I'd much rather see them doing real exploration and pushing the envelope rather than burning through another billion dollars for a space-shuttle trip (now that IS pointless)...
Isn't this what we all dreamed of when we were kids, learning about man walking on the moon and space exploration? It was bound to happen sometime - I think it's scary but facinating at the same time.
But seriously, I think that it's great that more effort was made to "go where no one has gone before". Ie., especially if we can figure out faster than light travel. :)
And why not do this? What will we do if our planet gets way too overcrowded/nuked/threat of asteroid/some other catastrophe happens?
Or will it be some are opposed because it doesn't fit in with their religious beliefs/prophecy? <_<
I say lets go for it, and see what we can learn and accomplish!
Isn't this what we all dreamed of when we were kids, learning about man walking on the moon and space exploration? It was bound to happen sometime - I think it's scary but facinating at the same time.
Yes, I think you pretty much nailed it ChasUFarley!
Of course, most of us old farts that endured a dozen or so years in a certain religious cult in our early adulthood won't likely see any such space travel, except on TV. But by 2020 (when I'll turn 67), most (if not all) of us will have HDTV sets... so it could easily LOOK to us like we're on the journey with these future astronauts.
The human race must move to a planet beyond our Solar System to protect the future of the species, physicist Professor Stephen Hawking has warned.
He told the BBC that life could be wiped out by a nuclear disaster or an asteroid hitting the planet.
But the Cambridge academic added: "Once we spread out into space and establish colonies, our future should be safe."
Prof Hawking, 64, was speaking before receiving the UK's top science award, the Royal Society's Copley Medal.
My next goal is to go into space; maybe Richard Branson will help me
Professor Stephen Hawking
He said there were no similar planets to Earth in our Solar System so humans would "have to go to another star".
Professor Hawking said that current chemical and nuclear rockets were not adequate for taking colonists into space as they would mean a journey of 50,000 years.
He also discounted using warp drive to travel at the speed of light for taking people to a new outpost.
Instead, he favoured "matter/anti-matter annihilation" as a means of propulsion.
A collision with fragments from space could end life on earth
He explained: "When matter and anti-matter meet up, they disappear in a burst of radiation. If this was beamed out of the back of a spaceship, it could drive it forward."
Travelling at just below the speed of light, it would mean a journey of about six years to reach a new star.
"It would take a lot of energy to accelerate to near the speed of light," he told BBC Radio 4's Today.
Professor Hawking became famous with the publication of his book A Brief History of Time in the late 1980s.
'Goal is space'
The physicist was not given many years to live when he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease in the 1960s, aged 22.
He said since then he had "learned not to look too far ahead, but to concentrate on the present".
"I am not afraid of death but in no hurry to die," he said.
"My next goal is to go into space; maybe Richard Branson will help me."
Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group has contracted a firm to design and build a passenger spaceship.
Offshoot Virgin Galactic will own and operate at least five spaceships and two mother ships, and will charge £100,000 ($190,000) to carry passengers to an altitude of about 140km on a sub-orbital space flight.
why? ...so we can have more neat things like Velcro?
what's the point? I wish they'd spend that money developing the affordable hydrogen fuel cell...
I would have to agree. Other than digital watches and the like, can someome tell me how the space program has benefitted the average person (you know, the ones actually paying for it) ?
I think they need to have much better management and especially budgeting oversight, but it IS cool. I just have to wonder if the ROI is there. What ROI do we have to show for the ISS out there now? But, this is just a pencil pusher talking.
Semi- I just finished reading Dan Brown's "Deception Point" and it's great! It does pique one's interest about the benefits of NASA and the costs involved, though.
Other than digital watches and the like, can someome tell me how the space program has benefitted the average person (you know, the ones actually paying for it) ?
It amazes me how ignorant so many people are of the benefits of the space program. It has been an amazingly productive investment that has yielded many real-world, on-earth benefits that affect all our daily lives, in all sorts of areas.
Try Googling "space program benefits" (without the quotes) and read the first few links.
Thanks, LG! I suppose we only pay attention to what's in front of us and the news doesn't typically cover anything like these benefits - not when I'm paying attention, anyway.
FWIW, there's a night launch coming up soon and I can hardly wait to see it! It's been so long and they're sooooo beautiful!!
It amazes me how ignorant so many people are of the benefits of the space program. It has been an amazingly productive investment that has yielded many real-world, on-earth benefits that affect all our daily lives, in all sorts of areas.
Try Googling "space program benefits" (without the quotes) and read the first few links.
