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