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Space: The Final Frontier
- Thread starter Windu
- Start date
So what does GAF think of the 265 day secret unmanned shuttle mission which recently returned to earth? The modern day replacement to the SR-71? Surveillance of the Chinese Space Station? Just a joy ride? Shooting missiles at Pakistani baddies from orbit?
Let's just hope a super intelligent singing AI shows up.
Leeroy3101
Banned
I'm certain that all of those fall within the developmental plan for this craft. All these secretive craft, such as the U2, Oxcart (SR-71 born from this), F117A, B2, and many others have been for stealth surveillance or weapons systems purposes.
Too bad we waste all this money on spy and warfare equipment. I'd like those R&D funds to be put back into NASA.
Man last week was awesome. Like I said, the American Astronomical Society was in town for their Summer meeting. Attended four different talks, each covering a different subject.
First talk was about the recent transit of Venus, covering the history of previous transits and how we can use Venus to understand Exoplanets. I loved the history bits, but could have used more explanation of the future applications as they relate to exoplanets instead of how the presenter's group had to fly to Hawaii to get transit data.
The next night there was an informal presentation about the Kepler project, going over their recent discoveries and explaining how the project actually works. I was only able to see half of that presentation though because before the second part was going to start another presentation was going to occur.
The third presentation was actually from one of the Nobel Prize winners in 2011. The talk was about how they won their prize by proving that the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate by looking at and observing the Doppler shift of supernove. It was a really cool presentation, made even better by the fact that the presenter had lived here in Anchorage for a while and brought several of his science and math teachers from High School up to thank them for their influence in his life.
Final event was actually a movie and a short presentation. The movie was free to attend if you requested tickets early enough. The movie and the talk was about the issue of "Space Junk" and how while it might not seem like an issue now, it actually is, and could cascade to the point where entering space would be dangerous. The movie was actually really good (and impartial, not pointing out that the Chinese were behind the missile on satellite strike that caused a large spike in "junk" in space) and the talk afterwards was decent as well. I didn't like the fact that the model the presenter was using to show the growth of "junk" in space didn't account for a single accidental collision when that has already happened once and most likely will happen again.
First talk was about the recent transit of Venus, covering the history of previous transits and how we can use Venus to understand Exoplanets. I loved the history bits, but could have used more explanation of the future applications as they relate to exoplanets instead of how the presenter's group had to fly to Hawaii to get transit data.
The next night there was an informal presentation about the Kepler project, going over their recent discoveries and explaining how the project actually works. I was only able to see half of that presentation though because before the second part was going to start another presentation was going to occur.
The third presentation was actually from one of the Nobel Prize winners in 2011. The talk was about how they won their prize by proving that the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate by looking at and observing the Doppler shift of supernove. It was a really cool presentation, made even better by the fact that the presenter had lived here in Anchorage for a while and brought several of his science and math teachers from High School up to thank them for their influence in his life.
Final event was actually a movie and a short presentation. The movie was free to attend if you requested tickets early enough. The movie and the talk was about the issue of "Space Junk" and how while it might not seem like an issue now, it actually is, and could cascade to the point where entering space would be dangerous. The movie was actually really good (and impartial, not pointing out that the Chinese were behind the missile on satellite strike that caused a large spike in "junk" in space) and the talk afterwards was decent as well. I didn't like the fact that the model the presenter was using to show the growth of "junk" in space didn't account for a single accidental collision when that has already happened once and most likely will happen again.
Captain Knutsman
Member
So what does GAF think of the 265 day secret unmanned shuttle mission which recently returned to earth? The modern day replacement to the SR-71? Surveillance of the Chinese Space Station? Just a joy ride? Shooting missiles at Pakistani baddies from orbit?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BunIgmSrQA&feature=player_embedded
I like it, cool approach to the whole getting to space and back problem, but why keep it secret? That worries me a bit
Rekwest
Member
Where do you think Astronauts order take out from?
LOL Kum Pao chicken to me please.