It amazes me how ignorant so many people are in that they think these benefits couldn't have been come by without a space program...
Let me explain it to you LG... we take all those billions of dollars and thousands of scientists and we focus them on finding solutions to the things we need or can use here on earth (rather than in space)... guess what would happen... we'd have ALL those "benefits of the space program" that are cited and more AND we'd have tons of money left over...
...And calling it "amazingly productive" is absurd... if these benefits were all that came of all the man hours and dollars invested in a real world company... it would've gone down the tubes long ago... a company with a negative ROI isn't going to attract many investors...
I'm perfectly aware of the plethora of benefits that mankind and society has gotten from the space program, I'm just saying take out the expense of the rockets and astronauts and their training and you'd still have the benefits and, in reality, probably even more...
The human race must move to a planet beyond our Solar System to protect the future of the species, physicist Professor Stephen Hawking has warned.
He told the BBC that life could be wiped out by a nuclear disaster or an asteroid hitting the planet.
But the Cambridge academic added: "Once we spread out into space and establish colonies, our future should be safe."
...that's fine, that's Hawking's religion... personally I believe that we'll keep on killing off each other at a great enough rate to keep living here for a lot longer than they think... and when we reach the point that the planet can't sustain us any longer either natural selection will take over or the aliens that put us here in the first place will come and get us (the rapture)...
...that's fine, that's Hawking's religion... personally I believe that we'll keep on killing off each other at a great enough rate to keep living here for a lot longer than they think... and when we reach the point that the planet can't sustain us any longer either natural selection will take over or the aliens that put us here in the first place will come and get us (the rapture)...
Geez Tom... I've never heard you so cynical before!
He said there were no similar planets to Earth in our Solar System so humans would "have to go to another star".
This is what happens when these scientists smoke dope ... travel to the stars ... sure ... I like how Tom thinks ... spend a fraction of that money here and we'd be better off. Oh, and get to work on that star wars missile defense system ...
Should I really care if the Jones family is surviving somewhere in the Milky Way?
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Tom Strange
why? ...so we can have more neat things like Velcro?
what's the point? I wish they'd spend that money developing the affordable hydrogen fuel cell...
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Rocky
Well... that hydrogen fuel cell IS an idea whose time has (should have) come. Let's hope it gets done soon.
However, last week, Stephen Hawking declared that we earthlings need to colonize other planets in order to ensure survival of OUR species...
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George Aar
Well, I think this is cool.
I'd much rather see them doing real exploration and pushing the envelope rather than burning through another billion dollars for a space-shuttle trip (now that IS pointless)...
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ChasUFarley
Isn't this what we all dreamed of when we were kids, learning about man walking on the moon and space exploration? It was bound to happen sometime - I think it's scary but facinating at the same time.
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dmiller
And his source of info was --------------?????
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GarthP2000
(sarcasm mode on)
Satan?
(sarcasm mode off)
<_<
But seriously, I think that it's great that more effort was made to "go where no one has gone before". Ie., especially if we can figure out faster than light travel. :)
And why not do this? What will we do if our planet gets way too overcrowded/nuked/threat of asteroid/some other catastrophe happens?
Or will it be some are opposed because it doesn't fit in with their religious beliefs/prophecy? <_<
I say lets go for it, and see what we can learn and accomplish!
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Rocky
Yes, I think you pretty much nailed it ChasUFarley!
Of course, most of us old farts that endured a dozen or so years in a certain religious cult in our early adulthood won't likely see any such space travel, except on TV. But by 2020 (when I'll turn 67), most (if not all) of us will have HDTV sets... so it could easily LOOK to us like we're on the journey with these future astronauts.
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Rocky
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6158855.stm
Move to new planet, says Hawking
Prof Hawking is in "no hurry to die"
The human race must move to a planet beyond our Solar System to protect the future of the species, physicist Professor Stephen Hawking has warned.
He told the BBC that life could be wiped out by a nuclear disaster or an asteroid hitting the planet.
But the Cambridge academic added: "Once we spread out into space and establish colonies, our future should be safe."
Prof Hawking, 64, was speaking before receiving the UK's top science award, the Royal Society's Copley Medal.
My next goal is to go into space; maybe Richard Branson will help me
Professor Stephen Hawking
He said there were no similar planets to Earth in our Solar System so humans would "have to go to another star".
Professor Hawking said that current chemical and nuclear rockets were not adequate for taking colonists into space as they would mean a journey of 50,000 years.
He also discounted using warp drive to travel at the speed of light for taking people to a new outpost.
