"NASA hiding 100 year starship"

[Goshin]

Hoo boy. This article was written by someone who is nearly space-illiterate.


FoxNews.com - Is NASA Covering Up the 100-Year Starship?

The director of NASA's Ames Research Center in California casually let slip mention of the 100-Year Starship recently, a new program funded by the super-secret government agency, DARPA... which will initially develop a new kind of propulsion engine that will take us to Mars or beyond.

-snip-

Les Johnson, a well-respected science author, spoke to FoxNews.com and agreed with the plan: a one-way, hundred-year mission may be the only way to get to Mars or other planets.

(Sigh). First, it isn't a STARship if it is only intended to travel to Mars. That would be an interplanetary journey, not an interstellar one.

Second, there's no reason it should take 100 years to get to Mars. We've sent probes to Mars that only took about a year to get there, and we weren't in a hurry with unmanned probes.

Third, the author acts as if "generation ships" and "one way journeys to other planets" is some kind of new, radical, "omygosh" concept, some great controversy. Good grief, it's been talked about since before we ever put a satellite in orbit. But not, as I said, in the context of simply going to MARS. Mars is practially next-door. It might take 100 years if your motor consists of two hampsters on a wheel powering a rocket that throws peanuts for reaction mass... :roll:

Am I the only one that thinks that science reporters ought to have some slight grasp of SCIENCE?

 

[Jerry]

Hoo boy. This article was written by someone who is nearly space-illiterate.


FoxNews.com - Is NASA Covering Up the 100-Year Starship?





(Sigh). First, it isn't a STARship if it is only intended to travel to Mars. That would be an interplanetary journey, not an interstellar one.

Second, there's no reason it should take 100 years to get to Mars. We've sent probes to Mars that only took about a year to get there, and we weren't in a hurry with unmanned probes.

Third, the author acts as if "generation ships" and "one way journeys to other planets" is some kind of new, radical, "omygosh" concept, some great controversy. Good grief, it's been talked about since before we ever put a satellite in orbit. But not, as I said, in the context of simply going to MARS. Mars is practially next-door. It might take 100 years if your motor consists of two hampsters on a wheel powering a rocket that throws peanuts for reaction mass... :roll:

Am I the only one that thinks that science reporters ought to have some slight grasp of SCIENCE?

This seems to be the same concept as packing one's family in a fancy new sea vessil and going on a long one-way trip across the atlantic a few houndred years ago. I wonder how the martian equivelent of the American revolution will go.

 

[Ockham]

Until we can easily break away from our own gravity and travel 10x to 100x faster than our current capabilities, this is nothing more than more bad ideas.

Once we have the engines and speed capability - add the private sector and start utilizing the resources of our solar system. That's 100 to 500 years off in the future. Once the private sector creates the infrastructure of commerce, we may then have the means and technical capability to start considering tera-forming or colonization.

 

[tacomancer]

100 years? Are they walking to Mars or something?

 

[molten_dragon]

Am I the only one that thinks that science reporters ought to have some slight grasp of SCIENCE?

You're not alone.

I remember very well watching the Columbia disaster unfold on TV. I remember one of the reporters asking whoever they were interviewing from NASA if there was a possibility that terrorists shot it down. /facepalm

Although, I was amused when the NASA person put the reporter in his/her place.

 

[Guy Incognito]

So this is what NASA has been reduced to. Writing science fiction.

 

[EnigmaO01]

Hoo boy. This article was written by someone who is nearly space-illiterate.



Am I the only one that thinks that science reporters ought to have some slight grasp of SCIENCE?

No, all the Cable News Networks do it. It seems when it comes to science they are depending on stringer reporters that aren't very well versed in science. Apparently science is not a high priority judging by the scant reporting on the subject and lack of serious experts as sources.

What's really scary is if it's something controversial, they have the power to shape peoples opinions on something due to faulty information. Many times they have a subject so ****ed up it would be laughable if it didn't cause so much damage.

 

[rathi]

The news is worthless on any technical subject. It always bothers me when I read a story in a field I understand and find an obvious mistake, because I have to wonder if the stories about stuff I don't understand are just as bad.

 

[hallam]

Until we can easily break away from our own gravity and travel 10x to 100x faster than our current capabilities, this is nothing more than more bad ideas.

Once we have the engines and speed capability - add the private sector and start utilizing the resources of our solar system. That's 100 to 500 years off in the future. Once the private sector creates the infrastructure of commerce, we may then have the means and technical capability to start considering tera-forming or colonization.

I don't think speed is the issue here. Weight is. 100X faster speeds would be nice. but until we solve the shear amount of weight it takes to get anywhere practically, we are not going anywhere.

 

[Gray_Fox_86]

Boeing's Phantom Works(enough said):

 

[danarhea]

Who really believes that Mars is going to be habitable? Mars is actually missing something that the Earth has - Namely the Van Allen belts, or something equivalent that can stop cosmic rays from irradiating people. There is a reason that Mars is not habitable, besides the thin atmosphere, lack of breathable air, and other factors. It is cosmic radiation, and the lack of a magnetic field that could stop it before it reaches the surface.

Mars - A nice place for astronauts to visit, but nobody can live there.

 

[Goshin]

Who really believes that Mars is going to be habitable? Mars is actually missing something that the Earth has - Namely the Van Allen belts, or something equivalent that can stop cosmic rays from irradiating people. There is a reason that Mars is not habitable, besides the thin atmosphere, lack of breathable air, and other factors. It is cosmic radiation, and the lack of a magnetic field that could stop it before it reaches the surface.

