Author Topic: Space. The Final Frontier.  (Read 75410 times)

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Offline PANatsFan

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Re: Space. The Final Frontier.
« Reply #325: October 21, 2012, 01:06:34 PM »
Anyone see the Meteor showers last night er ah early this morning?

my wife caught it but i missed it, even though we were standing next to each other, don't ask. Gonna try tonight.

Offline Lintyfresh85

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Re: Space. The Final Frontier.
« Reply #326: November 20, 2012, 11:38:03 PM »
Apparently NASA found something big on Mars. Results will be released sometime between Dec. 3 - Dec. 7... they're taking so long because they have to double/triple check the results.

I'm guessing organic material/micro-organisms.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/11/curiosity-historic-news-organics/

Quote
Much of the internet is buzzing over upcoming “big news” from NASA’s Curiosity rover, but the space agency’s scientists are keeping quiet about the details.

The report comes by way of the rover’s principal investigator, geologist John Grotzinger of Caltech, who said that Curiosity has uncovered exciting new results from a sample of Martian soil recently scooped up and placed in the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument.

“This data is gonna be one for the history books. It’s looking really good,”

Offline imref

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Re: Space. The Final Frontier.
« Reply #327: November 21, 2012, 09:45:47 AM »
so that means another round of everyone posting "marvin the martian" photos?

Offline mitlen

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Re: Space. The Final Frontier.
« Reply #328: November 29, 2012, 02:46:45 PM »
NASA announced Thursday afternoon that Messenger has found new evidence that ice made from water "and other frozen volatile materials" exist on Mercury.

Offline JCA-CrystalCity

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Re: Space. The Final Frontier.
« Reply #329: November 30, 2012, 02:51:25 PM »
I'm going to pull some of the Robertson stuff into a separate thread and stuff it into uncensored. 

Offline mitlen

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Re: Space. The Final Frontier.
« Reply #330: November 30, 2012, 02:58:34 PM »
Thanks   ...   I was gettin' a freakin' headache.

Offline Coladar

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Re: Space. The Final Frontier.
« Reply #331: November 30, 2012, 03:06:18 PM »
NASA announced Thursday afternoon that Messenger has found new evidence that ice made from water "and other frozen volatile materials" exist on Mercury.

Most intriguing part about this? Water on Mercury. And water remaining on Mercury.

Meaning you've got a planet as hot as literal hell that has some areas remaining so cold as to never warm above freezing. Its the same argument as the Jupiter 'sweet spot', where pressure and temperature at one point is bearable for life. Might be hundreds of degrees on Mercury almost everywhere. But these polar craters that are -300f means, at some place, there's going to be a temperature consistently between 0-100f. Bodes well for establishing a manned presence there if radiation can be grappled, all the more that water is already there.

Offline HalfSmokes

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Re: Space. The Final Frontier.
« Reply #332: November 30, 2012, 03:14:12 PM »
I wonder how long it takes to actually put a man on another planet- I'm not necessarily counting on seeing it in my lifetime even though the technical knowledge is probably already there

Offline cmdterps44

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Re: Space. The Final Frontier.
« Reply #333: November 30, 2012, 03:18:26 PM »
Von Braun said we could've put a man on Mars back in the '60s. He had all types of ideas that would've worked but were incredibly hard to do (ie funding, materials, workers, etc). He had ideas for space elevators, space stations (like serious space stations - not ISS), moon bases, and even a mars base. So it's been here quite awhile.

I do wonder when we'll finally just say "hell, lets make a moon base!". If only there were some resources on the Moon that would be very valuable like the movie Moon!

Offline Coladar

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Re: Space. The Final Frontier.
« Reply #334: November 30, 2012, 03:21:19 PM »
I wonder how long it takes to actually put a man on another planet- I'm not necessarily counting on seeing it in my lifetime even though the technical knowledge is probably already there

I sort of addressed this with my religious astronomy rant... It's infuriating to imagine within a decade of leaving earth we walked on the moon. Before computers, basically. What we could do today with the right funding? It would be mind blowing. Damn, look at Curiousity. The most convoluted landing imaginable with rockets and cranes after traveling to another world! And a half century before we walked on the moon? What we could do, but won't, would stagger imagination.

I think we'll see men on Mars by 2050. Long term colony though? Not in our lifetimes. Not unless the commercial/private thing takes off far beyond expectations, which it won't.

Likewise, we could have permanent posts on multiple planets in five to ten years from today if we so wanted. But we don't, to humanities great loss.

It's like with the Chinese... the US refuses to combine resources with the world, yet diminishes funding and capabilities while China and India start from scratch. What the US alone could do would be breathtaking. If we put politics aside for science and exploration, taking the basics of the ESA global? It's sad to ponder the possibilities, ones that we will never see.

Offline cmdterps44

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Re: Space. The Final Frontier.
« Reply #335: November 30, 2012, 03:26:11 PM »
It would be very surreal to see census reports like this:

Earth: Pop.=10 bil.
Luna:  Pop.=300 (123 engineers/scientists, 70 residential, 117 miscellaneous)
Mars:  Pop.=48 Scientists
Europa: Pop. = 25 Scientists* and 12 robots (Short trip)

lol I don't know. Seeing that in video games/movies is cool. It would be even cooler to know we have people living up there doing things.

Offline Coladar

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Re: Space. The Final Frontier.
« Reply #336: November 30, 2012, 03:35:16 PM »
It would be very surreal to see census reports like this:

Earth: Pop.=10 bil.
Luna:  Pop.=300 (123 engineers/scientists, 70 residential, 117 miscellaneous)
Mars:  Pop.=48 Scientists
Europa: Pop. = 25 Scientists* and 12 robots (Short trip)

lol I don't know. Seeing that in video games/movies is cool. It would be even cooler to know we have people living up there doing things.

