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
#1,826
#1,826
How would you react to the discovery of life on Mars? Apparently NASA Chief Scientist(?) Jim Green believes we'll all roll up in the fetal position and start sucking our thumbs.

He said: "It will be revolutionary, It will start a whole new line of thinking. I don't think we're prepared for the results. We're not."

What in the hell is this dork talking about. If it were announced today that life were found on Mars the entire world would be excited, curious and anxious to learn more. Most of us will look forward to the answers to the questions that it will generate such as: Is it a carbon based DNA replicating life form like us or something entirely different? Did life come from here and go to Mars or come here from Mars? But we will not fall apart or start shaking in our boots.

When -- or if -- NASA finds life on Mars, the world may not be ready for the discovery, the agency chief says - CNN
 
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#1,827
#1,827
Hunerwadel said:
How would you react to the discovery of life on Mars? Apparently NASA Chief Scientist(?) Jim Green believes we'll all roll up in the fetal position and start sucking our thumbs.

He said: "It will be revolutionary, It will start a whole new line of thinking. I don't think we're prepared for the results. We're not."

What in the hell is this dork talking about. If it were announced today that life were found on Mars the entire world would be excited, curious and anxious to learn more. Most of us will look forward to the answers to the questions that it will generate such as: Is it a carbon based DNA replicating life form like us or something entirely different? Did life come from here and go to Mars or come here from Mars? But we will not fall apart or start shaking in our boots.

When -- or if -- NASA finds life on Mars, the world may not be ready for the discovery, the agency chief says - CNN
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yeah count me as one of those NOT excited about it.
because I seen Aliens. It doesn't go well for us meat based lifeforms.
 
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#1,828
#1,828
Hunerwadel said:
How would you react to the discovery of life on Mars? Apparently NASA Chief Scientist(?) Jim Green believes we'll all roll up in the fetal position and start sucking our thumbs.

He said: "It will be revolutionary, It will start a whole new line of thinking. I don't think we're prepared for the results. We're not."

What in the hell is this dork talking about. If it were announced today that life were found on Mars the entire world would be excited, curious and anxious to learn more. Most of us will look forward to the answers to the questions that it will generate such as: Is it a carbon based DNA replicating life form like us or something entirely different? Did life come from here and go to Mars or come here from Mars? But we will not fall apart or start shaking in our boots.

When -- or if -- NASA finds life on Mars, the world may not be ready for the discovery, the agency chief says - CNN
Click to expand...

It's a legitimate concern to a point especially since most of the world's religions center on life being unique to this planet. It can/will rock the foundations of most major religions if life is discovered on other planets, regardless of how minor it might be.

Of course, the great debate on whether we need to go messing around with said life form will ensue upon discovery.
 
#1,829
#1,829
Grand Vol said:
It's a legitimate concern to a point especially since most of the world's religions center on life being unique to this planet. It can/will rock the foundations of most major religions if life is discovered on other planets, regardless of how minor it might be.

Of course, the great debate on whether we need to go messing around with said life form will ensue upon discovery.
Click to expand...

First of all welcome back. I hope your reassignment surgery went well.

I don't see a religious problem. If it's there, it's there. I'm sure the religious leaders can find a passage to cover it. Every one of them will tell you God is infallible so if life is out there it is part of the plan.

At least the part of the debate about whether to go get it or not seems to be over. The launch is scheduled for sometime next year. (may come up empty though)
 
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#1,834
#1,834
Hunerwadel said:
At least the part of the debate about whether to go get it or not seems to be over. The launch is scheduled for sometime next year. (may come up empty though)
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The rover is going, you are correct. If it finds life or evidence thereof, I can flat guarantee you there will be a serious ethical debate over whether or not to send a manned mission to study said life. Or even to have the probe continue searching.
 
#1,835
#1,835
Grand Vol said:
The rover is going, you are correct. If it finds life or evidence thereof, I can flat guarantee you there will be a serious ethical debate over whether or not to send a manned mission to study said life. Or even to have the probe continue searching.
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Actually I thought the decision was already made to return the samples. I haven't read about this mission in a while though. I know the 2020 mission is going to cache them. I can appreciate the arguments on both sides but one thing is for sure. If we don't do it sooner or later someone else will.
 
#1,836
#1,836
Hunerwadel said:
Actually I thought the decision was already made to return the samples. I haven't read about this mission in a while though. I know the 2020 mission is going to cache them. I can appreciate the arguments on both sides but one thing is for sure. If we don't do it sooner or later someone else will.
Click to expand...

Yes, the plan is to cache them. Getting them back they haven't figured out yet lol
 
#1,843
#1,843
Grand Vol said:
@Hunerwadel

This is the kind of debate I expected.

Could Elon Musk's Starship Threaten Alien Life?
Click to expand...

I know scientists have been discussing the ramifications of cross contamination for decades. I believe the only way to positively prevent that is to not go. It looks like that's not going to be the case with more countries and private industries entering the space business. Sooner or later someone is going to go to another world and come back. If they set up housekeeping on Mars even for a short time organisms will escape into the atmosphere and soil. When or if they return to earth and there is life on Mars they will bring some back and they may or may not be able to decontaminate before reentering our atmosphere.

It seems he best way to deal with this is to find out if life exists on Mars before we go. Instead of robots returning samples to earth they could return them to a moon base or space station designed just for this purpose. Obviously this is going to take time and may squash the plans for manned missions to Mars for a while except for orbital excursions.

Just my own personal thoughts based on nothing: I believe if there is life on Mars it will be microorganisms only and probably not even single cellular. I do not believe it will be harmful to us. Any life that may exist there did not evolve to make a living off humans or earth life. It is also likely that any life that may be there will die off quickly in the presence of oxygen since there have only been trace amounts on Mars for billions of years. I know we have found that many microorganisms have been able to stay alive when exposed to open space, they just don't thrive there. I believe if they got loose in our atmosphere or soil they wouldn't live long enough to be able to reproduce and evolve.
 
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