| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"HVAC" |
| Date: |
01 Oct 2006 11:56:45 AM |
| Object: |
NASA Back On Track |
With the Mars Recon Orbiter ready to begin it's close up study
of the red planet in about a month, I say it's time to hand out some
kudos' to Tim K and all those people who work for NASA.
BTW, anyone still remember that we have 2 fully operational
rovers plinking around on the Martian surface two years after their
warranties ran out? No? I didn't think so.
This points out the need to scale back human spaceflight and focus
on robotic missions.
Mars and the moon are both harsh, unforgiving destinations whose
exploration is best left to robots. With the state of our technology
now and into the foreseeable future, both of these places would become
a death sentence to anyone who went there and stayed longer that
a year. The gamma radiation would turn any astronaut into a cancer lab
rat, and the lack of earth gravity would cause bone and muscle to
atrophy.
You want a space station in low earth orbit?
Fine.
Remember tho, that the cost for this is in the multi-billions.
And to what end?
The Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity have gone 10 times their
rated lifespan and are STILL GOING...Like some energizer bunny
on Mars.
With the exponential growth in computer power, artificial intelligence
is getting better day by day. With our improvements in optics we can
see objects the size of a human on the Martian surface.
We can send our BRAINS to Mars.
THIS is the key. We must put away our science-fiction dreams of
Luna City and colonies on Mars and spend our money in robotics.
THIS is the future.....THIS will enable us to do more space research
with less money.
THIS is the way it must be for the next 100 years or so.
Then, in 100 years, we will have come so far in virtual reality that
we won't have to leave home to go to Mars, Europa, the Moon or
any other place we wish to go.
.
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| User: "Denis Loubet" |
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| Title: Re: NASA Back On Track |
01 Oct 2006 08:29:06 PM |
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"HVAC" <MR.HVAC@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1159703805.713505.132230@m73g2000cwd.googlegroups.com...
With the Mars Recon Orbiter ready to begin it's close up study
of the red planet in about a month, I say it's time to hand out some
kudos' to Tim K and all those people who work for NASA.
BTW, anyone still remember that we have 2 fully operational
rovers plinking around on the Martian surface two years after their
warranties ran out? No? I didn't think so.
I visit the site every week.
This points out the need to scale back human spaceflight and focus
on robotic missions.
Well, you apparently want to keep all the eggs in one basket. Personally I
think that's a bad idea.
--
Denis Loubet
dloubet@io.com
http//www.io.com/~dloubet
.
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| User: "quibbler" |
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| Title: Re: NASA Back On Track |
01 Oct 2006 03:09:59 PM |
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In article <1159703805.713505.132230@m73g2000cwd.googlegroups.com>,
MR.HVAC@gmail.com says...
With the Mars Recon Orbiter ready to begin it's close up study
of the red planet in about a month, I say it's time to hand out some
kudos' to Tim K and all those people who work for NASA.
BTW, anyone still remember that we have 2 fully operational
rovers plinking around on the Martian surface two years after their
warranties ran out?
Yep, proving that solar PV is a very practical and reliable technology
for use on Mars, costing far less than the super-expensive, inefficient
RTGs that some people want to install on future rovers for reasons more
to do with dogma than science. Actually, I will grant that RTGs would
make it more practical to operate at night, but would have major
potential problems with things like overheating, even in the martian
environment. Still, we could accomplish much of the same things with
larger, more efficient solar panels and batteries, since the present
rovers are now a proven technology.
No? I didn't think so.
Most likely. But the fact that you don't think it doesn't make it true.
This points out the need to scale back human spaceflight and focus
on robotic missions.
Thank idiots like Reagan for human spaceflight boondoggles like the
Shuttle and the ridiculous present space station. We could have done so
much more science in the last few decades without these projects draining
away so much money. Any now chimpy wants to repeat moon landings. He
also babbles about mars missions, but we know that's not any kind of
serious proposal, nor was his father's.
Mars and the moon are both harsh, unforgiving destinations whose
exploration is best left to robots. With the state of our technology
now and into the foreseeable future, both of these places would become
a death sentence to anyone who went there and stayed longer that
a year. The gamma radiation would turn any astronaut into a cancer lab
rat, and the lack of earth gravity would cause bone and muscle to
atrophy.
You want a space station in low earth orbit?
I want space tethers in low and mid earth orbit. If we can get double
duty out of them as temporary space stations, that's fine too, but
otherwise we can use things like inflatable modules that are lighter and
safer than outdated, rigid construction.
Fine.
Remember tho, that the cost for this is in the multi-billions.