As depressing as it is to take a step back and realize where we could be, I get your meaning. While I'm not a big fan of the ISS, I love realizing that there's always been at least some humans off the planet for several years now. Beats being a kid and looking at Mir's usage or the occasional Shuttle putting Americans into space a few weeks per year. Now there's always at least a couple humans who aren't on earth every day of the year. Progress, I guess. Until they decommission the ISS in the next decade and we have neither that nor shuttles.

Offline cmdterps44

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Re: Space. The Final Frontier.
« Reply #337: November 30, 2012, 03:36:29 PM »
Oh I love the ISS. That's at least a step in the right direction but it sucks to know that it's only temporary and that it'll be finished very soon.

Offline Coladar

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Re: Space. The Final Frontier.
« Reply #338: November 30, 2012, 03:43:26 PM »
Oh I love the ISS. That's at least a step in the right direction but it sucks to know that it's only temporary and that it'll be finished very soon.

I love the idea of the ISS... Particularly the global aspect. But the money and resources sunk into something they plan to crash in the next decade? It wasn't enough money to set up a lunar colony, but as rare as space exploration $$ are... Could have done so, so, so much more. Particularly unmanned probes. We could have had balloons on Titan, landers on Europa, Enceladus, Io, Ganymede. Mars sample return, Phobos lander. So, so very much science delayed for a two decade long station.

Offline Ali the Baseball Cat

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Re: Space. The Final Frontier.
« Reply #339: November 30, 2012, 03:44:09 PM »
Chuck Yeager on Science Friday just now...he said that sending a human on the 4-month trip to Mars is a big waste of time and money  :lol:

After spending 23 hours on planes yesterday, I really can't imagine how the Mercury astronauts didn't go mad in that little capsule.

Offline Coladar

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Re: Space. The Final Frontier.
« Reply #340: November 30, 2012, 03:50:37 PM »
Chuck Yeager on Science Friday just now...he said that sending a human on the 4-month trip to Mars is a big waste of time and money  :lol:

After spending 23 hours on planes yesterday, I really can't imagine how the Mercury astronauts didn't go mad in that little capsule.

I guess this stuff doesn't make the news... But they just announced this very week the two guys who will spend one entire year on the ISS to study the effects of these very types of trips. One of whom is the brother of Congresswoman Giffords, who himself was an astronaut. Scott Kelly I believe is the one going up for a year. Makes you realize what a exclusive, unopened club NASA astronauts are.

Offline Ali the Baseball Cat

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Re: Space. The Final Frontier.
« Reply #341: November 30, 2012, 03:53:54 PM »
Weren't some of those old Soviet Mir missions like a year?

Offline Coladar

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Re: Space. The Final Frontier.
« Reply #342: November 30, 2012, 04:02:52 PM »
437 days. Tons of Russians up there for over 200 days, but not a single American on a NASA controlled experiment on the list. Considering some of the tales of Mir, alcohol and possible sex in space, I don't think they can be compared to detailed examination of human psyche and body in space. Mir was the wild west, ISS a bunch of nerds in suits.

Offline GburgNatsFan

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Re: Space. The Final Frontier.
« Reply #343: November 30, 2012, 04:03:44 PM »
That little capsule was probably more luxurious than Coach on today's airliners.
Chuck Yeager on Science Friday just now...he said that sending a human on the 4-month trip to Mars is a big waste of time and money  :lol:

After spending 23 hours on planes yesterday, I really can't imagine how the Mercury astronauts didn't go mad in that little capsule.

Offline Ali the Baseball Cat

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Re: Space. The Final Frontier.
« Reply #344: November 30, 2012, 04:07:52 PM »
I'd rather spend 400 days on Mir than 4 hours on Delta or American...damn those airlines are flying some dogs.  Last time I flew Delta across the Atlantic it was on a 757 that was so old the seats still had ashtrays.

Offline Coladar

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Re: Space. The Final Frontier.
« Reply #345: November 30, 2012, 04:21:18 PM »
That little capsule was probably more luxurious than Coach on today's airliners.

Too true. Dealing with 200 obnoxious, self entitled idiots encroaching on your space and talking nonstop? Or months in space alone or with someone else intelligent enough to become an astronaut? The latter seems like a dream vacation from the droll banality of human existence.

Offline cmdterps44

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Re: Space. The Final Frontier.
« Reply #346: November 30, 2012, 04:30:43 PM »
Having sex in space would be interesting. I mean what else is there to do? You can't go anywhere.

Offline cmdterps44

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Re: Space. The Final Frontier.
« Reply #347: November 30, 2012, 04:31:31 PM »
Speaking of which, are there any known complications of birth in space, if it were to ever happen?

Offline Coladar

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Re: Space. The Final Frontier.
« Reply #348: November 30, 2012, 04:37:00 PM »
Having sex in space would be interesting. I mean what else is there to do? You can't go anywhere.

Well, scientifically it goes way beyond the 'Imagine the positions without gravity!' That's why people have always wanted an answer... Has it happened? The response has so far been a nod and a wink, implying yes. But unfortunately our sensitivity makes research a big scarlet letter, even sex in space with married couples.

If we are to become space faring, though? Can impregnation occur in zero gravity? What effect does no gravity and radiation have on fetal development? Questions that need answers, but they can't even admit people have had sex in space in today's climate.

Offline Ali the Baseball Cat

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Re: Space. The Final Frontier.
« Reply #349: November 30, 2012, 04:38:18 PM »
One way to find out.