Outer Space

[Dannyboy-the-Dane]

Anyone else start writing something in this thread that they thought made sense at that moment in time in their head but then realised they couldn't get it in an understandable text format?

 

See watching these sorts of videos makes me full of questions that make me wonder if I'm a genius or if there's just many people out there that have these weird thought processes. Is it even possible to write them down?

 

Gah I'm probably making no sense, but just a minor thing that came across my mind is how its stupid that we watch all these boring programmes about other peoples lives when we are just wasting time that could be spent achieving a big ambition. Of course we all may think that we could be doing something but in the end we sleep, forget about these topics and carry on doing meaningless things.

 

Some people won't ever have the thinking power to come up with these questions, dumb blondes that don't realise there is more than just the planet Earth (and makeup) although maybe I'm just mad and I'm on my own. After watching videos such as these space documentary snippets I think 'why do I do things like playing tennis?' etc but it's because we have no choice. Most of us are born and we just wind up being moderately content with normal lives and we aren't expected to become an einstein or.... I've just completely forgotten my point, if there was one... Yeah

 

Well I guess you could just say if you've had thought spasms like this before but then were too embarassed to show them to anyone, that would make me feel less lonely. Maybe only I'm understanding myself, but I don't know how you could understand the above if I lost my own trail of thought.

 

I'm not drunk btw. And apologies for using the word 'think' so much. I've probably made a complete dick of myself and will read this back once I'm awake and realise what a dickwad I've been.

 

I blame it on fatigue.

Don't worry, I know exactly what you mean.

 

It may all seem pointless, but we really have no choice. You gotta make the best of what you have and just enjoy life.

 

And I also agree about the ocean. That Bloop is awesome! There are just so many things in the world we do not yet understand or know about - it's exciting, isn't it?

[Daft]

I think the moon is amazing. All the other stuff in space is great and all but I find it a bit unreal until I look at them moon and realise that it's about 240,000 miles away but it is clearly visible.

 

It just hints at the scale.

 

Edited July 26, 2009 by Daft

[Happenstance]

Just been watching a tv show on the moon and all the theorys on how it came about.

 

The current one being the Giant Impact Theory which pretty much says that Earth was impacted during its infancy by another planet, possibly a sister planet that was formed from the same debris Earth was, about Mars' size. Some of that being absorbed by us and some getting turned into the moon. Its amazing stuff.

 

What I find really sad though is the lack interest and funding that is shown these days. There needs to be a lot more put into finding new methods of space travel etc. I remember how interested I was a few years ago when I read that scientist had actually thought of a way to create shields for shuttles using magnetic fields and gas (cant remember which one)

[Pyxis]

Is space that amazing other than the sheer amount of stars? When we go to a beach, do we find it amazing how there are so many grains of sand on the beach? Do we try to figure out how much grass there is on a field or how many living cells there are in our bodies? It all looks pretty similar to me (a load of stars and planets swirling around in galaxies). Are nebulae any prettier than puddles of oily water?

 

Let's face it, we will all be dead long before we see a permanent human civilisation on another planet, which would need to be as similar to Earth as possible. It might never happen because we might not be around for that long. We are already simulating brains with computers.

 

What would we do when living on Mars? Live even more meaningless lives? What's so good about swapping this planet for one that is infinitely worse? The place is far worse than Antarctica and we don't all want to go and live there, do we? How much do we have to destroy our planet until we think that living in such terrible conditions would be nice?

[Dannyboy-the-Dane]

Waaay to ruin the mood.

 

The universe is amazing because of it's sheer size. Just like atoms are amazing because of their size. It's amazing what goes on at scale levels we're not even able to comprehend.

 

None of the planets in our solar system are fit for habitation. But exploring them we may learn more about what the world is made up of and maybe even life itself.

[Daft]

 

I love this picture of Saturn being backlit by the sun. Taken by Cassini.

[dwarf]

^ You've just taken that picture from Wipeout!

 

And I think Pyxis should be given the 'local pessimist' title.

[Pyxis]

Sorry. I was agreeing with you guys in my mind, but I just wanted to create a counter-argument for myself.

 

If you think about it, we are designed to live on our planet with its unique size, temperature, atmosphere and etc. Just imagine if we tried to live on a planet that was slightly bigger, with more gravity. It would be hard just getting out of bed in the morning.:awesome:

[Shino]

Sorry. I was agreeing with you guys in my mind, but I just wanted to create a counter-argument for myself.

 

If you think about it, we are designed to live on our planet with its unique size, temperature, atmosphere and etc. Just imagine if we tried to live on a planet that was slightly bigger, with more gravity. It would be hard just getting out of bed in the morning.:awesome:

 

Or we would be a lot stronger, and then go to other planets to conquer them with cheer brute force.

[Pyxis]

Or we would be a lot stronger, and then go to other planets to conquer them with cheer brute force.

