Space...the final frontier

[Dupree00]

I always forget that there are things happening on Mars.

MARS MISSION: The Search for Life
Touchdown! Phoenix safe on Mars as cheers erupt

In minutes, it decelerates from 12,700 mph to 5, lands smoothly

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...MNR010TK48.DTL

[Capt. Fantastic]

Which brings up a (seriously non-LOS) topic. Sort of a pet peeve of mine if one must know.

To wit, this article, by Professor Steven Weinberg, a Nobel laureate in Physics (1979), asks the very reasonable question: "What is the value of sending human beings into space?"

Dr. Weinberg points out, clearly, that manned exploration is a total, absolute, monetary black hole. There are essentially zero benefits derived from such missions... with Tang perhaps the only exception.

Travel to the planets-- Mars and the Moon, presumably-- is complex beyond imagination. The trip to Mars takes nine months cooped up in a tiny spacecraft. Then what? No way to sustain life once there, aside from what was packed along. A self-supporting group of "space colonists" (to use a Soviet phrase before they got smart and exited the Space Race) must somehow manufacture oxygen and water THEN worry about food. Their only mission could be to set up some robotic experiments then come back. See the problem? Why not just send robots in the first place?

As far as "travel to the stars" that is pure science fiction. For one thing, we can never even know if the stars are still THERE... since the light we are seeing is thousands or millions of years old. What are they like now, or is there anything out there? (Note: The speed of light is the absolute limit as to how fast anything can move.)

We are stuck-- for all time-- on this planet. The sooner the average voter realizes this the sooner we can make the hard "where do we spend our money" decisions. Robotic exploration of space is smart and cost-effective.

But I could be wrong. The science fiction reader in me hopes so.

My .75 baht.

[Dupree00]

I'd say the reason we are traveling to these planets is potential mining for Natural Resources. It just sounds more romantic and great PR to say we're looking for new life. Which could possibly be a discovery of an advancement in medical treatments. But the hypocracy in that lies in the fact that we are destroying life in the Amazon along with possible undiscoverd cures for terminal diseases on our own planet.

[Latino4life]

Originally Posted by Capt. Fantastic

As far as "travel to the stars" that is pure science fiction.

Everything complex enough to seem unreachable at the moment is sci fi, not so long ago it was pure madness to believe we could put a man on the moon, just half a century ago a "computer" was the size of a house and could pretty much just add and substrate... Where would computer science be now if people would think R&D is a waste of money. I agree with Dupree and also think the Mars missions have to do alot more with mining and natural resources than looking for life.

[Nicke]

I was reading NASA website 4 hours after the successful landing this morning, it will be interesting to see the outcome of it. Mind you, the last two attempts to do this failed and now we seems to have a successful attempt.

Would be great if Mars could be a second place for life in the future. Although I guess the conditions too bad for that, but still worth a research and to know more.

[MassMoose]

Hope they find oil somewhere. Then I will be happy with all this space exploration. 55555 Gas is so dam expensive! 5555

[Capt. Fantastic]

This page deals with Faster Than Light travel and is from the Usenet Physics FAQ.

Do not confuse, "Computer, arm phasers!" with the real world.

[Petter]

Would be great if Mars could be a second place for life in the future.

And you complain about Scandi

As on Earth, weather conditions on Mars depend on location and season. In
general, Mars is cooler, breezier, and much much drier than Earth.
Warmest temperatures probably occur in the southern subtropical
latitudes during late summer and may get up to the freezing point
(32F) at midday. Coolest temperatures occur in the winter polar
regions where it remains close to a whopping 190F BELOW ZERO for
months at a time!

Because of the cold temperatures (and low surface pressures, ~7 mb),
the atmosphere cannot hold much water so clouds tend to be thinner
and almost certainly do not produce rain. On the other hand, such dry
conditions allow dust particles to remain in the atmosphere for a
long time. These dust particles are lifted off the surface by
hurricane force winds. Occasionally the entire planet is engulfed by
a dust storm and surface features can be completely obscured

[LivinLOS]

I think its a natural and admirable part of the human animal to desire to explore and push his boundries..

I do however wish that the same money could be invested into ways we could live more sustainably here on this planet.. Ways we could make cleaner energy, produce foods with a lower energy requirement and environmental impact, basically use what we have less wastefully.

I am sure it would be fair easier to colonize the oceans floors or the frozen tundras than it would be to do the same on Mars but perhaps the spin off from the above attempts will help.

[landofsmiles]

Incredible achievement to have sent this>>>




...somewhere between 36 and 250 MILLION miles and land it successfully...how far was it actually? because there is a variation in distance of 214 MILLION miles depending on the time of year between Earth and Mars! Presumably they've sent it over one of the shorter distances but I've seen one report that says it travelled 420MILLION miles to get there...so it must have gone the scenic route. Maybe a Bangkok taxidriver was operating the controls. Even more incredible is that it can be operated remotely over such a vast distance.

Makes you think that if WE can do it that there are other far more advanced civilisations out there somewhere in the cosmos and that we really HAVE been visited in the past by them and they probably found us to be so primitive they haven't bothered to come back!

[Minder]

Considering who we are and what this forum is usually about I could not pass up the chance to use this quote:

"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."
Oscar Wilde

[gollygosh]

Originally Posted by Capt. Fantastic

Faster Than Light

Thank you!!! i struggled thru it but i'm really glad i did. Can't wait to read again