the same argument that liberals hate space travel.

Clearly the corporations must be eyeballing this and seeing how they can make a fortune ripping us off in space and here

I've given up. I love exploration and seeing this nation leading in science but that is coming to a end. Maybe I'll personally watch China do these things as we go backwards.

Basically a space probe on a microchip with a sail propelled by a laser. They can reach alpha centauri in 20 years. They travel 1/5 the speed of light.

Each space probe costs as much as an iPhone.

Very interesting. That would make exploration of the closest stars very plausible and affordable.

To bad that these things will always have such a large time horizon.

What's a time horizon? They are hoping they can get them there in 20 years and send the info back in 4. That's not too long to wait.

So we have telescopes finding thousands of moons and planets that could hold life and these spaceships cost as much as an iPhone to make. We can send out as many of these chips as we want and if any life is intelligent maybe they'll find them. What would we do if we discovered a spaceship like this from another planet?

Or id love to find a planet that has everything we need but no intelligent life.

What if we found a planet with humans but they are more like native American Indians? Would we do it the same way again? I would hope not but suspect we would.

And what if they were 1% smarter than us? How would they welcome us? Would they experiment on us like we would them?

Id love a planet with no humans and no dinosaurs

We would just tell ourselves that the planet or moon had huge deposits of gold or diamonds or some other expensive desirable stuff right on the surface so any explorer volunteers would become instantly incredibly wealthy for their efforts.

 

[FA_Q2]

2aguy is on another thread trying to make the same argument that liberals hate space travel.

Clearly the corporations must be eyeballing this and seeing how they can make a fortune ripping us off in space and here

I've given up. I love exploration and seeing this nation leading in science but that is coming to a end. Maybe I'll personally watch China do these things as we go backwards.

Basically a space probe on a microchip with a sail propelled by a laser. They can reach alpha centauri in 20 years. They travel 1/5 the speed of light.

Each space probe costs as much as an iPhone.

Very interesting. That would make exploration of the closest stars very plausible and affordable.

To bad that these things will always have such a large time horizon.

What's a time horizon? They are hoping they can get them there in 20 years and send the info back in 4. That's not too long to wait.

So we have telescopes finding thousands of moons and planets that could hold life and these spaceships cost as much as an iPhone to make. We can send out as many of these chips as we want and if any life is intelligent maybe they'll find them. What would we do if we discovered a spaceship like this from another planet?

Or id love to find a planet that has everything we need but no intelligent life.

What if we found a planet with humans but they are more like native American Indians? Would we do it the same way again? I would hope not but suspect we would.

And what if they were 1% smarter than us? How would they welcome us? Would they experiment on us like we would them?

Id love a planet with no humans and no dinosaurs

We would just tell ourselves that the planet or moon had huge deposits of gold or diamonds or some other expensive desirable stuff right on the surface so any explorer volunteers would become instantly incredibly wealthy for their efforts.

Meh - there is already something far more valuable on any garden world than those - land.

 

[sealybobo]

You are aware of course that Obama with support of the Democrats stripped NASA of anyway to reach orbit or space? We must hire private enterprise to deliver materials to the space station and must use Russia to send people into space.

We have no space vehicle and no plans to make another. Ohh did I mention that Obama and the democrats cut NASA's budget to the bone?

Where's the money to come from? Oh yeah it's all Obama's fault. How about taking a few billion from the military's 700b.? After all with a Nasa budget of around 17b, 2 or 3b would be a real shot in the arm.Congress got the will to do that? Do you Sarge?

"A NASA authorization bill drafted by the Republican majority of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology proposes to slash NASA's funding to $16.6 billion for 2014 — $300 million less than it received in 2013, and $1.1 billion less than President Obama requested for NASA in 2014. The bill — which authorizes spending levels but provides no actual funding — would roll back NASA’s funding to a level $1.2 billion less than its 2012 budget."

LINK: Space.com

2aguy is on another thread trying to make the same argument that liberals hate space travel.

Clearly the corporations must be eyeballing this and seeing how they can make a fortune ripping us off in space and here

I've given up. I love exploration and seeing this nation leading in science but that is coming to a end. Maybe I'll personally watch China do these things as we go backwards.

Basically a space probe on a microchip with a sail propelled by a laser. They can reach alpha centauri in 20 years. They travel 1/5 the speed of light.

Each space probe costs as much as an iPhone.

Very interesting. That would make exploration of the closest stars very plausible and affordable.

To bad that these things will always have such a large time horizon.