WeAreStarStuff
Member
Nasa has released a new "White Marble" image of the amazing planet we call home.
orientalNoodle
Banned
I am surprised to see in the news that the Chinese has a space station.
WeAreStarStuff
Member
Good Job Bob
Member
This is a great summary of the Chinese space station.
What it doesn't say is that the Chinese wanted to join the ISS mission, however they got rejected from the US. (taken from Neil DeGrasse Tyson)
Cuban Legend
Member
is this true, how do we only know of this many planets, I thought we had a huge chunk of the universe looked at with telescopes with tons of galaxies in view...
I think these are just the planets we've seen directly and we're sure their existence. Spotting planets is a lot more difficult than you might imagine, I think it can only be done when they pass between the star and our line of sight, we can't view them directly.
astroturfing
Member
planets orbiting other stars are very, very faint objects that are hard to detect and verify (in fact they are detected indirectly since they are so faint). with current technology we can't detect them outside our very nearby cosmic neighborhood within our galaxy. and planets in other galaxies are faaaar out of our view.
Cuban Legend
Member
wow, this has just blown my mind, we can see 12 billion lightyears out but we can only spot 700-or so planets. DAYUM, UNIVERSE AND SHIT IS BIG, SON.
astroturfing
Member
we can and are spotting more and more of them (with the Kepler probe), it just takes time and effort to verify them. i think there are something like 2000 exoplanet candidates so far and the number is growing. and Kepler is only looking at a tiny random area of our galaxy...
in 30-50 years i expect us to have an exoplanet catalog of millions of planets, and knowledge of many many earth-like worlds (in terms of mass, atmospheric composition etc).
Based on the Kepler findings, astronomers have estimated that ON AVERAGE, there is one planet for every star in the Galaxy.
100 billion or so stars = average of 100 billion planets. Some systems have none, some have multiple. It was actually considered a conservative estimate.
WE WERE BORN TOO SOON DAMNIT.
WeAreStarStuff
Member
People will always feel this way. Not too long ago if you had been born you would have thought the Earth the center of the universe with the sun revolving around it.
astroturfing
Member
don't forget the wandering planets that aren't orbiting any stars.. apparently their numbers likely dwarf everything else. possibly a trillion in our galaxy. and of course all the moons.. god knows how many there are per star (something like 200 around our sun). the amount of different worlds in one galaxy alone is unfathomable.
Dice
Pokémon Parentage Conspiracy Theorist
I guess I appreciate your optimism that we will ever figure out a way to traverse those great expanses at such a speed that it would mean anything to daily life. I'm personally more interested in the implications of applying technology to our biology than traveling the universe.
You can't just look out into space and see planets. You have to track the motion of a star or detect the planet moving in front of the star, which can take months or years.
Huw_Dawson
Member
Nasa has released a new "White Marble" image of the amazing planet we call home.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nb-jk6Ftx7o
Immediately popped into mind.
(To the born too soon comment: don't run in traffic, smoke or drink yourself to death and you might well at least be alive to see the first man on Mars. But odds-off it being a US or European astronaut.)
PantherLotus
Professional Schmuck
Thank you for posting this. What an amazing time. Someone else said that a catalog of a million planets in our lifetime is realistic, and I think they're right.
Now consider that we've really only been looking for what, a decade? I bet we'll get some better practices and we'll not only discover a veritable WALL of possible life-supportive planets, but we'll see some evidence that intelligent life actually exists there -- like lights from a city.
NOW consider that if we've only been doing this a decade, how long might other civilizations in the galaxy have been looking? The thought is provoking and somewhat daunting. What happens if we stick our head our of our little system and discover that the galaxy is actually bustling with intelligent life, traveling the stars, planning for the future?
Gives me chills.
Huw_Dawson
Member
Well, we're one small system on the fringe of the galaxy, space is really, really big, faster than light travel is probably impossible and the probability of sentient life existing elsewhere in the galaxy, never mind the stars that are actually relatively close to us is very remote...
But hey, space is the place. It'd be neat just to go there properly again.
But hey, space is the place. It'd be neat just to go there properly again.