 

They'll try to find our weakness and will build up a stockpile of peanuts, pollen, shellfish and furry animals.

[Pit-Jr]

The most awesome gif

 

Look at all that untapped energy..... I usually roll my eyes at the lastest multi-billion dollar NASA expedition but if they could somehow harness energy from ANY of that onto our tiny little planet, that would be great!

[LegoMan1031]

Yep Space is amazing. It's very weird as well because of the speed of light how when we see them images from the telescope by our time frame it was years ago...

 

What if another planet far away is looking at earth through a telescope but see's us many years ago before we existed!?

 

Oooo i love space but it can be so mind bogaling!!

[Paj!]

I love space. Always been in love with the sheer size and peace of it. A lot of my favourite films and TV Shows are space-set, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Alien/s, BSG etc.

 

There's a tranquility about it, but also an immense, crushing power. I remember the start of the (dreadful) Supergirl movie, where some weird space bug thing she lets loose cracks the dome over their city, and everyone starts screaming. I remember finding that terrifying.

[Dannyboy-the-Dane]

Sorry. I was agreeing with you guys in my mind, but I just wanted to create a counter-argument for myself.

 

If you think about it, we are designed to live on our planet with its unique size, temperature, atmosphere and etc. Just imagine if we tried to live on a planet that was slightly bigger, with more gravity. It would be hard just getting out of bed in the morning.:awesome:

Harder than it already is?

 

Still, perhaps we could adapt to a new environment if it wasn't too different from our current. Of course, the planet would need to have the resources fro us to live, which none of the planets in our solar system has.

[Gizmo]

I love space and how everything out there interacts with each other. Hence why I sent to study Astrophysics. It's a big shame that the maths (the maths maths, not the Astrophysics maths) was so complicated.

 

I am tempted by this avenue of Physics aswell. I definately want to study Physics in general, but Astronomy is definately an area I'd consider specialising in.

 

However, the sad truth of it is that Space Travel of any kind of distance is impossible. Relativity tells us that Space Travel is technically possible if we can travel faster than the speed of light; however, it also tells us it is impossible to get to the speed of light.

 

The problem lies in that as velocity of an object increases, the mass of the object trends towards infinity.

 

mass = rest mass / sqrt(1-v^2/c^2)

 

(c = speed of light, or 3x10^8 m/s)

 

So as v trends towards c, the rest mass moves exponentially up; eventually, when v=c, you are dividing rest mass by zero, making mass inifinite. In order to accelerate infinite mass, infinite force is required; theoretically, it requires an infinite force to achieve (Force = mass * acceleration). Since we don't have infinite force, and never will, we can't achieve the speed of light with anything that has a mass. (The only thing that can is the photon, since it is massless). This equation also explains why Newtonian Physics is technically wrong, but with an inaccuracy so little as to be negligable until speeds approach around 1 tenth of the speed of light - still a mighty 3x10^7 m/s - and relativity is noticeable. This is why for example F=ma, without having to worry about the effects of relativity.

 

Man, I love Physics.

 

Edit: Oh, and on the subject of Earth as a coincidence; I firmly believe that to be true. It just so happened that conditions were right, in terms of air pressure, temperature, elements present in the air and ground, etc. It seems naiive to me to believe that in the trillions and trillions of galaxies with trillions and trillions of stars with trillions and trillions of planets, not once did conditions again come together to support another kind of life. Therefore, I firmly believe we are not alone in the universe, but are merely limited by the laws of the universe to the degree that we will never find anyone else.

Edited July 26, 2009 by Gizmo

[Dannyboy-the-Dane]

I am tempted by this avenue of Physics aswell. I definately want to study Physics in general, but Astronomy is definately an area I'd consider specialising in.

 

However, the sad truth of it is that Space Travel of any kind of distance is impossible. Relativity tells us that Space Travel is technically possible if we can travel faster than the speed of light; however, it also tells us it is impossible to get to the speed of light.

 

The problem lies in that as velocity of an object increases, the mass of the object trends towards infinity.

 

mass = rest mass / sqrt(1-v^2/c^2)

 

(c = speed of light, or 3x10^8 m/s)

 

So as v trends towards c, the rest mass moves exponentially up; eventually, when v=c, you are dividing rest mass by zero, making mass inifinite. In order to accelerate infinite mass, infinite force is required required to accelerate it also increases; theoretically, it requires an infinite force to achieve (Force = mass * acceleration). Since we don't have infinite force, and never will, we can't achieve the speed of light with anything that has a mass. (The only thing that can is the photon, since it is massless). This equation also explains why Newtonian Physics is technically wrong, but with an inaccuracy so little as to be negligable until speeds approach around 1 tenth of the speed of light - still a mighty 3x10^7 m/s - and relativity is noticeable. This is why for example F=ma, without having to worry about the effects of relativity.

 

Man, I love Physics.

