earth-like planets or are we alone????

[deathstalker82]

any of you that a fully functioning cranium know that there are more planets in the universe. if any of you get national geographic, you know that this month is about earth-like planets elsewhere in the universe. my questions are do you think that we will find any in the near future, anywhere from 5-50 years, and do you think that there will be life on then much like our own or not? any questions and comments are welcome.

i think that we will and the life part will be iffy unless we happen to catch them mooning us or flipping us off on camera. reaching them is a whole other subject, but i am glad to see that nasa is experimenting with nuclear power in one of their future probes.

[rwcrooks]

death,

I'm still hoping to find intelligent life on Earth. I've found a few isolated pockets, but nothing as big as a civilization yet.

[deathstalker82]

hehehe, good one,
i have yet to also. i think that there is still hope for the human race, maybe.

[deathstalker82]

i guess no one like my two posts. oh well, simple pleasures for simple people

[piqaboo]

patience the young one has not.

[deathstalker82]

patience the young one must learn before he can further his training in the ways of the force.

[GreatCarouser]

Hmmmm,
Maybe...........................................
then again......................................
Maybe not.

(Hope this helps Ub.Ed)

[barfle]

Finding earth-like planets around other stars is unlikely to happen in my lifetime (I figure I've got fifty years left, being only 57 at the moment) unless they try to contact us or seti gets lucky.

The only planets we've been able to discover around other stars have been so large that they give themselves away by their gravitational influence on their star. Clearly, this would not be hospitable for beings that resemble us in any way we could recognize.

So far, the most earth-like planet we know about is Mars, and so far we haven't found any genuine evidence of life there. We're having a great time running our RC golf carts around, and learning a lot of new stuff about Mars, but so far we're not finding any life there.

There was a similar topic presented a few months back titled "Do you believe in aliens?" At this point, I'm undecided, although the likelihood of a universe that is sterile except for this wet marble seems tragic. I have two computers at home both actively churning through seti@home data. While I doubt they'll find anything, I feel the search is worth the effort.

[Silver Gryphon]

I believe that there is life elsewhere in the universe, but I don't believe that they have visited us yet (as in UFOs). The universe is a rather large place; it would take a lifetime or more to get out of our own solar system with the best propulsion techniques we have now. (I would go and find a more exact figure for that time but I'm lazy.)

[deathstalker82]

Yes a shame it would be. With our present propulsion techniques, it would take forever to go through our galaxy, but I like to think that some civilizations have already mastered space and have ships like star wars and star trek. Maybe SETI will get lucky. I don't think that they can monitor that far out into space, even if they could I wonder how they could distinguish something as small as COMM chatter with all of the noise in the universe. To my mind it would be very hard to pin point an extremely small signal in the vastness that is space.
Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise.............. or A long time ago. In a galaxy far, far away............

[dai bread]

I think you're a bit optimistic about finding life like us, DS. If you go back 50 years, we were supposed to have at least a moon colony and regular space travel by now, and it hasn't happened. 50 years on, I think we'll still be struggling with the Moon & Mars, assuming NASA or it equivalent is still functioning.

Of course, we could get Visitors.........

[deathstalker82]

You are probably right dai bread, but I don't know if you saw where the group won the x-prize, and if I recall correctly, Richard Branson bought the company and is pouring money into it. Also the Chinese plan on having a moon colony within the next decade. That I think will not happen, maybe twenty years from now, but who knows, the new competition could spur some really new ideas and missions. Personally I think that we should go out, not in and explore the outer solar system and everything beyond it. Maybe we will get visitors, I like to think they have already come here and don't like what they see.

[analog]

Do we need a twilight zone thread?

QUOTE-------------------
but i am glad to see that nasa is experimenting with nuclear power in one of their future probes.
------------------------------

DS-
Back around 1960 Westinghouse built and tested some fission rocket engines. Freeman Dyson describes them in his "disturbing the universe". They are a bit messy, for they hurl decomposing atoms out their exhaust.

You might enjoy the fusion-by-electrostatic-confinement experiments of a Prof Miller at Univ of Illinois, he's working on a rocket engine based on that principle. The basic idea is so simple there's already a bevy of hobbyists making neutrons in their basement "Mr Fusions". As usual, our real progress comes out of our play. Fusor.org has some links.

As to deep space - i think the computers have got so good it makes more sense to send machines into space, for they need neither portapotties nor return tickets.

As to SETI, I'm beginning to wonder is there a non-electromagnetic medium we should look for?

[barfle]

Originally posted by deathstalker82:
You are probably right dai bread, but I don't know if you saw where the group won the x-prize,

Scaled Composites is the name of the company. It is pretty much the baby of Burt Rutan, who has designed several high performance (and strange-looking) aircraft.

Originally posted by deathstalker82:
and if I recall correctly, Richard Branson bought the company and is pouring money into it.

Richard Branson added Virgin Airlines as a sponsor once the first flight into space was completed on June 21, 2004.

He is also sponsoring a Burt Rutan design to break the record for nonstop around-the-world flight.

[BigJon]

Originally posted by analog:
Back around 1960 Westinghouse built and tested some fission rocket engines. Freeman Dyson describes them in his "disturbing the universe". They are a bit messy, for they hurl decomposing atoms out their exhaust.

I remember some time in the late 70s or early 80s a semi-serious proposal to use up the earth's atomic bomb supply by exploding them behind a spacecraft as a means of interplanetary propulsion.

Originally posted by analog:
You might enjoy the fusion-by-electrostatic-confinement experiments of a Prof Miller at Univ of Illinois, he's working on a rocket engine based on that principle. The basic idea is so simple there's already a bevy of hobbyists making neutrons in their basement "Mr Fusions". As usual, our real progress comes out of our play. Fusor.org has some links.

Fusor.org is a dead parrot.

Originally posted by analog:
As to SETI, I'm beginning to wonder is there a non-electromagnetic medium we should look for?

Interesting article on that topic:http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20020124.html

BigJon

[analog]

Oops

Sorry Bigjon for the "dead parrot" link...
try www.fusor.net (instead of .org) for the hobbyist site.
The U of I rocket guy is at
http://www.n-plasma.com/fusion.html

Thanks for the link to UWB radio. Sounds so crazy it'll probably work. I see there's aleady a UWB thru the wall police radar on the market, at(RadarVision.com). And I thought they'd never get past 28K on a phone line. Oh well, i passed up EBAY's IPO too!

Freeman Dyson describes that a-bomb propulsion scheme in his book. They actually built and flew a small flying saucer propelled by sequenced dynamite charges, and that demo got the military's interest.

<small>[ 01-04-2005, 02:04 PM: Message edited by: analog ]</small>