Space In General

[Dan_]

2034? That line made me finally realize how my and everyone else's life will change significantly over the next dozens of years. If we manage to make it to the year 2070+, imagine where we'll be at in space technology.

For the last 30 years, there were advancements made in commercializing space and many technologies were matured , but there are few(or none at all) breakthroughs which could lead to a massive wave of cheaper and more efficient scientific exploration. Surely, there were very well thought out missions, like Kepler, Cassini and so on, but nothing earth-shaking like the Apollo programme, excepting perhaps the landing of the 1t MSL on Mars and the yet to be completed Webb telescope. Nearly all of them solely NASA efforts.

Reusable rockets, Manegtoplasma rocket, Space based nuclear reactor, Deep space habs with full closed loop life support systems, Solar electric propulsion, SABRE... All of them are promising technologies which haven't matured into the 'doable' category yet. I expect if they do in the next decade or so we'll have a massive boost in planetary exploration, I honestly hope they get proper funding and support from the governments and space agencies worldwide.

The chinese and indians are upping their exploratory games too, so there are more possibilities there for knowledge to be gathered, and I hope they keep up with their space programs.

Life is more exciting when there are new discoveries and paradigms to be broken.

 

[Gonales]

2034? That line made me finally realize how my and everyone else's life will change significantly over the next dozens of years. If we manage to make it to the year 2070+, imagine where we'll be at in space technology. Imagine us finding life, if ever. All these discoveries that might signal life... it could be within hundreds of years from now, or soon, that we'll ever find extraterrestrial life.

We won't make it that far. It took thousands of years for the first billion people to live, now we're on 7 billion. In 2034 or something (cant recall correctly), we will be on 10. 50 years later, we will be on 20. The human expansion is way to big to develop and keep developing like this for another 200 years.

That said, the only way we are getting a lot further with science etc, is if wars amongst ourselves force us to develop as fast as possible, exactly like what happened with WW1, and WW2.

I do believe there is life out there, considering how much planets, and galaxies are out there.

For those that are interested and haven't watched it already, I'd advise you to watch : Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking. I loved it.

 

[Liquid]

RIP Sir Patrick Moore.

Astronomy has lost a legend.

 

[CodeRedR51]

"Dud" photographs from Apollo 11.

http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a11/a11_eva_thumbs.html

 

[Zenith]

The way the horizon is so close is surreal. Sweet.

 

[G.T.Ace]

Asteroid Toutatis Fly-By!
http://events.slooh.com/

 

[nealcropper]

How do I see this? And how will I show my daughter!

 

[CodeRedR51]

The Grail spacecraft "end of mission commentary" from NASA is starting now.

http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2

 

[CodeRedR51]

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/whycassini/cassini20121218.html

 

[Brett]

The pictures sent back by Cassini of Saturn and Saturn's moons are just awesome.

 

[nealcropper]

The pictures sent back by Cassini of Saturn and Saturn's moons are just awesome.

I agree. They are truly splendid. Loving how they positioned it in the planets shadow to get the backlit effect. Awesomeness.

 

[niky]

That's it. All NASA flybys from now on should be programmed by photographers. That is abso-fricking-lutely gorgeous!

 

[CodeRedR51]

Life supporting planets just 12 light years away?

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn23021-nearby-tau-ceti-may-host-two-planets-suited-to-life.html

 

[Dennisch]

just 12 light years

That smiley doesn't work too well with a Christmas hat.

 

[CodeRedR51]

Yeah..."just".

 

[Dan_]

For those who are interested in space and it's intricacies, I just finished reading The Martian, by Andy Weir. It's a fiction book ( as you'd imagine... ) that depicts an astronaut who is stranded on a Mars settlement and it's absolutely brilliant.

It incorporates so many details with enviable technical accuracy and yet it's an easy read for anyone who's been following the last space developments. It evens has many project attributes that recall to Zubrin's ideas and developments of on going or proposed hardware elements that might someday be in a full-fat Mars mission.

Amazing read.

 

[homeforsummer]

Yeah..."just".

