Has anyone ever thought that perhaps the reason we've come to a drag in space travel technology is possibly b/c at this point we really have no where to go? I mean we have yet to discover another earthlike planet where life could exist. My question is...if suddenly we spotted an "Earth 2" (for lack of a better term) do you think technology would suddenly ramp up to try to get there? Keep in mind people generally are more productive with a desireable goal in sight...?
2006-07-20 03:55:22 · 16 answers · asked by Dustin S 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Just because you don't see it doesn't mean it's not there.
Plenty of new and exciting technologies in space propulsion and travel have been and are being developed.
In propulsion, we have nuclear thermal, all sorts of electric (nuclear, solar, ion, resistojet, pulsed plasma, etc.), pulsed nuclear, and many others.
Plenty of new advances in life support and satellite technologies are also in development. The reason noone has heard of them, outside the realm of those that work in the field, is because the news is more worried aout sensationalizing wars than promoting exploration.
To answer your question... IF we found an Earth-like planet, chances are it would be on the order of thousands if not millions of light-years away. Which means even if we could travel at the speed of light (which we can't according to Einstein and many others) it would take hundreds or thousands of generations to even get to one.
More likely than actually travelling there would be an attempt to contact the Earth-like planet in hopes of finding a civilization. Who's to say also that a species requires an Earth-like planet to thrive. What if a species developed to breath methane, or CO2, or anything else for that matter. Really, we shouldn't close our minds to just Earth-like planets, because there are so many questions that have yet to be answered about the nature of life and the Universe.
Also, we have not really fully explored our own solar system yet... we know very little about the outer planets or even Mars for that matter... We've only just made it there. In the grand scheme of things, human exploration will be limited to our system for now. However, I wouldn't discount human ingenuity. Just look at the last 100 years, we went from horse and buggy to car to plane to space in that short time...
What's to come? Who knows... but it'll be damn exciting.
2006-07-20 04:05:59 · answer #1 · answered by AresIV 4 · 4⤊ 1⤋
Possibly, but there is some irony here. With a focus in funding in NASA towards space travel and away from space research for the most part, projects involving telescopes that would be able to find an "Earth 2." are in danger of losing the money they need. Though even with the money they remain a decade away, with no money they'll never take shape.
2006-07-20 06:07:55 · answer #2 · answered by astronwritingthinkingprayingrnns 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I disagree. Mars might be a bit uncomfortable, but it is darned close to inhabitable. It would be a bit difficult at first, but mankind's forte is overcoming, and most scientists are pretty convinced that Mars could be a chilly but quite habitable world.
The Mars Society has done as much or more work than NASA on this - check them out at the URL below.
As for the second half of your question - if "Earth II" were located I'm sure space travel research would certainly ramp up. But not much faster than we're doing for Mars. Costs for travel to space are many orders of magnitude larger than the costs for Columbus et al to explore the new world. You could find a ready group of intrepid explorers ready to set foot on Mars or Earth II, but at $50 billion a pop, ain't no one going for a while.
2006-07-20 04:53:11 · answer #3 · answered by dougdell 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I do agree, if an Earth like planet was discovered, we most certainly would do whatever we could to try to get there. Too many people think that space travel is a waste of time, so not as much money or effort is being spent on developing ways to travel such vast distances in small amounts of time, or it just surviving a travel of such a distance.
2006-07-20 04:00:40 · answer #4 · answered by Icy U 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's pretty certain there is no earth 2 in our solar system. This means the distance to it would be so great that travel to it so far beyond what we are capable of that it might as well not exist. It would be like asking Leonardo Da Vinci to design and build a super computer. The knowledge and technology did not exist in his time, nor could he even conceive of it.
2006-07-20 17:44:40 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
There are boundless places to go as our solar system harbors many interesting moons, all reasonably close enough to get to!
The problem is under funding, politics, and the general undervalued opinion that the public holds of the space program. We really should have a space program awareness week to make people aware of the countless contributions the program has made to their lives.
2006-07-20 10:14:11 · answer #6 · answered by minuteblue 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No where to go? What about Mars, the asteroids, moons of Jupiter and Saturn???
Just because these places are not "earth-like" doesn't mean they are unexplorable or uninhabitable!
Space travel tech is continuing to evolve, it just seems like it's at a stand still because it takes a lot of time and money to advance the technology even just a little bit.
2006-07-20 04:29:32 · answer #7 · answered by Jared Z 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Depends how far it is... Anyway according to the "probability theory" there should be a lot of planets outhere similar with earth characteristics... This is in theory... but so far, officially there is no other planet with athmosphere and properties like ours...Yet when we find one and it will become official, perhaps, the space travelling will be a little bit "steamed up"...
2006-07-20 04:34:17 · answer #8 · answered by None A 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think the space program would really pick up if we found an "earth 2". We've pretty much explored everything "close" to us. Other places in the galaxy take longer to get to. Therefore, longer to explore.
I don't know if it's a good idea to continue, or put the money a nd energy to help our earth.. good question!
2006-07-20 03:58:17 · answer #9 · answered by ray of sunshine 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think because of all the problems We are having on this planet, some people would like to go anywhere else. I think we all have to make a concious effort to help this planet, and not destroy another by visiting it/inhabiting it. We just seem to make a mess of other people's things.
2006-07-20 03:59:49 · answer #10 · answered by Catnipgirl 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