So many planets and no way to get there. What a bummer!

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Profile Bob DeWoody
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Message 1329926 - Posted: 21 Jan 2013, 19:43:17 UTC

If there is a god, he/she/it must be laughing his/her/it's a## off at our recent discoveries. First we thought earth was the center of the universe and then we thought our star system was the universe, later we thought the Milky Way galaxy only to discover that the Milky Way is just one of billions of galaxies.

But we clinged to the idea that planets were rare, or at least planets that could support life were rare. Now we are facing the evidence that "earthlike" planets are probably a dime a dozen and to add insult to injury we can't get our dirty paws on anything outside our own star's influence in the foreseeable future.
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John McLeod VII
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Message 1330031 - Posted: 22 Jan 2013, 2:42:28 UTC

There are a couple of ways to get there, but they would be one way journeys, and also require a largish infusion of $ to start.

Generation ships might work, but we would need some experience in our solar system before they would be feasible. Drawback: Slow.

Bussard ram jet might work as well. Drawback: radiation? Small size?


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Profile Bob DeWoody
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Message 1330037 - Posted: 22 Jan 2013, 3:03:53 UTC
Last modified: 22 Jan 2013, 3:04:53 UTC

Realistically speaking nobody is going to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on one way trips to planets that may or may not be able to support our way of life unless it is the only way to avoid oblivion. We may not even be able to move a substantial portion of our population to Mars when the earth gets too hot.
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Message 1330054 - Posted: 22 Jan 2013, 4:19:32 UTC - in response to Message 1330037.  

Realistically speaking nobody is going to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on one way trips to planets that may or may not be able to support our way of life unless it is the only way to avoid oblivion. We may not even be able to move a substantial portion of our population to Mars when the earth gets too hot.

So true. Panspermia may be our only option. Wrap our DNA in a bunch of rocks and send them on their way. Maybe put a map in the DNA so once they grow they can see where they originated.

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Message 1331533 - Posted: 26 Jan 2013, 10:41:33 UTC

If we would be able to travel faster than the speed of light, things would be easy...and still...Other civilisations might be so distant, we might not even dream of getting there...And radio signals also travel at the speed of light, so it's kind of hopeless...Our only hope is that an alien civilisation might be that evolved, they can find us, no matter what the distance is...
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Message 1333870 - Posted: 2 Feb 2013, 6:50:39 UTC - in response to Message 1331533.  

Interstellar travel has to overcome bone loss due to loss of gravity up 15% on a 200 day mission. It doesnt matter ,if you run marathon in space and reap little on bone loss. A century of travel and you wont be able to stand up at the end of the trip ona alien planet. Maybe a city sized asteroid would make a better ship. Gravity artificially induced at least 10 hours a day in a spinning room to create gravity at 1 g. Radation is a monster that is very hard to overcome more shielding more weight spacecraft are light as possible to launch.
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Message 1333902 - Posted: 2 Feb 2013, 10:16:19 UTC

That's true. The Universe is dangerous and also quite erratic...
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Message 1333911 - Posted: 2 Feb 2013, 10:34:13 UTC - in response to Message 1333870.  

It doesnt matter ,if you run marathon in space and reap little on bone loss.


squids would be nice astronauts.. :-)
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Message 1334499 - Posted: 4 Feb 2013, 4:06:40 UTC - in response to Message 1331533.  

If we would be able to travel faster than the speed of light, things would be easy...and still...Other civilisations might be so distant, we might not even dream of getting there...And radio signals also travel at the speed of light, so it's kind of hopeless...Our only hope is that an alien civilisation might be that evolved, they can find us, no matter what the distance is...

I'm afraid that any alien civilization advanced enough to find us probably already has and decided we are too primitive to communicate with and not worth the effort and risk they would endure.
Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.
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Message 1334574 - Posted: 4 Feb 2013, 13:09:08 UTC - in response to Message 1334499.  

If we would be able to travel faster than the speed of light, things would be easy...and still...Other civilisations might be so distant, we might not even dream of getting there...And radio signals also travel at the speed of light, so it's kind of hopeless...Our only hope is that an alien civilisation might be that evolved, they can find us, no matter what the distance is...

I'm afraid that any alien civilization advanced enough to find us probably already has and decided we are too primitive to communicate with and not worth the effort and risk they would endure.



You're probably right, Bob. If they observe us first, they'll know enough...
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Message 1335527 - Posted: 7 Feb 2013, 18:25:37 UTC

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Message boards : SETI@home Science : So many planets and no way to get there. What a bummer!


 
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