Distances in space still stagger me. Even between the earth and the moon, which would take sixteen days at the pace of "a fast passenger jet", according to this. And then you see them to scale, and to distance scale...

...and then you realise how far, say, Jupiter is (778 million km) which would take around 390 days (at its closest) to get to in something like the Saturn V rocket which took people to the moon. Or 4,650 days to get as far as Neptune (incidentally, here's a cool site for the scale of the solar system).

And then you realise it'd take 25,800 times as long to get 12 light years from here as it would to get to Neptune.

Or around 329,000 years at Saturn V speeds.

Space is flipping big.

 

[NINE_HUNDRED]

And then you realise it'd take 25,800 times as long to get 12 light years from here as it would to get to Neptune.

Or around 329,000 years at Saturn V speeds.

Space is flipping big.

And that doesn't even begin to scratch the surface (so to speak). Absolutely mind boggling.

 

[nealcropper]

It is truly massive. There is no way or minds can even comprehend just how big the entirety of space is, and it's getting bigger.

The only question I have, is, when our universe is expanding, what is it expanding into? There must be more "space" for our universe to grow into.

Is our universe growing into a void that another universe is leaving behind as it shrinks? Is this the fate of our own universe? If "the Big Bang" theory is correct, then the universe is expanding because of the massive explosion of matter from the point of singularity, so maybe when the effects of the outward explosion have ceased, maybe it falls back on itself, much like a star, and then starts all over again?

That taken into account, this could be the 2nd, or even the millionth time that our universe has existed!

 

[Joel]

Every time I feel like I've got a good handle on my life and that I've got it figured out somewhat, I find something like what HFS posted and it just all collapses like a house of cards.

 

[m8h3r]

We really need two or more countries to take this really seriously to get it moving along quicker an full funding. This could answer many questions like other planets suitable of life, other dimensions, where we come from. If some other planets are there, did they see us get formed?

 

[Dennisch]

Every time I feel like I've got a good handle on my life and that I've got it figured out somewhat, I find something like what HFS posted and it just all collapses like a house of cards.

Let's kick him while he down.

Even if we master travelling at the speed of light we will be stuck in our corner of the universe. The closest star is still more than 4 years away. The center of our galaxy roughly 25000 years and the other side of our galaxy roughly 70000.

Andromeda, our closest neighbor galaxy is 2500000, yes Two point Five million, years of travel at light speed.

So we are stuck in our solarsystem.

Merry Christmas everyone!

 

[nealcropper]

Let's kick him while he down.

Even if we master travelling at the speed of light we will be stuck in our corner of the universe. The closest star is still more than 4 years away. The center of our galaxy roughly 25000 years and the other side of our galaxy roughly 70000.

Andromeda, our closest neighbor galaxy is 2500000, yes Two point Five million, years of travel at light speed.

So we are stuck in our solarsystem.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Warp speed anyone?

 

[Dennisch]

Warp speed anyone?

Ludicrous speed.

 

[Emptyone]

Let's kick him while he down.

Even if we master travelling at the speed of light we will be stuck in our corner of the universe. The closest star is still more than 4 years away. The center of our galaxy roughly 25000 years and the other side of our galaxy roughly 70000.

Andromeda, our closest neighbor galaxy is 2500000, yes Two point Five million, years of travel at light speed.

So we are stuck in our solarsystem.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Yeah, but travelling close to the speed of light means time slows down for you, so you could survive ... Just there would be no one you know home when you come back ... If there still was a home

 

[TyrrellRacing]

 

[niky]

With proper cryo techniques, 300k years is probably survivable.

Won't have anyone to talk to at the end of the journey, though. And we have yet to build a ship that can last the million years needed for a round trip.

 

[XS]

Ludicrous speed.

"No, no, light speed is too slow!"
"Light speed too slow, sir?"

 

[PzR Slim]

Can't believe I have never seen this thread! Space fascinates me. I think if more people just looked up the world would be a better place. Look forward to some deep and meaningful discussion in this thread. In the mean time, Happy Christmas and I'll leave you with a recent image I took from my heavily light polluted back garden.

 

[Dennisch]

That is a very nice picture.

What kind of scope and exposure time did you use?