Thread: space exploration.

they have just found a planet similar to earth in a zone suitable to support life at a cost of hundreds of millions of pounds and counting. at 600 light years away what is the point at 1 light year ,still pointless . over the years including the space race billions have been spent persuing extra terrestrial matters the fact remains it is impossible to travel the vast distances to other worlds. the moon landings just a vast waste of money no benefits at to all humankind. to travel at the speed of light is simply and firmly impossible if it was a business idea no one would invest so why are we throwing money away on such projects . alternative fuels ,global warming are real and would greatly benefit the money wasted on pointless projects.

Originally Posted by hyperiondean

if it was a business idea no one would invest

Yeah, maybe your right. On the other hand...
AirLaunch LLC
ARCA
Armadillo Aerospace
Bigelow Aerospace
Boeing
Blue Origin
Canadian Arrow
Copenhagen Suborbitals
EADS Astrium
Excalibur Almaz
Interorbital Systems
Lockheed Martin
Orbital Sciences Corp.
Orbital Transport & Raketen AG
PlanetSpace
Reaction Engines Ltd.
Rocket Lab
Virgin Galactic
Space Adventures
Myasishchev Design Bureau
SpaceDev
SpaceX
Starchaser Industries
t/Space
XCOR
RocketShip Tours
Scorpius Space Launch Company
Odyssey Moon
Astrobotic Technology
Team FREDNET
Euroluna


Ok. Bored now. There are more...

so being able to visit outer space is worth the billions spent ,i dont think so ,the money apart from space visits and saterlites has been spent by goverments ,the other businesses supply these goverments . being able to tell where a planet is hundreds of light years away is pointless the chances of anyone being able to develop a drive system as fast as light is in my opionion is impossible ,they isnt even a dim glow at the end of the tunnel as far as current technology or theology is concerned.
now list the companies investing in fast as light drives ,with out which renders space travel a novelty for the rich.

since firework rockets were first invented man has prehaps though of visiting the moon as far as lightspeed space travel is concerned we havnt even got the equivalent of the firework rocket to dream about ! yet still govrments invest in space matters as if we are on the verge of interstellar travel all without any referendum vote on the matter .

Governments invest in all sorts of research. Some of it immediately practical, some of it "pure" research with no obvious practical benefit. As far as space is concerned, there are practical things like satellites for communication, navigation, measuring various things on earth related to weather and climate, etc. There are also the more pure research end of things: space telescopes and other instruments, probes to understand the other planets, moons, meteorites and comets in the solar system. It is up to governments to spend the research money they have as fairly (and evenly) as possible. They will never satisfy everyone as everyone has different priorities for these and other areas of research.

I think they do OK, overall.

And of course, no one is researching light speed (or faster) travel as our current best theories say it is impossible.

Originally Posted by hyperiondean

they have just found a planet similar to earth in a zone suitable to support life at a cost of hundreds of millions of pounds and counting. at 600 light years away what is the point at 1 light year ,still pointless . over the years including the space race billions have been spent persuing extra terrestrial matters the fact remains it is impossible to travel the vast distances to other worlds. the moon landings just a vast waste of money no benefits at to all humankind. to travel at the speed of light is simply and firmly impossible if it was a business idea no one would invest so why are we throwing money away on such projects . alternative fuels ,global warming are real and would greatly benefit the money wasted on pointless projects.

hyper, you have a closed mind, and that is anathema to me.
What has NASA spent billions on? In exploring our cosmic backyard to
understand life, and our place in it.
That you denigrate such effort and commitment betrays your understanding
of the meaning of exploration and learning, or do you still live in a cave?
No insult to your opinion implied, just can't see your point.
nokton.

Originally Posted by Strange

And of course, no one is researching light speed (or faster) travel as our current best theories say it is impossible.

Oh my Strange, FTL is restricted only by our concept of it, dwell with me for awhile, spacetime, as we understand it,
precludes FTL. But Strange, think on this, spacetime may have different dimensions to our own thinking.
And how those dimensions may be accessed would depend on our level of understanding and technology.
Enjoy converse with you.
nokton.

I read somewhere that, if all the money spent on space travel were compared to all the money earned or saved through satellites alone, the ratio is greater than 10 for satellites to 1 for spendings. In other words, as an investment, space travel is pretty damn good!

The next stage will take longer. That is : to the point where we can truly exploit the wider resources of the solar system. However, the return there will be literally astronomical!

Interstellar travel is a very distant dream, and not something we should even be worrying about right now.

Someday, someone will cure aging and another will develop space travel at close to speeds of light (why not use ion drive?).
600 years will seem like nothing once the biochemical problem of aging is resolved and life is extended.
I'll be researching that next year.

Kepler has detected over 2000 possible exoplantes. 707 are confirmed.

Kepler has detected over 2000 possible exoplantes.  707 are confirmed.

Kepler: 2326 candidates, 28 are confirmed...

The current 708 confirmed exoplanets is from all sources