NASA astronauts to fly Orion spacecraft into deep space
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Neuromancer
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We won't even see anything like 2001: A Space Oddysey become reality (not the crazy monkey monolith parts, but the trip to Jupiter part.) Not in our lifetime anyway.Zwei said:So.. so.. we will never see anything like Star Trek become reality?
Kinyou said:
Propulsion technology will certainly advance to the point where we can get up to least half the speed of light over the next 100-150 years.
Any nearby stars within 10-15 light years will certainly be doable. Especially if we're sending robots instead of live humans.
A trip to the Alpha Centauri system would take less than 10 years at that speed.
Do generation ships seem a bit cruel to anyone else? It doesn't seem right to determine the destiny of the next generation like that. They'd have no options, and if something goes wrong, the waste of human life and potential would be colossal. The only way I can see it working is through some sort of awful social engineering.
...now I must write about this.
The earth is just a giant generational ship. People don't get choices in all kinds of ways already. If I had to choose between being born on a generational ship, or almost anywhere outside the developed world, I would choose the ship.Velti said:
Edit: Actually, that may be a bit strong, there are lots of places I would be very comfortable being born. I guess the point is, lots of people on earth have no options.
Propulsion technology is already advancing fairly well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion_thruster
Imagine what it will be like in 150 years? Remember, technology advances exponentially. Even more so when you factor in all the contributions are developed AI robots/computers will make in the future in conjunction with our own.
Interstellar Travel is absolutely going to be possible in the future. Intergalactic Travel on the other hand, that's highly doubtful unless we ever figure out a way to travel faster than the speed of light. Don't get your hopes up on that one.
Neuromancer
Member
We had a thread about this a while back, you'd be surprised at how many people were up for it, including myself.Velti said:
Besides the next generation won't know anything else but life on the ship. I think they'd be fine.
fierrotlepou
Member
As has been said earlier in the thread: deep space my ass.
Mars is most certainly deep space for humans. Even though the timeframe may be off I am fairly optimistic on the Kurzweil stuff as well.
Kurzweil aside I believe that 30 more years of just standard technological progress is going to produce some mind-dazzling telescopes. Craft can't outrun the speed of light that has already reached our skies.
Kurzweil aside I believe that 30 more years of just standard technological progress is going to produce some mind-dazzling telescopes. Craft can't outrun the speed of light that has already reached our skies.
Seriously. The most challenging part of this is not actually engineering something that can support life and go that far into space - we've been able to do that for decades. The REAL trick is finding 4 intelligent, qualified and trained people who will be able to live that long in a place like that without killing each other.Dave Inc. said:
astroturfing
Member
imagine the moment when the first humans approach another planet, most likely Mars... someone is actually going to experience that, watching out the window of a spacecraft and seeing another planet get closer... maybe not in the next few decades, but some day it's going to happen. humans like you or i will actually fucking land on another planet and experience it with their own senses. just incomprehensibly amazing.
imagine the euphoria. i would be just.. in heaven.
for now i'd just keep sending more robots, though. dig up those microbes hiding in the soil.
oh come on
you're telling me our entire galaxy is boring already? that's quite.. extraordinaly cynical.
imagine the euphoria. i would be just.. in heaven.
for now i'd just keep sending more robots, though. dig up those microbes hiding in the soil.
midonnay said:
oh come on
you're telling me our entire galaxy is boring already? that's quite.. extraordinaly cynical.MiniBossBattle
Member
I wish Nasa designed a craft that looked more inspiring.
davepoobond
you can't put a price on sparks
Zwei said:So.. so.. we will never see anything like Star Trek become reality?
well..."we" won't. but maybe some day humans will.
and the big reason why there's so much space travel in star trek is because of the vulcans...so we have to rely on some random alien civilization that becomes our beneficiary and pushes our technology.
Fenderputty
Banned
Wray said:
Wouldn't it have to be much much faster than the speed of light? Maybe being able to bend space time? Our own Milky Way is 100,000 light years across. Even traveling to the other side of our Galaxy seems like an impossibility.
Emerson
May contain jokes =>
This "scientific" pessimism about the future always annoys the shit out of me. Why do people always act like we know everything? The idea of crossing the ocean was inconceivable thousands of years ago. Reaching the moon even more so.
Technology advances exponentially. We'll reach these things sooner than most think, and if the job was turned over to the private sector it'd happen even quicker.
We understand the tiniest possible fraction of the total nature of the universe. It seems impossible to travel faster than light now, but nobody knows what the future will hold.
Technology advances exponentially. We'll reach these things sooner than most think, and if the job was turned over to the private sector it'd happen even quicker.
We understand the tiniest possible fraction of the total nature of the universe. It seems impossible to travel faster than light now, but nobody knows what the future will hold.
From The Dust
Banned
Don't worry, we will.midonnay said:
When it crashes into the Milky Way
MisterHero
Super Member
we can't go to mars or the asteroid belt because we can't even go back to the moon
prove me wrong nasa
please? =(
prove me wrong nasa
please? =(
From The Dust
Banned
Blame Obama. That always worksMisterHero said:
Fenderputty
Banned
Wray said:
Being able to bend space and time is possible though right? At least I thought it was. I have no idea about the "hows", but I would imagine the energies invovled in something like that is beyond comprehension.
2.5 million light years is an insane distance. Compared to the overall size of our Galazxy though, it's not that far. That's only 25 of our galaxies. If our galaxy was a house, Andromeda would be the end of the block. I would imagine that if we ever developed a way to get from one end to the other of our own galaxy, we should be able to get to Andromeda.
Fenderputty said:
Not possible. At the quantum level, wormholes can exist, for a fraction of a 2nd but the energy requirements to keep one open is completely beyond on.
But without understanding how our Universe works (ie: we're not even sure what dark matter or energy is yet) it's really like people with a raft asking if they can travel to the ends of the earth.
From The Dust
Banned
So when will we discover the warp gate used by the ancients?
MisterHero
Super Member
I used toFrom The Dust said:
, but it feels more to me that people just don't understand the importance of space exploration, which has been that way for a long time.New technologies and concepts come out of NASA (and other countries' space research) all the time but only people knowledgable enough can appreciate it. People in general need something big to get behind. Because we're debating how to get more funding for something productive rather than cry about the economy and corporate blunders, right?
Going to the moon isn't even in our goals for space now. I'd feel better if that wasn't the case.
Maybe I should blame Kennedy for getting me all excited about space. Curse his smooth words and lofty dreams.
the Enterprise in TOS was a 20-year-old hunk of space metal when the series startedDeku said:
the danger in that series was emphasized far more than what any of the other Treks (including Enterprise)
Fenderputty
Banned
Deku said:
Isn't a wormhole different than bending space time though?
Thagomizer
Member
ThoseDeafMutes
Member
shuyin_ said:You sound like Razy Kurzweil. Crazy
That's the most deeply insulting thing anybody has said to me in weeks.
Why?
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