Great News for a Mars Colony!

lotr10 said:
My guess is that any interest would be along anthropological lines. Observing a sentient species as it climbs out of its gravity well towards space. Or they might be "protecting" us from outside influences in an effort to maximize galactic diversity by allowing us to develop along a unique evolutionary path. The possibilities here are endless.
Click to expand...

That would make the most sense to me, kind of along the lines of the remaining native tribes in the Amazon and in other small niches of the world that we are aware of and may even observe to some degree, but don't make official contact with for a number of reasons. Something might want to "study" from a distance, or maybe occasionally "examine" up close for scientific study or even "Tag". The sci-fi possibilities are in fact endless,
 
I would imagine that technology conquers distance at some point assuming that you avoid catastrophic disaster, be it self-inflicted or natural, that either wipes you out or that dramatically stalls or sets back your advancement.

There's also always the possibility that not every "advanced" civilization starts off at the same point and follows the same path of progression. Theoretically, some civilization billions of light years away could have developed on a planet with a naturally occurring element that's of far greater potency and efficiency than burning petroleum products for energy. The mystery that we see of how to get from A to B might not be a grand mystery from another worldly realm.
 
lotr10 said:
My guess is that any interest would be along anthropological lines. Observing a sentient species as it climbs out of its gravity well towards space. Or they might be "protecting" us from outside influences in an effort to maximize galactic diversity by allowing us to develop along a unique evolutionary path. The possibilities here are endless.
Click to expand...

Or maybe an even simpler reason. Maybe our blue-green Earth has many desirable resources and qualities for other civilizations. (That assumes the alien species has similar needs and requirements as us.) The aliens might have tapped out their resources and need a new source or place to live.
 
"Storm Area 51" was a bit of a flop. About 1500-3000 people showed up...a bit less than the 2 million that said they were going. Also, an estimated zero aliens showed up, but plenty of tinfoil hats were sold!

"Let's see them aliens!" :alien:
 
BlackHawk said:
"Storm Area 51" was a bit of a flop. About 1500-3000 people showed up...a bit less than the 2 million that said they were going. Also, an estimated zero aliens showed up, but plenty of tinfoil hats were sold!

"Let's see them aliens!" :alien:
Click to expand...

But how do we know this? Maybe this event was the alien equivalent of Geraldo opening up Al Capones mystery vault on live TV! Huge Galactic ratings expecting millions of mad earth people rushing area 51 but a big flop when only a couple of thousand show up.

Remember, the TRUTH is out there!
 
Slaying the tyranny of distance: a FTL warp drive is technically feasible!

www.universetoday.com

Just How Feasible is a Warp Drive?

At a presentation at this year's AIAA Propulsion and Energy Forum, engineer Joseph Agnew spoke of the progress being made on the Alcubierre Warp Drive.
www.universetoday.com www.universetoday.com


As Agnew explained to a packed house, the theory behind a warp propulsion system is relatively simple. Originally proposed by Mexican physicist Miguel Alcubierre in 1994, this concept for an FTL system is viewed by man as a highly theoretical (but possibly valid) solution to the Einstein field equations, which describe how space, time and energy in our Universe interact.

In layman’s terms, the Alcubierre Drive achieves FTL travel by stretching the fabric of space-time in a wave, causing the space ahead of it to contract while the space behind it expands. In theory, a spacecraft inside this wave would be able to ride this “warp bubble” and achieve velocities beyond the speed of light. This is what is known as the “Alcubierre Metric”.
 
Maybe the speed of light is NOT a universal speed limit:

www.sciencealert.com

Faster-Than-Light Speeds Could Be Why Gamma-Ray Bursts Seem to Go Backwards in Time

Time, as far as we know, moves only in one direction.
www.sciencealert.com www.sciencealert.com


Now, new research suggests a potential answer for what might be causing this time reversibility effect. If waves within the relativistic jets that produce gamma-ray bursts travel faster than light - at 'superluminal' speeds - one of the effects could be time reversibility.