We are such a young species on the cusp of enlightenment. Will we blow ourselves up first?

We go back 7 million years and only in the last 50,000 we've advanced very rapidly but we always suffer setbacks. That's the rich and religions and Kings causing war.

 

[sealybobo]

I've given up. I love exploration and seeing this nation leading in science but that is coming to a end. Maybe I'll personally watch China do these things as we go backwards.

Basically a space probe on a microchip with a sail propelled by a laser. They can reach alpha centauri in 20 years. They travel 1/5 the speed of light.

Each space probe costs as much as an iPhone.

Very interesting. That would make exploration of the closest stars very plausible and affordable.

To bad that these things will always have such a large time horizon.

What's a time horizon? They are hoping they can get them there in 20 years and send the info back in 4. That's not too long to wait.

So we have telescopes finding thousands of moons and planets that could hold life and these spaceships cost as much as an iPhone to make. We can send out as many of these chips as we want and if any life is intelligent maybe they'll find them. What would we do if we discovered a spaceship like this from another planet?

Or id love to find a planet that has everything we need but no intelligent life.

What if we found a planet with humans but they are more like native American Indians? Would we do it the same way again? I would hope not but suspect we would.

And what if they were 1% smarter than us? How would they welcome us? Would they experiment on us like we would them?

Id love a planet with no humans and no dinosaurs

We would just tell ourselves that the planet or moon had huge deposits of gold or diamonds or some other expensive desirable stuff right on the surface so any explorer volunteers would become instantly incredibly wealthy for their efforts.

Meh - there is already something far more valuable on any garden world than those - land.

We will locate a planet that's ripe and send our seed ship to somehow get man there so we can reproduce and populate that planet. Its what humans do. We didn't stay in England we settled the west. I would go.

 

[FA_Q2]

Basically a space probe on a microchip with a sail propelled by a laser. They can reach alpha centauri in 20 years. They travel 1/5 the speed of light.

Each space probe costs as much as an iPhone.

Very interesting. That would make exploration of the closest stars very plausible and affordable.

To bad that these things will always have such a large time horizon.

What's a time horizon? They are hoping they can get them there in 20 years and send the info back in 4. That's not too long to wait.

So we have telescopes finding thousands of moons and planets that could hold life and these spaceships cost as much as an iPhone to make. We can send out as many of these chips as we want and if any life is intelligent maybe they'll find them. What would we do if we discovered a spaceship like this from another planet?

Or id love to find a planet that has everything we need but no intelligent life.

What if we found a planet with humans but they are more like native American Indians? Would we do it the same way again? I would hope not but suspect we would.

And what if they were 1% smarter than us? How would they welcome us? Would they experiment on us like we would them?

Id love a planet with no humans and no dinosaurs

We would just tell ourselves that the planet or moon had huge deposits of gold or diamonds or some other expensive desirable stuff right on the surface so any explorer volunteers would become instantly incredibly wealthy for their efforts.

Meh - there is already something far more valuable on any garden world than those - land.

We will locate a planet that's ripe and send our seed ship to somehow get man there so we can reproduce and populate that planet. Its what humans do. We didn't stay in England we settled the west. I would go.

Yes we will. I would go in a heartbeat as well. There is nothing quite like the idea of expanding to a new frontier. We are explorers by nature - it is built into us.

We are such a young species on the cusp of enlightenment. Will we blow ourselves up first?

We go back 7 million years and only in the last 50,000 we've advanced very rapidly but we always suffer setbacks. That's the rich and religions and Kings causing war.

I do not know if we will blow ourselves up first or not but I do know that the only way to survive as a species will be to, at one point, expand onto other planets.

Right now we are dependent on the earth. When it dies - we die. Something as simple as a bad solar flare could end the entire human race as we know it. Once we have moved out of the solar system, we will no longer be dependent on any singular entity or event.

 

[sealybobo]

Very interesting. That would make exploration of the closest stars very plausible and affordable.

To bad that these things will always have such a large time horizon.

What's a time horizon? They are hoping they can get them there in 20 years and send the info back in 4. That's not too long to wait.

So we have telescopes finding thousands of moons and planets that could hold life and these spaceships cost as much as an iPhone to make. We can send out as many of these chips as we want and if any life is intelligent maybe they'll find them. What would we do if we discovered a spaceship like this from another planet?

Or id love to find a planet that has everything we need but no intelligent life.

What if we found a planet with humans but they are more like native American Indians? Would we do it the same way again? I would hope not but suspect we would.