Yep and they were aggressively pushed by morons like Reagan who wanted to
dismantle real science and make some government contract money for a few
of his corrupt cronies.
And to what end?
The Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity have gone 10 times their
rated lifespan and are STILL GOING...Like some energizer bunny
on Mars.
Yep, we wculd use more rovers with different instrument packages. But
what is really needed is an "aero-bot". Specifically, a heated hydrogen
(or possibly tritium) blimp with a PV coated skin and miniaturized
instrument packages that could drift around mars for years taking very
detailed aerial pictures. Ultimately, we also need to get some kind of
device into features like Vallis Marineris so that we can do some serious
geology on the billions of years of exposed rock strata that are
available there.
With the exponential growth in computer power, artificial intelligence
is getting better day by day. With our improvements in optics we can
see objects the size of a human on the Martian surface.
We can send our BRAINS to Mars.
AI that can match humans will still be decades off. In theory, we could
send actual disembodied brains into martian orbit with much more limited
life support requirements than actual humans. They could use the same
systems which are presently used to control prosthetic limbs to operate
rovers without the 20 minute delay that an Earth operator would
experience. I realize that parts of this technology are not mature
either, but if we had the technology to keep disembodied heads alive,
that would have important applications right here on earth as well, for
people with broken bodies and other untreatable diseases.
THIS is the key. We must put away our science-fiction dreams of
Luna City and colonies on Mars and spend our money in robotics.
Robotics can ultimately be the ticket to us building lunar cities. We
presently have sufficiently strong materials to build lunar space tethers
or rotavators which could get us on and off the surface of the moon for
far less than the present mission costs. If we are going to return to
the moon it should be with increasingly sophisticated exploration and
construction robots for the foreseeable future.
THIS is the future.....THIS will enable us to do more space research
with less money.
Not only will it COST less money, but these technologies could MAKE tons
of money here on earth and in space. Ultimately, there are far more
resources out there in the solar system than on the earth. Getting up
into orbit means 24 sunshine without the losses due to atmosphere,
latitude and season. Robots could be critical in helping us to build
cheap orbiting solar power systems that could ultimately help address all
our power needs.
THIS is the way it must be for the next 100 years or so.
Probably not that long. The Singularity is near.
Then, in 100 years, we will have come so far in virtual reality that
we won't have to leave home to go to Mars, Europa, the Moon or
any other place we wish to go.
Travelling to mars won't feel like leaving home 100 years from now.
--
Quibbler (quibbler247atyahoo.com)
"It is fashionable to wax apocalyptic about the
threat to humanity posed by the AIDS virus, 'mad cow'
disease, and many others, but I think a case can be
made that faith is one of the world's great evils,
comparable to the smallpox virus but harder to
eradicate." -- Richard Dawkins
.
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| User: "Dr P" |
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| Title: Re: NASA Back On Track |
01 Oct 2006 12:18:47 PM |
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In message <1159703805.713505.132230@m73g2000cwd.googlegroups.com>, HVAC
<MR.HVAC@gmail.com> writes
With the Mars Recon Orbiter ready to begin it's close up study
of the red planet in about a month, I say it's time to hand out some
kudos' to Tim K and all those people who work for NASA.
BTW, anyone still remember that we have 2 fully operational
rovers plinking around on the Martian surface two years after their
warranties ran out? No? I didn't think so.
This points out the need to scale back human spaceflight and focus
on robotic missions.
Mars and the moon are both harsh, unforgiving destinations whose
exploration is best left to robots. With the state of our technology
now and into the foreseeable future, both of these places would become
a death sentence to anyone who went there and stayed longer that
a year. The gamma radiation would turn any astronaut into a cancer lab
rat, and the lack of earth gravity would cause bone and muscle to
atrophy.
You want a space station in low earth orbit?
Fine.
Remember tho, that the cost for this is in the multi-billions.
And to what end?
The Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity have gone 10 times their
rated lifespan and are STILL GOING...Like some energizer bunny
on Mars.
With the exponential growth in computer power, artificial intelligence
is getting better day by day. With our improvements in optics we can
see objects the size of a human on the Martian surface.
We can send our BRAINS to Mars.
THIS is the key. We must put away our science-fiction dreams of
Luna City and colonies on Mars and spend our money in robotics.
THIS is the future.....THIS will enable us to do more space research
with less money.
THIS is the way it must be for the next 100 years or so.
Then, in 100 years, we will have come so far in virtual reality that
we won't have to leave home to go to Mars, Europa, the Moon or
any other place we wish to go.
however, keeping ruski and usarian humans on board the space station
kinda keeps the countries locked in embrace. the space station serves
useful political and geopolitical ends.
dr p
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