Such speeding waves could actually be possible. We know that when light is travelling through a medium (such as gas or plasma), its phase velocity is slightly slower than c - the speed of light in a vacuum, and, as far as we know, the ultimate speed limit of the Universe.
 
To Mars and beyond!

www.space.com

Elon Musk Unveils SpaceX's New Starship Plans for Private Trips to the Moon, Mars and Beyond

People could start flying aboard the vehicle in the next year or so, Musk said.
www.space.com www.space.com


The new version of Starship (and its Super Heavy booster) will be able to carry up to 100 people to the moon, Mars or other destinations in space or around Earth, he said. It will stand 387 feet (118 meters) tall and be completely reusable, with quick turnarounds.

This is the rocket that will launch the billionaire Japanese entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa and a handful of artists on a trip around the moon in the 2020s. SpaceX unveiled that planned space tourist trip last year (but did not disclose how much Maezawa paid).

"This is, I think, the most inspiring thing I have ever seen," Musk told a crowd of about 200 SpaceX employees, guests and reporters at the company's site near Boca Chica Village, just outside of Brownsville. "Wow, what an incredible job by such a great team to build this incredible vehicle. I'm so proud to work with such a great team."

It sure is cool looking!
 
lotr10 said:
To Mars and beyond!

www.space.com

Elon Musk Unveils SpaceX's New Starship Plans for Private Trips to the Moon, Mars and Beyond

People could start flying aboard the vehicle in the next year or so, Musk said.
www.space.com www.space.com


The new version of Starship (and its Super Heavy booster) will be able to carry up to 100 people to the moon, Mars or other destinations in space or around Earth, he said. It will stand 387 feet (118 meters) tall and be completely reusable, with quick turnarounds.

This is the rocket that will launch the billionaire Japanese entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa and a handful of artists on a trip around the moon in the 2020s. SpaceX unveiled that planned space tourist trip last year (but did not disclose how much Maezawa paid).

"This is, I think, the most inspiring thing I have ever seen," Musk told a crowd of about 200 SpaceX employees, guests and reporters at the company's site near Boca Chica Village, just outside of Brownsville. "Wow, what an incredible job by such a great team to build this incredible vehicle. I'm so proud to work with such a great team."

It sure is cool looking!
Click to expand...


Streamed this on Saturday:





1:20:07 (and at 1:03:37 – ‘Management by Rhyming’) – “Well, I guess I have this mantra ... ‘If the schedule’s long, it’s wrong, and if it’s tight, it’s right.’”


1:21:14 –

Q: Is there a concept for a Tesla Mars Rover?

EM: “Teslas will work on Mars … you can just drive them, pretty much.”


Q: Are you going to bring a Boring machine to the Moon or Mars?

EM: “I think that would be a good idea.”
 
FootballFan1795 said:
Streamed this on Saturday:





1:20:07 (and at 1:03:37 – ‘Management by Rhyming’) – “Well, I guess I have this mantra ... ‘If the schedule’s long, it’s wrong, and if it’s tight, it’s right.’”


1:21:14 –

Q: Is there a concept for a Tesla Mars Rover?

EM: “Teslas will work on Mars … you can just drive them, pretty much.”


Q: Are you going to bring a Boring machine to the Moon or Mars?

EM: “I think that would be a good idea.”
Click to expand...

Awesome!
 
Shallow, briny ponds are a good place for life to bloom & thrive:

www.upi.com

Curiosity findings suggest Mars once featured dozens of shallow briny ponds - UPI.com

Data collected by NASA's Curiosity rover suggests Mars once hosted dozens of shallow briny ponds that periodically overflowed and then dried.
www.upi.com www.upi.com


Data collected by NASA's Curiosity rover suggests Mars once hosted dozens of shallow briny ponds that periodically overflowed and then dried.

Scientists on the Curiosity mission described their interpretation of the rover's Gale Crater observations -- and of the ancient Martian landscape -- in a new paper published Monday in the journal Nature Geoscience.
 
