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Cliffg37 Inner circle Long Beach, CA 2491 Posts |
Yesterday NASA announced the discovery of seven planets rotating a small star 40 light years away. These planets are in the perfect location to promote the development of life. Exciting news? I suppose, though to me it is a big tease.
Lets forget for a moment the idea of sending human explorers there, and focus on a robot ship. Lets ignore all the possibilities for misfortune and assume the ship makes the trip arriving in perfect shape ready to make measurements and explore. Ready for this? The information the ship gathers, if it has the POWER to do so, will take 40 years to get back to Earth. I am not worried about that though. My worry is that with the technology of today the trip to get there will take over 19,000 years. I have said for many years that I believe we will get a ship to Proxima Centauri (Slightly less than 4 light years away) before the Voyager ship we sent in the 1970's. (That ship will get there by the way assuming no mishap, in 53,000 years. Of course these numbers represent today's technology. Before he passed away, the great Dr. Carl Sagen designed a ship using today's technology that could travel 1/10 the speed of light. That would cut the time for a 40 light year trip from 19,000 years to a mere 400 years. Now, there is all kinds of work being done now at various universities and laboratories into faster ways to travel through space. Ion Propulsion, Wormholes and warp drive may happen one day. I am hopeful that in my lifetime I will see some of these come to life, but for now these planets are very far out of reach. Class dismissed.
Magic is like Science,
Both are fun if you do it right! |
NYCTwister Loyal user 267 Posts |
Personally I think that we, the human race, need to keep striving to achieve goals that today seem impossible.
I recall the original Apollo missions and the sense of wonder that seemed to vibrate throughout humanity. We don't have that today and, imo, we need it.
If you need fear to enforce your beliefs, then your beliefs are worthless.
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R.S. Regular user CT one day I'll have 184 Posts |
You're right Cliff, space travel is not as easy as it looks on Star Trek. There are some serious challenges facing any mission to these planets. Anyway, it looks like we'll get men/women to Mars (and perhaps Europa) way before any such extrasolar exploration. I just recently heard that 2033 is the year that Elon Musk is targeting for a manned mission to Mars. How cool would that be?
Ron
"It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry." Thomas Paine
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tommy Eternal Order Devil's Island 16544 Posts |
I can’t see us getting there without Stanley Kubrick.
If there is a single truth about Magic, it is that nothing on earth so efficiently evades it.
Tommy |
Daryl -the other brother Special user Chicago 594 Posts |
Quote:
On Feb 23, 2017, tommy wrote: We're talking 2033. Kubrick is sooo 2001. |
ed rhodes Inner circle Rhode Island 2885 Posts |
Quote:
On Feb 23, 2017, Daryl -the other brother wrote:
"...and if you're too afraid of goin' astray, you won't go anywhere." - Granny Weatherwax
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acesover Special user I believe I have 821 Posts |
Ha, ha. Sort of makes one smile. A mere 400 years or even 40 years one way to Proxima Centauri is still at best 80 years for a round trip. Then what? Do we communicate if we find intelligent life? Kind of a drawn out conversation if we find intelligent life. Reminds me of this:
Three monks in a monastery where only one monk could speak once a year. It went like this: The first monk to speak said to the second monk, "you snore very loud and it is annoying". A year later the second monk said, "no I don't". The third year the third monk said, "I wish you two would stop this constant bickering".
If I were to agree with you. Then we would both be wrong. As of Apr 5, 2015 10:26 pm I have 880 posts. Used to have over 1,000
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NYCTwister Loyal user 267 Posts |
Science marches on.
We'll get the time down, solve the problems, as long as free thinkers are allowed to work unhindered.
If you need fear to enforce your beliefs, then your beliefs are worthless.
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