PantherLotus
Professional Schmuck
Who's worried about faster-than-light travel? It's theoretically very possible to reach a quarter to half of C, which would bring us to probably 100s of other livable planets within a single human lifetime, nevermind that once we're able to reach that speed we're probably also looking at seriously extended human lifespans.
I'd love to see a window into 500 years from now. Why shouldn't we have colonies outside of the solar system by then? I'm optimistic.
I'd love to see a window into 500 years from now. Why shouldn't we have colonies outside of the solar system by then? I'm optimistic.
Shenzhou 9 has docked with Tiangong 1 space station!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvwKB2jblwk
I hope Liu Yang gets to float around in there too. Two operational space stations! It's like 1972 all over again!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvwKB2jblwk
I hope Liu Yang gets to float around in there too. Two operational space stations! It's like 1972 all over again!
Except there are no astronauts riding an LRV on the moon ;_;
WeAreStarStuff
Member
Why do you say this?
Rekwest
Member
It's really a prototype of a cargo ship for a future, real space station.
fluffydelusions
Member
I don't think you have a grasp on how many planets there are. Let's say .001% have life on them.
That makes one MILLION planets with life on them.
ah yes this is worth pointing out : /
there are no heavy launch vehicles to do such a thing
which is a tragedy at this day and age. we did it 40+ years ago but cant do it now....
hopefully China starts doing really well in space so the US has an incentive (there already are plenty but they dont involve international dick-waving so they dont count I guess) to finally give NASA a proper amount of funding again
The sheer number of planets is dwarfed by the size of the universe. Even the Milky Way alone is prohibitively huge. Without faster than light tech, effectively all those planets are too far to even communicate with much less travel to in a human lifetime.
Yeah sure, but its kind of jumping the gun by saying there's no sentient life in the milky way.
this video is awesome
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzqdoXwLBT8
shows the landing sequence for the Curiosity rover and challenges with the landing. super cool!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzqdoXwLBT8
shows the landing sequence for the Curiosity rover and challenges with the landing. super cool!
astroturfing
Member
maybe travel speed isn't really the issue we need to overcome, but time. our current lifetimes are incredibly short in the grand scheme of things... what if some time in the future it's possible to extend human lifetimes not just with a century or two, but with millions of years? then it wouldn't be that big of a deal to travel around the Milky Way if we had ships that could move at close to the speed of light. hell maybe we'll figure out hibernation.. just sleep in a pod for 3000 years and wake up in a far-away star system like nothing happened.
or maybe i watch too many movies
I think that one day man might have to send a hyperkinetic missile after voyager and destroy it. It's a naked invitation to come and invade a weak semi-technological resource rich society. There is not only SERO reason to suspect aliens would be peaceful, but a giant preponderance of evidence and logic to suggest predatory species advance quickly and that hegemonies succeed by eliminating competition.
That said, voyager is a needle in a haystack, while our radio emissions are a big old hayloft.
That said, voyager is a needle in a haystack, while our radio emissions are a big old hayloft.
Chittagong
Gold Member
Never gets old - the amount of innovation in that landing sequence is mindboggling. It will be a huge engineering feat if it actually works. The video says that it's due to touch down this August - so it has to be on its way already?
astroturfing
Member
yeah it was launched late last year.
if i remember correctly, we will be able to watch its landing live (well, takes 14min for the signal to travel) in HD, at 5fps. i don't know if i will be able to contain myself when watching it...
There might be video? And I didn't think this landing could get any cooler.
astroturfing
Member
yeah, i'm like 99% certain i read it in Astronomy magazine or some other science mag.
Bitmap Frogs
Mr. Community
The rover has a camera pointing down if I recall correctly.
PantherLotus
Professional Schmuck
Everything we have evidence of on this particular planet is that predatory species are exactly as successful as their food source. Aggressors capable of seeing/reaching/listening to our planet would likely know this as well.
Not that your points are without merit, I'm just saying that it's likely sustainable/sustained ecosystems are likely bigger than a single planet and more likely, include the entire galaxy.