Humans will not 'migrate' to other planets, Nobel winner says

"If we are talking about exoplanets, things should be clear: we will not migrate there," Mayor told AFP near Madrid on the sidelines of a conference when asked about the possibility of humans moving to other planets.

...

Using custom-made instruments at their observatory in southern France, Mayor and Queloz in October 1995 discovered what had previously only existed in the realm of science fiction—a planet outside Earth's solar system.
Click to expand...

phys.org

Humans will not 'migrate' to other planets, Nobel winner says

Humans will never migrate to a planet outside of Earth's solar system because it would take far too long to get there, Swiss Nobel laureate Michel Mayor said Wednesday.
phys.org phys.org
 
I thought this guy's thoughts were a little weird. First, he discovered exoplanets in the 1990s using "custom made" instruments. Now, no one else is smart enough to conquer new problems?

So he was brilliant enough to prove the existence of other exoplanets but he does not have enough faith in future scientists to overcome current limitations to space travel? Looks more like he is choosing a side in the current political debate about climate science and forgetting about all the wonderful things that other scientists will be capable of long after he is gone.

Barring a breakdown in human society, we will likely migrate to our closest neighbors in the next few decades.
 
Yappi said:
I thought this guy's thoughts were a little weird. First, he discovered exoplanets in the 1990s using "custom made" instruments. Now, no one else is smart enough to conquer new problems?

So he was brilliant enough to prove the existence of other exoplanets but he does not have enough faith in future scientists to overcome current limitations to space travel? Looks more like he is choosing a side in the current political debate about climate science and forgetting about all the wonderful things that other scientists will be capable of long after he is gone.

Barring a breakdown in human society, we will likely migrate to our closest neighbors in the next few decades.
Click to expand...

I agree. I've always thought that what makes a scientist great versus very good is an imagination and this guy clearly lacks one. Sure there is a tyranny of distance to any thought of colonizing extra-solar worlds but that is a limitation for today's technology. What tomorrow's technology will be able to do is an entirely different matter.

One needs only go back 100 years and inventory what the leading thinkers of that time thought was possible and what was impossible to illustrate just how foolish this guys statements are. Hell, today we take for granted technological capabilities that 100 years ago they couldn't even imagine would exist.
 
The only way we'll be migrating to our closest neighbors in the next few decades is if they find naked aliens. We might send some surveys but there's not economic nor social need to establish a full blown colony. Some private individual? Still, probably not.

Why have we historically migrated? Either to get to something of profit or to get away from something of pain. His point that we will "fix" anything wrong with our planet removing the desire to migrate is every bit as hopeful as hoping we can overcome barriers to distant space travel. But it ignores we might want to migrate simply because we found something elsewhere we want.

Many of our unapproachable cures came about as collateral research on something else. The problem of time and space travel will probably fall out of research looking for a better maple syrup.
 
Last edited:
eastisbest said:
The only way we'll be migrating to our closest neighbors in the next few decades is if they find naked aliens. We might send some surveys but there's not economic nor social need to establish a full blown colony. Some private individual? Still, probably not.

Why have we historically migrated? Either to get to something of profit or to get away from something of pain. His point that we will "fix" anything wrong with our planet removing the desire to migrate is every bit as hopeful as hoping we can overcome barriers to distant space travel. But it ignores we might want to migrate simply because we found something elsewhere we want.

Many of our unapproachable cures came about as collateral research on something else. The problem of time and space travel will probably fall out of research looking for a better maple syrup.
Click to expand...

The next century will see us expand throughout the solar system I doubt we'll try anything more then sending probes to our nearest stellar neighbors.

