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
#951
#951
the water isn't deep underground. its close enough to the surface to have a freeze/thaw cycle and there is evidence of moving water.
 
#952
#952
armchair said:
I'm a big proponent of space exploration and basic research of all kinds. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory has an array of fascinating projects--probes, new space telescopes, etc.--in the works. I also strongly believe--and anyone with the least intelligence and power of observation has to agree--that we are steadily ruining this planet. Too many people, far too much development, far too much pollution--rampant deforestation, oceans that are overfished and teeming with plastic, toxic waterways, polar ice caps melting. (And YET we have a president and a major party, and major block of GOP supporters, who don't believe in conservation or environmental protection as helping Big Business make money in the short term is more important to them. Astounding ignorance--and we progressives should make sure the word is passed down to future generations as to who treated the idea of environmental protection with disdain.)

That said, I don't really get this impetus to put man on Mars. It is a very inhospitable planet that will not support human life---though perhaps there is a tiny chance of water being deep underground-- and so any people living there would be constrained to an indoor life. That would mean building massive structures at tremendous costs. Is that our best alternative? We might as well just colonize the moon--it is a lot closer. This is why the U.S.A. should be a leader in environmental protection, conservation, space exploration and basic research in general--and yet instead we've got conservatives who don't give a damn because giving tax breaks to the rich is most important to them.
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Blah blah blah , we were the leader you idiot until Owebama turned NASA into some sort of Muslim outreach center. 😂
 

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#953
#953
can we not turn this into another OT armchair vs the forum thread?

lets keep it on topic and no bashing please.
 
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#955
#955
LouderVol said:
the water isn't deep underground. its close enough to the surface to have a freeze/thaw cycle and there is evidence of moving water.
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There's plenty of water available on both the moon and Mars. On the moon water ice exists on the edges of craters permanently shaded from the sun. On mars it can be found all over the planet both in liquid and ice form.

Interesting short article about water on the ISS:

How Do Astronauts Get Drinking Water on the ISS? | Mental Floss
 
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#956
#956
Grand Vol said:
LV, which post in particular were you looking for a comment on?
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LouderVol said:
Theoretical Physicists Are Getting Closer to Explaining How NASA’s ‘Impossible’ EmDrive Works - Motherboard

apparently there are functioning prototypes of a new engine type that our physics can't quiet explain. theoretically it can get us to 40% light speed without nearly the fuel requirements of traditional engines. they say they would be able to get to alpha centari in about 25 years. incredible stuff if true.

also while reading this article I learned about the Mach Effect which is the basis of this idea they are testing.



I find this stuff incredibly interesting. Especially since a very popular game used this very theory of Mach Effect as its propulsion. the game? Mass Effect. My respect for that series jumped up several levels. I love when games take psuedo science and actually come up with plausible explanations and technology off of it. really blurring the line of art copying reality, or is reality copying art?
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GV this is the one. figured you would have some thoughts on the EmDrive
 
#957
#957
LouderVol said:
GV this is the one. figured you would have some thoughts on the EmDrive
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Hadn't put much thought into it, honestly. The science is way over my head on such things and I take it on faith that it "works" the way it's described.

I get the feeling it's way over many scientists' heads as well lol

Having said that to say this, it is remarkable if the projections are on point. An energy efficient drive capable of even a quarter of the speed of light can be a significant game changer in the area of space colonization. You take a ship like the SpaceX Interplanetary Transport System and put that drive on it. Even if they are still using conventional propellants to get it into orbit, reducing the transit time from Earth to Mars from months to weeks (maybe even days?) means we truly would become a space faring and colonization civilization. At least on a solar system scale to include the Kuiper Belt and Scattered Disc regions.

For example, it took nearly nine years for the New Horizons probe to reach Pluto and it was the fastest craft (escape velocity wise) ever sent from the Earth. And it was programmed for just a flyby since the fuel requirements for a braking burn into a Plutonian orbit would have added years onto the trip. And it would have negated the gravitational slingshots needed to get there in a timely fashion since it would have to have been far slower. Now imagine that trip in a tenth of the time as well as having the ability to perform an orbital burn for true exploration. Or even a manned mission...