Instead, he favoured "matter/anti-matter annihilation" as a means of propulsion.
A collision with fragments from space could end life on earth
He explained: "When matter and anti-matter meet up, they disappear in a burst of radiation. If this was beamed out of the back of a spaceship, it could drive it forward."
Travelling at just below the speed of light, it would mean a journey of about six years to reach a new star.
"It would take a lot of energy to accelerate to near the speed of light," he told BBC Radio 4's Today.
Professor Hawking became famous with the publication of his book A Brief History of Time in the late 1980s.
'Goal is space'
The physicist was not given many years to live when he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease in the 1960s, aged 22.
He said since then he had "learned not to look too far ahead, but to concentrate on the present".
"I am not afraid of death but in no hurry to die," he said.
"My next goal is to go into space; maybe Richard Branson will help me."
Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group has contracted a firm to design and build a passenger spaceship.
Offshoot Virgin Galactic will own and operate at least five spaceships and two mother ships, and will charge £100,000 ($190,000) to carry passengers to an altitude of about 140km on a sub-orbital space flight.
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Sushi
I would have to agree. Other than digital watches and the like, can someome tell me how the space program has benefitted the average person (you know, the ones actually paying for it) ?
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Belle
I think they need to have much better management and especially budgeting oversight, but it IS cool. I just have to wonder if the ROI is there. What ROI do we have to show for the ISS out there now? But, this is just a pencil pusher talking.
Semi-
I just finished reading Dan Brown's "Deception Point" and it's great! It does pique one's interest about the benefits of NASA and the costs involved, though.
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TheInvisibleDan
We should've had a station on the moon by now.
And have had astronauts to Mars a couple of times already.
Little wonder some people doubt that we've ever had people
on the moon.
So the future is here - where's the flying cars?
The moving sidewalks?
The tin foil jumpsuits?
The modern Jetson houses?
Robots!!!?
I'm quite disappointed in this present future.
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T-Bone
This is a great move on NASA's part - seeing how we're rapidly depleting our cheese resources!
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LG
It amazes me how ignorant so many people are of the benefits of the space program. It has been an amazingly productive investment that has yielded many real-world, on-earth benefits that affect all our daily lives, in all sorts of areas.
Try Googling "space program benefits" (without the quotes) and read the first few links.
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GrouchoMarxJr
...And I thought that the great visionary, George Bush, was gonna send us to mars...
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Belle
Thanks, LG! I suppose we only pay attention to what's in front of us and the news doesn't typically cover anything like these benefits - not when I'm paying attention, anyway.
FWIW, there's a night launch coming up soon and I can hardly wait to see it! It's been so long and they're sooooo beautiful!!
Edited by BelleLink to comment
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Tom Strange
It amazes me how ignorant so many people are in that they think these benefits couldn't have been come by without a space program...
Let me explain it to you LG... we take all those billions of dollars and thousands of scientists and we focus them on finding solutions to the things we need or can use here on earth (rather than in space)... guess what would happen... we'd have ALL those "benefits of the space program" that are cited and more AND we'd have tons of money left over...
...And calling it "amazingly productive" is absurd... if these benefits were all that came of all the man hours and dollars invested in a real world company... it would've gone down the tubes long ago... a company with a negative ROI isn't going to attract many investors...
I'm perfectly aware of the plethora of benefits that mankind and society has gotten from the space program, I'm just saying take out the expense of the rockets and astronauts and their training and you'd still have the benefits and, in reality, probably even more...
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Tom Strange
...that's fine, that's Hawking's religion... personally I believe that we'll keep on killing off each other at a great enough rate to keep living here for a lot longer than they think... and when we reach the point that the planet can't sustain us any longer either natural selection will take over or the aliens that put us here in the first place will come and get us (the rapture)...
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Rocky
Geez Tom... I've never heard you so cynical before!
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Belle
Tom, is there any way to ask them to leave their probes at home? Those things scare me!
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Tom Strange
Rocky: cynical? moi?
Belle: If you ask them to "be gentle" with you they will...
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GarthP2000
What's the matter Tom? Did you watch one of SciFi's 'Star Trek Marathon' one too many times, ... and feel like you're being assimilated?
Here. Have a Vulcan style sno-cone to sooth your nerves, ... and make you more logical again.
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Tom Strange
I don't know if I can do "vulcan style"... sounds a little kinky to me...
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rhino
Should I really care if the Jones family is surviving somewhere in the Milky Way?
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Belle
Hey, Hey, Hey!!! Watchit there, Rhino! Some of us Joneses do like to keep up with where our relatives are.
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