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
#1,651
#1,651
Grand Vol said:
This baby gets .5 past light speed.

A_screenshot_from_Star_Wars_Episode_IV_A_New_Hope_depicting_the_Millennium_Falcon.jpg
Click to expand...

That satellite dish doesn’t look very aerodynamic but I suppose that doesn’t matter in space.
 
#1,652
#1,652
marcusluvsvols said:
I dont buy the solar sail crap...at least not yet. For the reason you stated. If it were possible, we could propel vehicles with huge lasers on Earth. I think it is just a fictional concept because we cant think of anything better...like those supposed drives that could create propulsion without any fuel, in violation of the law of conservation of mass/energy. I am just a dumb carpenter with a GED, but i am pretty well read, enough to know that those laws are solid.

We need to figure out light and gravity. Until we do, we arent going any further than a planet or so away from terra firma. If there is any truth to the aliens visiting here stories from pilots, aliens have already figured out gravity. Their ships can supposedly sit still in the sky for 12 hours at a time, then take off vertically at many thousands of mph...with no visible signs of propulsion or infrared propulsion signatures. That screams anti gravity to me...and once gravity is defeated or harnessed, IMO, thats when talk about light speed and star travel starts to sound realistic...once propulsion is no longer a factor.

Magnetism also fascinates me, and we have very little understanding of it, either. Why and how it behaves the way that it does is mysterious, just like gravity. Could magnetism be used to propel craft? It certainly generates a lot of force
Click to expand...
What is the force that kept the flag up and flying on the moon when we planted old glory a while back?
 
#1,662
#1,662
#1,664
#1,664
W.TN.Orange Blood said:
Football field-sized asteroid could hit Earth this year

Don't know if this article qualifies as Space Exploration but I was bored & thought I'd post this here.

It's more than likely to pass by us @ only 4.2 million miles away. No hit for the earth not sure why bring it up.
Click to expand...
So it's not a football field length, it's a football field width........152 vs. 300 ft. Asteroid is 165 feet in diameter.

Could we push it so that it hits off the west coast?
 
#1,666
#1,666
82_VOL_83 said:
So it's not a football field length, it's a football field width........152 vs. 300 ft. Asteroid is 165 feet in diameter.

Could we push it so that it hits off the west coast?
Click to expand...

I was about to do the impacts effect calculator, but got called away to a meeting.

I'll run the numbers when I get home.
 
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#1,672
#1,672
hog88 said:
Question for you rocket scientists.

Space is a vacuum so that means there is no air of any kind, right? So how do rockets, thrusters, ext work in a vacuum? If there is nothing to push against how does that work?
Click to expand...
It pushes against itself. That is why chemical rockets are so inefficient.

I still want to know how a Thermos keeps hot stuff hot and cold stuff cold.
 
#1,675
#1,675
Hunerwadel said:
I would suggest Gainsville or Tuscaloosa.

This might help calculate the damage.

Earth Impact Effects Program
Click to expand...

Depending on the type of object (assuming it's not ice) the effects on sedimentary rock would be:

For porous rock object: 1.44 megaton explosion

For a dense rock object: 2.89 megaton explosion

For an iron object (no data on the object to say it is, but just for grins): 7.7 megaton explosion.

Obviously things are different for an ocean impact since you factor in a tsunami.
 
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