Space Exploration

Are NASA's future missions and budget justified?

  • It's worth the time and expenditures

    Votes: 223 66.0%

  • Complete waste of money

    Votes: 41 12.1%

  • We need to explore, but not at the current cost

    Votes: 74 21.9%
  • Total voters
    338
#551
#551
ainge10heisman said:
That's what I was getting at. The articles I've read on the subject suggest by nuking a large one, it would in fact break it up into smaller ones, with some still heading our way. The point was, those smaller ones wouldn't be life ending for everything on earth like the large one.
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its a theoretical question, impossible to know how small they remains would be. But the point of smaller ones not being as big of an issue is that they will/could burn up. More pieces equals more surface area than if it was one big chunk. even if they don't burn up the smaller chunks would be effected more by entering our atmosphere than a bigger one would.

but i think the main point of hitting it with something is to push it off course not fragment the sob. Of course we would just have to watch for a new angle, if it was something on a orbit.
 
#552
#552
gcbvol said:
I find the idea of terraforming fascinating, but it's all hypothetical at this point. Some of the proposed methodologies are very cool, but all of them would take significant time if even effective.

I think realistically we would be talking about underground habitat and some surface structures with artificial atmosphere. If we were to colonize the planet, however, then we could at least start the process of trying to initiate a runaway greenhouse effect.

I'm just happy someone like Musk is seriously working toward getting people there. Yes, there are enormous challenges but challenges spark innovation.
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yeah I don't think large scale teraforming would work. but we could get some 'microforming' going for the colonies, either underground or in bio-dome type situations, just minus Polly Shore. I don't see us being able to walk on the surface of Mars without suits happening for hundreds of years.
 
#553
#553
In case you missed it...

NASA Announces Plans To Send Astronauts To Mars In Mid-2030s

NASA’s Orion spacecraft will launch Thursday morning, performing an unmanned test flight for the machinery that will eventually bring humans to asteroids, before ultimately transporting them to Mars. While “eventually” has always been sort of a given, NASA has finally announced projected dates.

During a press conference today on NASA TV, it was announced that Orion will bring four astronauts at a time to asteroids between Earth and Mars by 2025, and the first humans will reach the red planet in the mid-2030s. This venture into deep space will be the farthest humans have gone since Apollo 17 went to the moon in 1972. (David Paliwoda and Jesse Williams have made a fantastic website that illustrates Earth’s relative distance from the Moon and from Mars. Spoiler: it’s a heck of a lot further than you’d think)

With the first goal date only about 10 years away, the importance of Thursday’s test flight has been heightened. The Orion spacecraft will be unmanned, but the cabin will be filled with 1,200 sensors to collect information about radiation and heat, as well as testing different systems, including the launch abort system. At the time of this writing, the launch is still currently a ‘go’. Assuming no problems, Orion will launch on Thursday at 7:05 am EST from Kennedy Space Center. It will orbit the Earth at a distance 15 times greater than that of the International Space Station, and deploy 11 parachutes upon reentry, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean right around 11:30 am EST.
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#554
#554
If anyone hasn't seen Interstellar, they definitely should. It was an awesome movie, but it also demonstrates why I think we should focus on exploring space sooner, rather than later, particularly with population exponentially growing.
 
#556
#556
Space.com has the streaming video in case anybody is interested. It is a nice morning here on the Space Coast... but they had a gust of wind and the launch is back in a hold. I'll step outside and watch when it does go :dance2:
 
#557
#557
zreeves said:
If anyone hasn't seen Interstellar, they definitely should. It was an awesome movie, but it also demonstrates why I think we should focus on exploring space sooner, rather than later, particularly with population exponentially growing.
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We have to finish the 15th century religious war first. :banghead2::machgun:
 
#565
#565
SpaceCoastVol said:
No... sticky L-H2 valves I believe. And it comes back down in 4 and a half hours after it does launch, so no "space junk".
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yeah, I know no space junk (hopefully), was just trying to get people talking.

to lazy to look it up but is Orion a NASA rocket/module/whatever or a private one NASA is using?
 
#566
#566
LouderVol said:
yeah, I know no space junk (hopefully), was just trying to get people talking.

to lazy to look it up but is Orion a NASA rocket/module/whatever or a private one NASA is using?
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Rocket built by ULA a JV between Lockheed and Boeing, command module built by Lockheed, and the service module built by ABS, all of course funded by NASA contract.
 
#567
#567
Actually a correction is that the service module is being funded by the European Space Agency
 
#571
#571
SpaceCoastVol said:
Yeah... I think the winds got up to 4 knots. :thud:

Actually it was for the sticky H2 valves. All of the .gov's resources, and they couldn't find any WD-40.
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it amazes how stuff like this happens. they probably couldn't get the clearance to go find any wd-40.
 
#572
#572
i-want-to-believe.jpg
 
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