Mars - A nice place for astronauts to visit, but nobody can live there.

Nobody can walk around wearing a swimsuit and watering the flowers outdoors on Mars, no.

Live there... maybe. There's water. Water can be used to make oxygen. There's sand, which can be processed into soil. With water, soil and light you can have plants and crops.

The radiation isn't an insurmountable problem, if most habitations were built underground. A foot of dirt shields you from most radiation quite well.

Granted Mars isn't a very good candidate for mass settlement, but it is arguably as good or better than any other in the Solar System.

Still, the guy who wrote this article is so clueless I wouldn't take his word on anything he claims NASA supposedly said.

 

[Manc Skipper]

While they are fiction, the Mars trilogy give the impression that they are essentially science-based, however loosely.

"The Mars trilogy is a series of award-winning science fiction novels by Kim Stanley Robinson that chronicle the settlement and terraforming of the planet Mars through the intensely personal and detailed viewpoints of a wide variety of characters spanning almost two centuries. Ultimately, more utopian than dystopian, the story focuses on egalitarian, sociological, and scientific advances made on Mars, while Earth suffers from overpopulation and ecological disaster... "

Mars trilogy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[The Giant Noodle]

We can go to Mars just so as long as we send Hannity and Glenn Beck there 1st

 

[Fiddytree]

We can go to Mars just so as long as we send Hannity and Glenn Beck there 1st

Why not something more interesting like Glenn Beck and Ed Shultz? Two people who hate each other...on a planet, by themselves....far away from civilization.

 

[The Giant Noodle]

Why not something more interesting like Glenn Beck and Ed Shultz? Two people who hate each other...on a planet, by themselves....far away from civilization.

Yes, I would agree to that

 

[Your Star]

Why not something more interesting like Glenn Beck and Ed Shultz? Two people who hate each other...on a planet, by themselves....far away from civilization.

I think you've stumbled on the next great reality show.

 

[EnigmaO01]

It always bothers me when I read a story in a field I understand and find an obvious mistake, because I have to wonder if the stories about stuff I don't understand are just as bad.

You got that right!

BTW I was just at the CNN website. All kinds of categories but no science one. :roll: I guess they think the general public has no interest in general science but they report about other ridiculous things like celebrities dirty laundry ad naseum.

 

[Anarcho-fascist]

While they are fiction, the Mars trilogy give the impression that they are essentially science-based, however loosely.

"The Mars trilogy is a series of award-winning science fiction novels by Kim Stanley Robinson that chronicle the settlement and terraforming of the planet Mars through the intensely personal and detailed viewpoints of a wide variety of characters spanning almost two centuries. Ultimately, more utopian than dystopian, the story focuses on egalitarian, sociological, and scientific advances made on Mars, while Earth suffers from overpopulation and ecological disaster... "

Mars trilogy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I read all three books. They were interesting most of the time, but I think the first book is the best and the third is the weakest. There is some weird stuff in the trilogy (mostly involving the "Reds" and their leader), and there was one event in the books that made me groan audibly because of it's near deus ex machina like resolution, but I think the books are worth checking out.

 

[Hicup]

Good Lord... I could throw a baseball at Mars and get there quicker..


Tim-

 

[Whovian]

Why not something more interesting like Glenn Beck and Ed Shultz? Two people who hate each other...on a planet, by themselves....far away from civilization.

 

[getagrip]

Isn't a trip to Mars, or for that matter, any solar mission a waste of tax payer dollars? Isn't it strange, when the new budget for NASA comes before Congress, some "great" discovery recently occurred, only to be later shuffled under the carpet like the recent Gliese 581 blunder? This "discovery" was claimed by leading cosmologists to guarantee 100% chance of life on a planet that doesn't even exist!

Hasn't Voyager been exploring the Milky Way since 1977, continuosly traveling at 38,000 mph and now estimated to be twice the distance of the Earth to Pluto range with nothing to show?

My My ... now that's some return investment!

 

[Khayembii Communique]

Hasn't Voyager been exploring the Milky Way since 1977, continuosly traveling at 38,000 mph and now estimated to be twice the distance of the Earth to Pluto range with nothing to show?

Wow, you clearly know nothing whatsoever. First, it doesn't matter how far Voyager travels, it's not going to make it far enough from the Earth to see anything that an orbiting satellite couldn't see.

Second, they never expected to find a habitable planet with Voyager. They didn't even expect it to last this long.

Third, you're clearly one of those whackjobs that thinks that science is some kind of hyper-politicized field. I'm guessing you think anthropogenic global warming is a liberal conspiracy, as well?

 

[getagrip]

Wow, you clearly know nothing whatsoever. First, it doesn't matter how far Voyager travels, it's not going to make it far enough from the Earth to see anything that an orbiting satellite couldn't see.

Thank you for proving my point of tax payer waste.

Second, they never expected to find a habitable planet with Voyager. They didn't even expect it to last this long.

Thank you again for proving my point.

Third, you're clearly one of those whackjobs that thinks that science is some kind of hyper-politicized field. I'm guessing you think anthropogenic global warming is a liberal conspiracy, as well?

Whackjobs? Is that an intellectual term I should become accustomed to by your standards? AGW is a hoax that 32,000 real scientists have illustrated, and not some exploitatious IPCC panel whose pocketbooks grow from fools such as yourself.

C'mon, is this the best you have?

 

[marduc]

opcorn2:

The entertainment potential of this thread has skyrocketed.