And what if they were 1% smarter than us? How would they welcome us? Would they experiment on us like we would them?

Id love a planet with no humans and no dinosaurs

We would just tell ourselves that the planet or moon had huge deposits of gold or diamonds or some other expensive desirable stuff right on the surface so any explorer volunteers would become instantly incredibly wealthy for their efforts.

Meh - there is already something far more valuable on any garden world than those - land.

We will locate a planet that's ripe and send our seed ship to somehow get man there so we can reproduce and populate that planet. Its what humans do. We didn't stay in England we settled the west. I would go.

Yes we will. I would go in a heartbeat as well. There is nothing quite like the idea of expanding to a new frontier. We are explorers by nature - it is built into us.

We are such a young species on the cusp of enlightenment. Will we blow ourselves up first?

We go back 7 million years and only in the last 50,000 we've advanced very rapidly but we always suffer setbacks. That's the rich and religions and Kings causing war.

I do not know if we will blow ourselves up first or not but I do know that the only way to survive as a species will be to, at one point, expand onto other planets.

Right now we are dependent on the earth. When it dies - we die. Something as simple as a bad solar flare could end the entire human race as we know it. Once we have moved out of the solar system, we will no longer be dependent on any singular entity or event.

1. Any planet we find will one day die too.

2. Maybe we need multiple planet size spacecrafts. That's why I'm excited about mars. Easier to mine asteroids from Mars. Need lots of steel to build a planet size spaceship. Not really a planet but small moon. Hundreds of them.

3.What about in 10 billion years when the last star in our universe dies? Maybe we will blow ourselves up and that will cause the next big bang. But seriously what happens at the end of our universe? 13 billion down ten billion to go so they say

 

[FA_Q2]

1. Any planet we find will one day die too.

Irrelevant. It will not doe at the same time. Right now we are at the mercy of a single sunspot, asteroid or a million other astrological disasters that we can do nothing about.

2. Maybe we need multiple planet size spacecrafts. That's why I'm excited about mars. Easier to mine asteroids from Mars. Need lots of steel to build a planet size spaceship. Not really a planet but small moon. Hundreds of them.

That is a much further off idea and only in the realm of sci-fi. Not going to say impossible but we have much simpler things to tackle first.

3.What about in 10 billion years when the last star in our universe dies? Maybe we will blow ourselves up and that will cause the next big bang. But seriously what happens at the end of our universe? 13 billion down ten billion to go so they say

Who knows. Who knows what life may look like in that time. I would doubt we would be able to recognize what we were if we managed to actually stick around that long. That is a time frame that is mind boggling particularly considering how fast technology moves.

 

[HUGGY]

I've given up. I love exploration and seeing this nation leading in science but that is coming to a end. Maybe I'll personally watch China do these things as we go backwards.

Basically a space probe on a microchip with a sail propelled by a laser. They can reach alpha centauri in 20 years. They travel 1/5 the speed of light.

Each space probe costs as much as an iPhone.

Very interesting. That would make exploration of the closest stars very plausible and affordable.

To bad that these things will always have such a large time horizon.

What's a time horizon? They are hoping they can get them there in 20 years and send the info back in 4. That's not too long to wait.

So we have telescopes finding thousands of moons and planets that could hold life and these spaceships cost as much as an iPhone to make. We can send out as many of these chips as we want and if any life is intelligent maybe they'll find them. What would we do if we discovered a spaceship like this from another planet?

Or id love to find a planet that has everything we need but no intelligent life.

What if we found a planet with humans but they are more like native American Indians? Would we do it the same way again? I would hope not but suspect we would.

And what if they were 1% smarter than us? How would they welcome us? Would they experiment on us like we would them?

Id love a planet with no humans and no dinosaurs

We would just tell ourselves that the planet or moon had huge deposits of gold or diamonds or some other expensive desirable stuff right on the surface so any explorer volunteers would become instantly incredibly wealthy for their efforts.

Meh - there is already something far more valuable on any garden world than those - land.

It will take a VERY long time to get any appreciable number of people to hop on a space craft and travel possibly for 2 or three generations just so they can have more elbow room.

 

[sealybobo]

Basically a space probe on a microchip with a sail propelled by a laser. They can reach alpha centauri in 20 years. They travel 1/5 the speed of light.

Each space probe costs as much as an iPhone.

Very interesting. That would make exploration of the closest stars very plausible and affordable.

To bad that these things will always have such a large time horizon.

