This should get an interesting conversation going!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16867755/

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.

Ringold. I hear ya..

yea when Bush made that statement I was surprised. Now do I trust him to follow through? For the last 2 years sure why not. After that.. well then it gets sticky.

See most of those FOOLS don't realize that if it were not for space exploration, they would not have there stupid cell phones blackberries and other techino junk.

I was thinking along the lines of the WHOLE world involved.. You know US, UK , Europe, Asia, Japan, China. etc.. well all but the North Koreans and the middle east countries who are still out to wipe us all away.. (but not going any farther then that)

See the minds.. we have them... the Tech.. here also.. (not here US but here in the world)

Now if was President... (Fat chance) Then there would be a serious budget for NASA. Where would I get it? Easy.. From all the really stupid programs that are out there. You know the so called free government money anyone can get.. Kill them all. theres your budget..

For me it is not the political party, it is D.C. in general.. well those who work there.. (Sorry but being Indian trust a government? NOT !) lol

Prime example.. this global warming thing.. Could have been controled way back when I was young. (no joke) But Nooooooooo... Green Speaks and dreamers like us weep.

In closing.. If the Governments focused more on science and this type of exploration. Then shoot.. We might be close to a "real" trek like planet.

Provided, people would look beyond the typical "what do I get out of it mode"

You're indian? Hey, I'm 1/16th indian.. Does that count? Yeah, if I were you, I wouldn't believe a damn thing the government says.

Like you said, people forget the benefits of space exploration. Study after study showed that the Apollo project more than paid for itself in economic development from spinoff tech; I think it's something like for every $1 spent on apollo $16 extra dollars of wealth were generated elsewhere. That's a lot more than "just going to the moon".

http://www.thespaceplace.com/nasa/spinoffs.html


I don't know, I think once we find some life, even if it's just bacteria sucking minerals out of rocks some place, it'll bring public interest back to NASA in a big way.

Hopefully.

The finding life part. Well now that a whole other thing. That can be a thread by itself. And some of what I know can not be discussed in open.

Joke or serious there Winterhawk? You've gotten me curious.

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.)

The middle value? I don't get how it works? What's this in order of?

middle value if you put it on a scale. It's more meant metaphorically. Our solar system is really the most mediocre thing in the universe, absolutely nothing special about except that there is nothing special about us and we got life here (at least I think I'm living but that's a whole other frontier ).

so there's good chance life's out there too but always consider the relatively big size of our moon (which would normally belong to a jupiter class planet), that is really something very exceptional which IMO is the reason for me writing stuff here on my brandnew keyboard (which will break in two days too if I continue to hammer on it like I did with the last ).

When most think of life, they think of finding two legged humanoids with big eyes no ears etc. Truth being all we may find for now could be microbes and things of that nature. Should we actually find a being ( like us in type ) that in itself would be amasing.

To speculate, if there is one habitable planet (per our viewpoint) out of 1000 systems then there is around 20 million possable planets within this galaxy. Now if life exists in a different type atmosphere, then that number could be expanded beyond what I can imagine (and I imagine a lot).

The bad part of all this.. If life outside of Earth is found (even the smallest) and proven to be a lifeform, this could cause all types of problems due to religeous (sp?) leaders and followers freaking out.

So per Government (US) law, anything large enough to "engage" us (humans) is to remain classified and hidden away from the generl public until such time as all information can be gathered adn the lifeform is concluded NOT to be a threat to our population or the religous centers.

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