 

Edit: Oh, and on the subject of Earth as a coincidence; I firmly believe that to be true. It just so happened that conditions were right, in terms of air pressure, temperature, elements present in the air and ground, etc. It seems naiive to me to believe that in the trillions and trillions of galaxies with trillions and trillions of stars with trillions and trillions of planets, not once did conditions again come together to support another kind of life. Therefore, I firmly believe we are not alone in the universe, but are merely limited by the laws of the universe to the degree that we will never find anyone else.

I also love physics! That post nearly gave me a boner!

 

It's naïve, almost ridiculous, to think we're alone. The probability that the right conditions formed somewhere else is ridiculously large.

[Caris]

If anyone is interested in Space programs and has Virgin Media there is tons of good stuff on TV Choice on Demand to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the moon landing, I've watched most of it and it's all quality.

 

Check it out.

[Platty]

Space amazes me. Cannot get my head around it. I love going to the Greenwich Planetarium, it's so awesome laying back and learning about the stars. Infact I love just looking at the sky wondering. It does my head in thinking about it too much though, like whats out there? whats beyond? what's the point? gahahaha....Just makes you realise how insignificant a lot of things are in the grander scheme of things.

 

Wish I could be alive for deep space travel. It would be most interesting times.

 

Space also makes me disbelieve in any religion whatsoever.

[Dog-amoto]

My hope is that when you die, you'll be able to travel the universe and see and comprehend everything that is out there, without any mortal restrictions.

 

Would be a nice way to spend eternity.

[Daft]

Slightly off topic.

 

I always loved the bit in Battlestar Galactica when Lee ejects from his Viper and floats in space watching the battle in the distance. I thought that captured the isolation space affords really well. It's a shame they didn't explore it further.

 

My hope is that when you die, you'll be able to travel the universe and see and comprehend everything that is out there, without any mortal restrictions.

 

Would be a nice way to spend eternity.

 

Spend eternity exploring infinity? I like it.

[dwarf]

I'd love if I had an anti-grav button where you could select something/an area that you wanted to free of gravity for a brief period. I'd wait for a grunt from a toilet and then press whilst recording sound from the event.

[Daft]

Earth to Mars in 39 Days

 

A six-month space journey away, Mars often seems an almost impossible planet to reach. But engineers are developing a new engine that could turn six months to six weeks, bringing the Red Planet much, much closer than ever before.

 

 

Using the traditional fuel-burning rockets that carried humans on lunar missions, it would take a manned spacecraft six months to travel from the Earth to Mars. While you could find volunteers in spades willing to trade a year in a tin can for a glimpse of another planet, osteoporosis-inducing weightlessness and dangerous radiation render a lengthy trip unfeasible. But attention has turned to ion engines. While a combustion rocket thrusts a space shuttle through the atmosphere, then lets it coast to its destination, ion engines are able to effect a more continuous thrust:

 

Ion engines, on the other hand, accelerate electrically charged atoms, or ions, through an electric field, thereby pushing the spacecraft in the opposite direction. They provide much less thrust at a given moment than do chemical rockets, which means they can't break free of the Earth's gravity on their own.

 

But once in space, they can give a continuous push for years, like a steady breeze at the back of a sailboat, accelerating gradually until they're moving faster than chemical rockets.

 

 

Engineers at the Ad Astra are seeing promise in VASIMR, an ion engine that uses a radio frequency generator to heat charged particles and create greater thrust than other similar engines. Ad Astra plans to attach a solar-powered VASIMR engine to the International Space Station for tests, and, if they are successful, could use VASIMR periodically to thrust the ISS back into the Earth's orbit.

 

But, if the engine were powered by an onboard nuclear reactor, its applications could be much more profound. Using 1000 times the energy of a solar-powered VASIMR, a nuclear-powered VASIMR engine could propel a manned spacecraft to Mars in a mere 39 days. Although the technology to play a nuclear reactor on a space shuttle is still a ways off, many in astrophysics feel the project holds enormous promise. NASA has provided Ad Astra with a small stipend for VASIMR development, and NASA chief Charles Bolden had high praise for the possibility of shortened space travel:

 

 

If engines, such as VASIMR, could be developed to take people to the Red Planet in 40 days, "that puts it inside the range of what we feel comfortable of doing with humans," he told New Scientist. "Something like VASIMR – that's a game changer."

 

http://io9.com/5323516/earth-to-mars-in-39-days

 

Sign me up!!

 

Man on Mars in our lifetimes?

[Dannyboy-the-Dane]

Ion engines ... that sounds so bad-ass sci-fi!

[Letty]

This totally reminded of that Hadron Collider that everyone was so worried would create black holes and destroy the world/universe.

 

PS. I love space art.

 

 

 

[Dannyboy-the-Dane]

The green planet in the upper picture reminds me of Malachor V from Star Wars.[/geek]