Real space studies

Col.Dom said:
Plus, it's rather arrogant to assume life can only happen on Earth.
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Well, more than arrogance, I think it's just skepticism at the unproven. And even if thousands of other ideal planets just like ours exist, and have evolved sentient life - and I have very little doubt of this considering the scope of the universe - we're most likely still effectively alone. If it's not in your own system, good luck finding it or getting there.
Wouldn't it be interesting if Mars did, indeed, die out from horrible wars (it was named Mars after the Roman god because the red was "the blood of all the dead soldiers")?
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Now you're talking crazy. But yeah, that'd be pretty swell. I like mysterious junk like that, even though it's got no basis in reality.
 
Frosty said:
even if thousands of other ideal planets just like ours exist, and have evolved sentient life - and I have very little doubt of this considering the scope of the universe - we're most likely still effectively alone. If it's not in your own system, good luck finding it or getting there.
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Yeah, I completely agree with you, there.

Frosty said:
I like mysterious junk like that, even though it's got no basis in reality.
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Same here, which is where that latter quote of mine came from :D
 
Frosty said:
And even if thousands of other ideal planets just like ours exist, and have evolved sentient life - and I have very little doubt of this considering the scope of the universe - we're most likely still effectively alone.
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There was a (rather bold) statement in the 60s that with all the stars in the sky it was statisticly certain that there was another race out there that spoke english. (I wish I had a link to that damned quote, but for now, all I remember it from was the movie If....
 
Sure, if the guys at JPL come out and show me something crazy about Mars or Titan, I'll probably believe it. I don't think the interweb's cadre of "Hey, those round things look like eggs... MARS MUST BE FULL OFE EGG LAYING ROCK MOSNSTERS!" cretins will ever be a reliable source... unless they want to build their own space probes.

(That said, something amazing an unexpected from space will probably be something that will bore the rest of the world. Remember when it turned out that all those newy found gas giants were really, really close to their stars and not like our system at all? That's practically unbelievable, from everything we've grown up with knowing about solar system formation...)
 
Yep, we still know very little of what's outside our solar system. If our system is uncommon, all those theories would have to be revised. I think that there's just too many variables we simply have no idea of. Even if you have the planets, you might not have life. Even if you have life, there's other factors: sentience, civilization, space-faring. There's nothing to indicate that intelligence is a natural or expectable evolutionary thing.

The philosophical and religious consequences would be incredible. Few people have really touched it.
 
Hopefully Voyager, as it continues outside of the solar system, might either detect something or perhaps something..(or someone) finds or detects it.

I think Bush's proposed plans to return to the moon and launch a manned Mars mission is a doable thing, and something this country desperately needs. We cant just set aside progress because of some war on terrorisim. We didnt hault our moon shots, and that occured at the peak of the Vietnam war, a very unpopular and very costly war, both monitary costs and it costs alot of lives. But we still managed to develop new technologies to go to the moon.

Going back to the moon and then to Mars opens up the potential for new industry, which in turn opens up new job markets, new buisnesses and of course, opens space to civilians. Right now we have more ability to venture byond the moon than we had prior to going to the moon in the 60's.

I think that if something were found out there, that would trigger the interest once again in the public and that would support NASA and new moon and Mars missions. Finding things out there wouldnt ruin established religion or political structure, it would only strengthen them and potentially unite humanity. Folks will still buy SUV's and cell phones and watch football and MTV or play WCPA on gameboy. But then again..there are those so set and closed minded, it will be them that cause chaos when something is found. It will be quite interesting to see how strong humanity can be when we are taken down a peg or two from the silly notion that humanity is the almighty species and the only species to exsist in the vast universe. Not to turn this into a religious debate...but Jesus did in fact say in front of many witnesses "In my father's house are many mansions". That doesnt mean a bunch of buildings within a building. The father's house is heaven, heaven is what is byond Earth's atmosphere, space. I believe the meaning behind what Jesus said was that the heavens are filled with many different civilizations all created by the same source...God. Besides...why would a spirit...good or bad..require a building of mason or mud when they are in the sprit world to begin with?!!!