What's a time horizon? They are hoping they can get them there in 20 years and send the info back in 4. That's not too long to wait.

So we have telescopes finding thousands of moons and planets that could hold life and these spaceships cost as much as an iPhone to make. We can send out as many of these chips as we want and if any life is intelligent maybe they'll find them. What would we do if we discovered a spaceship like this from another planet?

Or id love to find a planet that has everything we need but no intelligent life.

What if we found a planet with humans but they are more like native American Indians? Would we do it the same way again? I would hope not but suspect we would.

And what if they were 1% smarter than us? How would they welcome us? Would they experiment on us like we would them?

Id love a planet with no humans and no dinosaurs

We would just tell ourselves that the planet or moon had huge deposits of gold or diamonds or some other expensive desirable stuff right on the surface so any explorer volunteers would become instantly incredibly wealthy for their efforts.

Meh - there is already something far more valuable on any garden world than those - land.

It will take a VERY long time to get any appreciable number of people to hop on a space craft and travel possibly for 2 or three generations just so they can have more elbow room.

As long as they have that hologram room like they did on star trek next generation. Imagine a room where anything you want can happen.

 

[HUGGY]

Basically a space probe on a microchip with a sail propelled by a laser. They can reach alpha centauri in 20 years. They travel 1/5 the speed of light.

Each space probe costs as much as an iPhone.

Very interesting. That would make exploration of the closest stars very plausible and affordable.

To bad that these things will always have such a large time horizon.

What's a time horizon? They are hoping they can get them there in 20 years and send the info back in 4. That's not too long to wait.

So we have telescopes finding thousands of moons and planets that could hold life and these spaceships cost as much as an iPhone to make. We can send out as many of these chips as we want and if any life is intelligent maybe they'll find them. What would we do if we discovered a spaceship like this from another planet?

Or id love to find a planet that has everything we need but no intelligent life.

What if we found a planet with humans but they are more like native American Indians? Would we do it the same way again? I would hope not but suspect we would.

And what if they were 1% smarter than us? How would they welcome us? Would they experiment on us like we would them?

Id love a planet with no humans and no dinosaurs

We would just tell ourselves that the planet or moon had huge deposits of gold or diamonds or some other expensive desirable stuff right on the surface so any explorer volunteers would become instantly incredibly wealthy for their efforts.

Meh - there is already something far more valuable on any garden world than those - land.

We will locate a planet that's ripe and send our seed ship to somehow get man there so we can reproduce and populate that planet. Its what humans do. We didn't stay in England we settled the west. I would go.

Most likely any voyage of that type would require a few generations in time to complete. Maybe some kind of suspended animation where the participants are "frozen" for the greatest part of the voyage. It sounds risky to me. Maybe a rotation of "live" people at the wheel in case the unforeseen happens. I wouldn't trust 100% in automation for such an endeavor.

 

[sealybobo]

Very interesting. That would make exploration of the closest stars very plausible and affordable.

To bad that these things will always have such a large time horizon.

What's a time horizon? They are hoping they can get them there in 20 years and send the info back in 4. That's not too long to wait.

So we have telescopes finding thousands of moons and planets that could hold life and these spaceships cost as much as an iPhone to make. We can send out as many of these chips as we want and if any life is intelligent maybe they'll find them. What would we do if we discovered a spaceship like this from another planet?

Or id love to find a planet that has everything we need but no intelligent life.

What if we found a planet with humans but they are more like native American Indians? Would we do it the same way again? I would hope not but suspect we would.

And what if they were 1% smarter than us? How would they welcome us? Would they experiment on us like we would them?

Id love a planet with no humans and no dinosaurs

We would just tell ourselves that the planet or moon had huge deposits of gold or diamonds or some other expensive desirable stuff right on the surface so any explorer volunteers would become instantly incredibly wealthy for their efforts.

Meh - there is already something far more valuable on any garden world than those - land.

We will locate a planet that's ripe and send our seed ship to somehow get man there so we can reproduce and populate that planet. Its what humans do. We didn't stay in England we settled the west. I would go.

Most likely any voyage of that type would require a few generations in time to complete. Maybe some kind of suspended animation where the participants are "frozen" for the greatest part of the voyage. It sounds risky to me. Maybe a rotation of "live" people at the wheel in case the unforeseen happens. I wouldn't trust 100% in automation for such an endeavor.

You made me think what if we had eggs and spirm and robots and baby formula and all the technology for robots to raise the humans once the ship arrives.