If (big if) this kind of drive could be combined with a form of stasis or hibernation? We certainly could send teams to Alpha and Proxima Centauri and possibly other nearby systems for exploration. We likely won't see it in our lifetimes, but it's amazing how physics is "resetting" itself yet again.
 
#958
#958
"60 Minutes" had a great piece on the two Voyager probes last night. Fascinating. 19 hours for a signal to reach them at the speed of light.
 
#964
#964
MT LeConte said:
An example of how incredibly slow light travels.
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read an interesting theory on what Dark Matter/Energy is that said it was just stuff we couldn't measure because it moved/existed at a speed faster than light. We currently lack the tech to detect anything outside of our spectrum (not just visible) of light. The theory also posited that that is what happens with stuff in black holes that in the crush it reaches a point of being faster than light and thus "disappear" to our eye.

interesting to think that we might be operating on the lowest (lower) level of haptic experiences.
 
#966
#966
LouderVol said:
read an interesting theory on what Dark Matter/Energy is that said it was just stuff we couldn't measure because it moved/existed at a speed faster than light. We currently lack the tech to detect anything outside of our spectrum (not just visible) of light. The theory also posited that that is what happens with stuff in black holes that in the crush it reaches a point of being faster than light and thus "disappear" to our eye.

interesting to think that we might be operating on the lowest (lower) level of haptic experiences.
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Yes, there is one theory that there are things in the universe that can only move faster than light and never slower. Just like normal matter as we know it can only travel slower than light but never faster.
 
#967
#967
Please keep partisan comments out of it.

President Trump Directs NASA to Return to the Moon, Then Aim for Mars

President Donald Trump signed his administration's first space policy directive today (Dec. 11), which formally directs NASA to focus on returning humans to the moon.

President Trump signed the order during a ceremony in the Oval Office, surrounded by members of the recently re-established National Space Council, or NSC (which provides recommendations to the president on space policy), as well as active NASA astronauts Christina Hammock Koch and Peggy Whitson, Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin, and retired astronaut Jack Schmitt, who flew to the moon on the Apollo 17 mission.

"The directive I'm signing today will refocus America's space program on human exploration and discovery," Trump said during the ceremony. "It marks an important step in returning American astronauts to the moon for the first time since 1972, for long-term exploration and use. This time we will not only plant our flag and leave our footprint — we will establish a foundation for an eventual mission to Mars and perhaps someday to many worlds beyond."

Space Policy Directive 1 makes official a recommendation approved by the NSC in October. Vice President Mike Pence, who serves as chairman of the NSC, also spoke at the signing.
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#970
#970
hog88 said:
Good, we should have already been on Mars.
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AC Clarke wrote 2001 A Space Odyssey in 1968. He chose the year 2001 because he really thought the technology he describes in the book would be about where humanity would be. Looks like he was a little off.
 
#971
#971
I'm for space exploration.

My guess is Trump can't name all the planets in our solar system. And his plan is to borrow $800 trillion from Russian mobsters to build a hotel on the moon, with his name on it, then default.
 
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#972
#972
MT LeConte said:
AC Clarke wrote 2001 A Space Odyssey in 1968. He chose the year 2001 because he really thought the technology he describes in the book would be about where humanity would be. Looks like he was a little off.
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Technology is here and available. We lack the will.
 
#973
#973
#974
#974
lawgator1 said:
I'm for space exploration.

My guess is Trump can't name all the planets in our solar system. And his plan is to borrow $800 trillion from Russian mobsters to build a hotel on the moon, with his name on it, then default.
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Obama outhouse will be right next to it.
 
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Reactions: 1 person
#975
#975
lawgator1 said:
I'm for space exploration.

My guess is Trump can't name all the planets in our solar system. And his plan is to borrow $800 trillion from Russian mobsters to build a hotel on the moon, with his name on it, then default.
Click to expand...

Just can’t do it can you?
 
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