For all we know...(at least ancients knew it)...modern times has already made contact. But thats just speculation. However, ancient paintings in caves, huge runway like lines carved on thousands of acres of land only visible from the air, glyphs and scrolls found in recently discovered chambers in and underneath the pyramids at Giza, says alot about what the people of that time period encountered. I dont think those things should just be shrugged off as myth or stories. We certianly do not want future historians finding our records of today and calling them myth or fables now do we?

Its all very intresting and intriquing. I for one would like to see our space program actually go somewhere instead of endless circles in low Earth orbit. And even if we dont find a thing on Mars or Europa or Saturn or Titan or anywhere else...there are minerals out there that can be mined, in turn creating a vast new industry and of course, jobs and adventure for us here on Earth.
 
Death said:
Why wouldn't it be good?
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Because we do not yet have a Confed to protect us from aliens who would like nothing more than to barbeque our gallbladders in the name of Sivar.
 
We do not yet have evidence of aliens who would like nothing more than to barbeque our gallbladders in the name of Sivar, either.

As I said, insufficient data.
 
There's also the possibility that interaction with aliens can be a positive thing.

Crawling under the covers and waiting for the bogieman to go away is something most people manage to leave behind by the time they reach adolesence.

Besides that, haven't you ever heard of "hiding in plain sight"?
 
The possibility that interaction will be bad is the same, however.

Hiding from bogey man is only useless if he its inexistent, and so is trying to contact him.
 
Now NASA is trying to decide if they should send Opportunity over to its landing pad's heat shield, which landed not very far from the rover and mother pad. The heat shield, as it landed, still was considerably hot when it hit the surface. Some images were taken of the heat shield and to NASA's surprise...the heat shield may have melted some surface ice. Right now they dont have any imediate plans to go to the heat shield to investigate the potential that the heat shield melted some ice, creating a small pool of water.

images

BBC report
 
As posted on the WCCIC news, NASA announced there was water up there in them holes!

However...a new (and irrelevant) debate has sprung.

How deep was this water?

NASA says probably a few inches, most had to have been ice on top, with some liquid water below.

In any case....they finally stepped up to the plate and made a good hit. What was suspected all along in the "outside the box" community, NASA says it publicly in a news conference.

This opens up many doors to many possibilities. And practically closes the door on "we are it and there is nothing else out there".

Comments?
 
Maybe the "outside the box community" should have sent their own probe to Mars - instead of pulling things out of thin air and waiting for real scientists to do all the work :)
 
yeah it's weird how only sometimes bullshit quack ideas match up with scientific evidence...maybe someone should think about that outside the box...
 
From what I see so far...the "outside the box" community is pushing the "I told you so" bit, particularly one leading the pack...to whom some here might know who that is.

I believe what was suspected by the outside the box community was known for years by NASA, probably from data collected in 76 with Viking.

Question for all present:

1. What is your take on this NASA confirmation and was it something you did not expect for them to say or did you suspect it would be said..just in due time?

2. Confirming water presence, past or present, and given the fact microbial life can exsist in a vacume filled with solar radiation...what is the potential of finding some kind of microbial life currently in the area where the probe is...would it be possible..and if so...how do you feel about that?

3. Should a sample be brought back to the ISS for analysis?

4. With this NASA announcement..does it further give reason to support Bush's plans to return to the Moon and shortly after a manned mission to mars?
 
RFBurns said:
From what I see so far...the "outside the box" community is pushing the "I told you so" bit, particularly one leading the pack...to whom some here might know who that is.

I believe what was suspected by the outside the box community was known for years by NASA, probably from data collected in 76 with Viking.

Question for all present:

1. What is your take on this NASA confirmation and was it something you did not expect for them to say or did you suspect it would be said..just in due time?

2. Confirming water presence, past or present, and given the fact microbial life can exsist in a vacume filled with solar radiation...what is the potential of finding some kind of microbial life currently in the area where the probe is...would it be possible..and if so...how do you feel about that?

3. Should a sample be brought back to the ISS for analysis?

4. With this NASA announcement..does it further give reason to support Bush's plans to return to the Moon and shortly after a manned mission to mars?
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1. It wasn't too much of a shock, the suspicion was there but not there is confirmation.

2. The judges are still out....

3. why the ISS? why not earth where labs are much more ready to handle such samples?

4. No, Bush is no Kennedy, I don't see us even coming close to accomplishing "his" space vision
 
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