What's The Hold Up With Space Travel and Exploration?!

Francine · 10 Dec 2007

Ok, this really amazes me: The space programs are really sad. We send people out into Earth's atmosphere, we build a space station and every now and again we send someone to the Moon...is that all there is?!

Why do we keep using ancient propulsion like rocket fuel? That's fine if you want to travel to the moon...but utterly useless for exploring the Galaxy or the known Universe. Also, why are the shuttles and rockets so tiny? Why are people not building REAL spacecrafts? Huge ones! With all the amenites and large open spaces and dining halls? And gymnasiums? Or recreation halls? What gives with these tiny crafts where you cram a few astronauts into a small area and then let them suffocate for days or weeks? And why has no govt invented gravity reinforcers yet so people on board spacecrafts can actually WALK around instead of floating around like human balloons?

I am seriously concerned for the future of space travel. It seems like we are so far behind and it's not going to improve very much in the near future. As long as people insist on thinking small, instead of inventing REAL space travel technology, I'm sorry to say that the space programs here remain utterly pathetic, I mean, if you want to travel to distant galaxies, you're obviously going to have to invent massive crafts that can travel at faster than light speed...am I the only one who finds the current space programs ancient and pointless?
:sigh:

Judge WAN · 01 Aug 2005

Conspiracy theories.

Uncle Twitchy · **Joined:** 28 Nov 2006 **Posts:** 30520

Francine is my current pick.

Francine · 10 Dec 2007

Uncle Twitchy wrote:

Francine is my current pick.

Oh, cool! Do I win a prize? :yay:

Uncle Twitchy · **Joined:** 28 Nov 2006 **Posts:** 30520

You get to play Captain America.

Francine · 10 Dec 2007

Uncle Twitchy wrote:

:ohyes: You get to play Captain America.

LOL.

Ok.

But after that I wanna play Spider Woman! :ohyes:

Jimbo · 19 Jul 2006

It's obvious that Francine just wants her food delivered instead of picking it up herself.

Judge WAN · 01 Aug 2005

Francine · 10 Dec 2007

Jimbo wrote:

It's obvious that Francine just wants her food delivered instead of picking it up herself.

It would be far more convenient to have my dinner beamed to me via teleportation. Another area where the space program is sadly, far behind, btw. I think they're still working on transporting molecules....boring!
:-D

Simon · **Joined:** 26 Oct 2006 **Posts:** 59410

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-372

Quote:

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft has entered a new region between our solar system and interstellar space. Data obtained from Voyager over the last year reveal this new region to be a kind of cosmic purgatory. In it, the wind of charged particles streaming out from our sun has calmed, our solar system's magnetic field is piled up, and higher-energy particles from inside our solar system appear to be leaking out into interstellar space.

"Voyager tells us now that we're in a stagnation region in the outermost layer of the bubble around our solar system," said Ed Stone, Voyager project scientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. "Voyager is showing that what is outside is pushing back. We shouldn't have long to wait to find out what the space between stars is really like."

Although Voyager 1 is about 11 billion miles (18 billion kilometers) from the sun, it is not yet in interstellar space. In the latest data, the direction of the magnetic field lines has not changed, indicating Voyager is still within the heliosphere, the bubble of charged particles the sun blows around itself. The data do not reveal exactly when Voyager 1 will make it past the edge of the solar atmosphere into interstellar space, but suggest it will be in a few months to a few years.

Brotoro · 12 Apr 2008

Needs more Francine.

Simon · **Joined:** 26 Oct 2006 **Posts:** 59410

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/keple ... efing.html

Quote:

NASA's Kepler mission has confirmed its first planet in the "habitable zone," the region where liquid water could exist on a planet’s surface. Kepler also has discovered more than 1,000 new planet candidates, nearly doubling its previously known count. Ten of these candidates are near-Earth-size and orbit in the habitable zone of their host star. Candidates require follow-up observations to verify they are actual planets.

The newly confirmed planet, Kepler-22b, is the smallest yet found to orbit in the middle of the habitable zone of a star similar to our sun. The planet is about 2.4 times the radius of Earth. Scientists don't yet know if Kepler-22b has a predominantly rocky, gaseous or liquid composition, but its discovery is a step closer to finding Earth-like planets.

Previous research hinted at the existence of near-Earth-size planets in habitable zones, but clear confirmation proved elusive. Two other small planets orbiting stars smaller and cooler than our sun recently were confirmed on the very edges of the habitable zone, with orbits more closely resembling those of Venus and Mars.

RobertSwanderson · 01 Jan 2007

Neil deGrasse Tyson to Jon Stewart: "Your Earth is spinning the wrong direction."

Brotoro · 12 Apr 2008

Needs more Moon bases.

Brotoro · 12 Apr 2008

RobertSwanderson wrote:

Neil deGrasse Tyson to Jon Stewart: "Your Earth is spinning the wrong direction."

ABC World News Tonight used to have their Earth spinning the wrong way until some kid wrote in and told them.

This was a long time ago, so I suppose that kid could have been Tyson.

Jilerb · 26 Jan 2009

Actually, that earth was split along the equator and both halves were spinning in opposite directions, so only the northern hemisphere was spinning in the wrong direction.

I wonder how long it'll take to correct that graphic, even assuming it's "wrong" since the earth is split and it's obviously not meant to represent the actual earth in that way.

Jilerb · 26 Jan 2009

Brotoro wrote:

RobertSwanderson wrote:

Neil deGrasse Tyson to Jon Stewart: "Your Earth is spinning the wrong direction."

ABC World News Tonight used to have their Earth spinning the wrong way until some kid wrote in and told them.

This was a long time ago, so I suppose that kid could have been Tyson.

I remember that. They showed their earth, slowed it down, then started it spinning in the opposite direction.

Rafael · 03 Dec 2006

Jilerb wrote:

Brotoro wrote:

RobertSwanderson wrote:

Neil deGrasse Tyson to Jon Stewart: "Your Earth is spinning the wrong direction."

ABC World News Tonight used to have their Earth spinning the wrong way until some kid wrote in and told them.

This was a long time ago, so I suppose that kid could have been Tyson.

I remember that. They showed their earth, slowed it down, then started it spinning in the opposite direction.

I LOLed.

(and that's something that I do found unbearable, as I don't think it's possible to rationalize it without ignoring what's on the screen)

What's The Hold Up With Space Travel and Exploration?!

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