That'll be a great teaser for a couple years and should help locate the best candidates to point the Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) that'll be going up somewhere between 2012 and 2015. It'll be able to actually catch a glimpse of the planet itself. That'll be key because based on the light reflected off the planet we can look at the spectrum and determine the composition -- oxygen, carbon dioxide...water vapor...

NASA tried to axe it -- it did axe it -- to save cash for Orion/Ares/Constellation, but Congress, in a rare act of intelligence, forced NASA to continue funding it.

Congress didn't manage to pass a budget bill for Fiscal year 07, so by default all spending continues at 06 levels, which is a huge problem for NASA as it was expecting a .5 - 1.5 billion dollar incremental increase that it might not get. Sucks for everything else, but TPF and a couple other missions given special treatment are shielded from budget cuts for now.

It'll be interesting one day, say in 2020, if SETI@home scans a bunch of TPF-checked targets, and lo and behold, some aliens picked up I Love Lucy and dubbed it in alien-speak for rebroadcasting.

Hmm.. or one of Hitlers speeches.. Thanks, Europe.

[ Hmm.. or one of Hitlers speeches.. Thanks, Europe. ] We cannot blame Europe for the actions of a madman.

I'm not sure how the new Congress/Senate will react with the next budget for NASA, but I agree, that Nasa was blown off yet again, in part by both these houses but also by the President. All he cares about is his stupid war effort.

Too Bad Nasa could not be tken out of Government purse control and allowed to be an International consortium. Share the knowledge and the technology to reach the future! Yes this is a start "IF" it happens. But so much more needs to be done.

The Problem with Government ran operations is they only think with a 1 cell mind. I say make it a United Nations type deal but without all the Bull. Let the Guys do the work. I want to know whats out there, I want to be able to someday go to the moon for a vacation. (may not happen for me)

But get this off the ground. then keep the ball rolling, but UNDERSTAND what your doing, before you jump to deep into the unknown.

I like the concept. I like the vision. Hope we get to see it grow!

You forget Bush's 'VSE', Vision for Space Exploration, delivered after Columbia, is all that keeps NASA alive these days. It's congressional support is also purely bipartisan, so blame on funding is equally shared. NASA's been pretty smart in placing facilities and contractors in Blue and Red states, so it's basically politically neutral. If it weren't for Bush though, pre-Columbia, NASA didn't have the slightest inclination to go to the Moon, and definitely not Mars, until he ordered them to do so. I'm not a Bush fan, but I'll say his original VSE speech on TV was one of the few times he actually made me smile. Come to think of it, might've been the only time.

Budget wise, though, NASA's in a tough spot. :\ Both sides want to reduce the deficit, each their own way. Neither want to hurt NASA, but when the political artillery starts flying it could take damage from mere inattention.

As far as science goes, well, may the force be with NASA. The EU and its ESA won't fare a ton better; their demographic problem is even worse, and bigger economic problems.

As far as manned space travel goes though, the future is bright at least! Bigellow is already starting work on their orbital space hotel.. It'll cost a fraction of the ISS, it'll go up at lightening speed compared to the ISS, and Bigellow already has interested customers in renting space. They haven't got the part figured out yet how they get people up to it, but the rocket and passenger space segment is on fire with innovation. In Russia, they've looked at sending a Soyuz around the moon with modified extra-large windows.. Not for science or the glory of the Soviet Empire, but as a vacation trip of sorts. Oh, and Jeff Bezos, that Amazon.com founder guy, recently had a test launch of his space ship too. Pretty groovy.

http://public.blueorigin.com/index.html
http://www.bigelowaerospace.com/
http://www.transformspace.com/
http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/ ... 22187.aspx
http://www.spacex.com/
http://www.sea-launch.com/
http://x-rocket.com
http://www.spaceadventures.com/
http://www.armadilloaerospace.com/n.x/Armadillo/Home
http://www.liftport.com/


I don't know though. I think NASA will manage. It wont win every battle, but it'll get the job done. And even if it doesn't, we'll still get human space flight -- they just will be private citizens lookin' to relax instead of military scientists. I've got every confidence that as long as guys like you and I work hard and stick to the upper-middle class range of income we'll be able to easily afford that little vacation to low earth orbit or the Moon one day.

Oh! And a quick check of wikipedia of nuclear engine tech would be rewarding. According to a nuclear engineering bud of mine its not up to date in terms of how much more advanced the science has become since the original work done in the 60s (you can imagine what a modern super compter can do versus pen and paper), but it's pretty good. Apparently, with a little materials engineering work (which isn't hard but has been banned since development stopped) and the technology could make Mars trips in weeks instead of months and years. Problem is, and its the reason it's in cold-storage, that nuclear technology is a lightening rod for hippies. So it'll probably stay that way, at least in the US and EU.

serious.... I got my hands on some official materials a few years back from a NASA Test pilot.. lol

he's indian, nasa test pilot and got traces of extraterrestrian (romulan?) life in his blood--that's a darn good mixture if ya ask me

well if you look at life development here on earth, it is highly probably that amoebes or aminoacids burgeon throughout the universe but "poly"-cell structures and microorganisms did take 2 billion years to develop here on earth and they a need a real stable environment which is only given here by the relatively even size of our moon with respect to its distance on earth. It stabilizes our path around the sun and therefore guarantees "stable" (within certain borders) weather and planetarian conditions here on earth.

I doubt there are that many totally mean planets like our earth in the universe but as long as the subspace isn't found lol there's no point in searching for these traces outside our sol system cause we'd be extinct probably before we find some

Mean?

mean=mediocre,average,medium,median (the latter is more what I meant, our planet and solar system is somewhat the median value of all planets and systems put into some sort of statistic.)

That's just great! Thankfully there's always those who would prefer for us to know. That's a weird thought Malvosin - I've often wondered that myself - are we really here or is it just a figment of our imagination. Are we in control of ourselves and also is what we see real?

Oh Boy chris is getting really deep now. lol

A quote from me;

"I AM........ therefore you Aint! " lol About covers it all! lol

lol I'm trying to find a possible real life comparison to that but I'm afraid of being warned - better not take it literally

No need I only state that as fun.. been saying that for way too many years. lol

Besides who here actually takes me serious anyways. lol