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And science marches on. Maybe I'm showing my age, but it astonishes me how quickly the study of exo-planets has progressed. I wonder if I'll live long enough

by Pitarou 13y ago

And science marches on. Maybe I'm showing my age, but it astonishes me how quickly the study of exo-planets has progressed. I wonder if I'll live long enough to see images beamed back from an interstellar probe?

arethuza 13y ago
"I wonder if I'll live long enough to see images beamed back from an interstellar probe?" I would say you have a small, but definitely non-zero, chance of that - but it probably depends more on the development of effective life prolonging therapies that anything else. We're quite a long way from being motivated enough to build a dedicated interstellar probe and then you would probably have to wait a few decades for the probe to actually get somewhere and a, much smaller, time for the signals to get back. Personally, I'd settle for seeing manned exploration of Mars and I think that may just happen...
- kamaal 13y ago
  Mankind is into space since what, 75 years? Its too early to think of traveling to far points in space using the technology we have. Imagine some thousands of years back, planning to explore the world using an ox cart. Yet today, airplanes have made that perfectly possible.
  - arethuza 13y ago
    Well, if we really wanted to we could probably hack something together along the lines of the Project Orion designs right now, but it would be hugely expensive and pretty messy so I can't see anyone doing that. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_%28nuclear_propulsion%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_%28nuclear_propul... I suspect if we do send out interstellar probes they will be tiny rather than flying battleships: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starwisp http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starwisp
  - maxerickson 13y ago
    The hominid diaspora occurred using feet and canoes. Tens of thousands of years ago. Of course no individuals 'traveled the globe' in that era, but a gradual process was plenty sufficient to cover the globe with humans.
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
wikiburner 13y ago
What's frustrating to me is that apparently a modestly priced (for spacecraft) dual-satellite telescope system has been designed that could return images of extrasolar planets like we were snapping pictures of Saturn, but it hasn't made any progress because of budget limitations. Edit: here's a brief article that gives an overview of a lower-budget, swarm technique being proposed by Planetary Resources - http://www.dvice.com/archives/2012/04/could_planetary.php http://www.dvice.com/archives/2012/04/could_planetary.php

by Pitarou 13y ago

arethuza 13y ago

"I wonder if I'll live long enough to see images beamed back from an interstellar probe?" I would say you have a small, but definitely non-zero, chance of that - but it probably depends more on the development of effective life prolonging therapies that anything else. We're quite a long way from being motivated enough to build a dedicated interstellar probe and then you would probably have to wait a few decades for the probe to actually get somewhere and a, much smaller, time for the signals to get back. Personally, I'd settle for seeing manned exploration of Mars and I think that may just happen...

kamaal 13y ago
Mankind is into space since what, 75 years? Its too early to think of traveling to far points in space using the technology we have. Imagine some thousands of years back, planning to explore the world using an ox cart. Yet today, airplanes have made that perfectly possible.
- arethuza 13y ago
  Well, if we really wanted to we could probably hack something together along the lines of the Project Orion designs right now, but it would be hugely expensive and pretty messy so I can't see anyone doing that. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_%28nuclear_propulsion%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_%28nuclear_propul... I suspect if we do send out interstellar probes they will be tiny rather than flying battleships: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starwisp http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starwisp
- maxerickson 13y ago
  The hominid diaspora occurred using feet and canoes. Tens of thousands of years ago. Of course no individuals 'traveled the globe' in that era, but a gradual process was plenty sufficient to cover the globe with humans.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]

wikiburner 13y ago

What's frustrating to me is that apparently a modestly priced (for spacecraft) dual-satellite telescope system has been designed that could return images of extrasolar planets like we were snapping pictures of Saturn, but it hasn't made any progress because of budget limitations. Edit: here's a brief article that gives an overview of a lower-budget, swarm technique being proposed by Planetary Resources - http://www.dvice.com/archives/2012/04/could_planetary.php http://www.dvice.com/archives/2012/04/could_planetary.php