I think you miss one very important motivation for humans to roam - curiosity. We are genetically driven to explore. The solar system offers the most amazing canvass to do just that. And a few centuries from now, after we've colonized our Solar System, the stars will beckon and we will go there to.
 
lotr10 said:
I agree. I've always thought that what makes a scientist great versus very good is an imagination and this guy clearly lacks one. Sure there is a tyranny of distance to any thought of colonizing extra-solar worlds but that is a limitation for today's technology. What tomorrow's technology will be able to do is an entirely different matter.

One needs only go back 100 years and inventory what the leading thinkers of that time thought was possible and what was impossible to illustrate just how foolish this guys statements are. Hell, today we take for granted technological capabilities that 100 years ago they couldn't even imagine would exist.
Click to expand...

We didn't figure out how to get a motorized plane airborne for a few moments until 1903. Assuming we don't wipe each other out or have some cataclysmic disaster that sets back societal progress to a restarting point, I imagine we'd be pretty impressed with the technological advancements that humans will make over the next 100 to 200 years at the rate that we've been advancing over the last several decades.
 
lotr10 said:
The next century will see us expand throughout the solar system I doubt we'll try anything more then sending probes to our nearest stellar neighbors.

I think you miss one very important motivation for humans to roam - curiosity. We are genetically driven to explore. The solar system offers the most amazing canvass to do just that. And a few centuries from now, after we've colonized our Solar System, the stars will beckon and we will go there to.
Click to expand...

I didn't miss it. I'd considered it, seemed obvious at first but in the end, I disposed of it. It just doesn't seem to hold up historically.
 
The barrier at the edge of our solar system:

www.sciencealert.com

Voyager Mission Reveals Unexpected Pressure at The Edge of The Solar System

NASA astronomers have used data from the Voyager probes to measure the bustle of particles rippling at the very edge of our Solar System, and discovered the pressure in the distant borderlands of our star is higher than they expected.
www.sciencealert.com www.sciencealert.com


It's amazing that the two Voyager probes are still working and entering interstellar space.
 
Here's a pretty cool idea for a new drive with infinite thrust!

arstechnica.com

Near-infinite specific thrust from drive that ignores physics

Conservation of momentum is for a different universe, apparently.
arstechnica.com arstechnica.com


The basic idea of the Helical Drive, according to the author of that link, is simple. Imagine that you have a mass in a cylinder that is oscillating back and forth. Every time the mass hits the end of the cylinder, it will impart some momentum, accelerating it. Because the mass sequentially collides with each end of the cylinder, the net force is zero, and the only outcome is that the cylinder gets a massive headache.

But, what if—you're going to love this—you could magically increase the size of the mass when it was traveling in one direction and decrease the mass when it was traveling in the other direction? If the velocity of the mass is kept the same, the force imparted at one end would be greater than at the other. You would have a net force: the cylinder would continuously accelerate in one direction.


Sounds good until a real rocket scientist takes a look at the idea:

So, let's just state up front: this drive won't work.


This is my favorite part because it's so true:

Now, my issue with this idea is not that it doesn't work. And my issue is not that NASA has people who spend time wondering about ideas like this—the author's job title includes the word "manager," so the more time he spends on this, the less damage he can do managing.
 
Go Caterpillar!

www.popularmechanics.com

Construction Company Caterpillar Wants To Mine the Moon

What would it take for Earth's autonomous mining technology to reach outer space?
www.popularmechanics.com www.popularmechanics.com


Caterpillar, one of the largest construction companies in the world, is aiming for a spot on the lunar surface and plans to adapt their range of autonomous and remote-controlled mining equipment for use in space.


But is there anything worth mining on the moon?

Mining expeditions to the Moon, Mars, and even nearby asteroids have been on NASA’s agenda for decades. Mining lunar soil for water, oxygen, and other precious materials will be a critical step in developing a sustainable presence on the lunar surface. Water ice, in particular, which was discovered along crater walls on the Moon, could help to sustain life and develop fuels that could power travel to Mars.

Others have suggested that the moon could be a prime place to mine a rare form of helium called helium-3. The lightweight isotope of the gas could be used as a fuel source in nuclear fusion reactors.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top