"It could tell us more about life on Earth.."

The Dark Elf

The Dark Elf

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Is the line often used for things NASAplace do. But what exactly do they ever learn? It's been going on for decades but they still don't seem to understand anything

Recent examples..

first the comet landing thing "it could tell us more about life on earth"

then the titan one "it could tell us more about life on earth"

Whats the betting they find and learn nothing, other than a comet is infact a comet and Titan is just some moon

Here's an idea.. why not look at earth to learn more about earth. Obviously these things up in the sky haven't been helping much in the past 40 years.

/rant off
 
The question is why are we even trying to research our origins? The truth could never be confirmed.

We should be focusing on the future, not the past.
 
DoctorGordon said:
The question is why are we even trying to research our origins? The truth could never be confirmed.

We should be focusing on the future, not the past.
Click to expand...


Learning about how Earth was formed will tell us how other planets are formed, especially planets that could one day, or already do, support life. And sometimes, you have to look back to look forward.


DarkElf, i think it has to do with the formation of planets and how all the rocks came together to form bigger rocks which eventually formed the planets, i think you really need to be on one of the teams to know what the findings are as the general press aren't really interested in "robot lands on comet, discovers it's cold".
 
Most of the secrets we could gain from looking at earth have already been found or destroyed by life. As Razor said most of what they will learn by looking at other planets has to do with the solar system formation and most of what they say is just to keep the general public interested. Right now the there isn't enough money going into NASA for them to do anything really interested but the problem is if they aren't doing anything interesting then the public will lose interest and NASA will end up losing more money.
 
I think we should be looking at more earth-like bodies. Europa (sp?) for example. It looks like it could support life. Well, moreso than a comet or Titan.
 
Tantalus said:
I think we should be looking at more earth-like bodies. Europa (sp?) for example. It looks like it could support life. Well, moreso than a comet or Titan.
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They already have bigger plans for Europa than with Titan, the Titan mission sounds like it will be relatively small when compared to a probe they are developing for going to Europa.

As for exploring comets those are in a practical sense far more necessary to study than either Titan or Europa.

EDIT: By the way, the Titan landing that has just been happening is all part of the ESA. Its a European probe and mission.
 
"it could tell us more about life on earth"
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that answer is more than enough for most of the tax payers.

I think that there are obviosly more reasons for such expeditions - researching a comet can for example help defend earth from collision with one of them.

and as for the Titan (or any other moon/planet) landing - well, if they find any usefull minerals they'll probably start harvesting them very soon.

well it works that way in games, doesn't it?:p
 
Many of those landings show the big picture of the Universe, which in turn tells us how Earth was formed and what are the odds of it happening again somewhere.

Of course, it's mostly just a catchphrase for public attention. I don't mind, I think most of the World's money should be deployed to this kind of cooperation to a single goal that would benefit it us all that is space exploration.
 
I'm really excited to see the pictures thats gonna come back from this moon, but apparently it takes 66 minutes to recieve radio waves between there and earth, which sucks...gotta wait even longer than the 7 years since it left! God damn delays, feels like waiting for HL2 again :p

I love knowing all about the universe and stuff...its so vast and so much to know and so many theories. One that i love is 'anti-gravity' in blackholes...the physics is amazing behind that. :)
 
The Mars landers have certainly returned enough info to really change what we think about how planets come about and can become barren wasteland.
I'd say that they've succeeded. :D
 
just read the news about the Titan landing.
it's the only moon in our solar system that has an atmosphere.
the scientists hope, that the analysis of the atmosphere will help to understand haw it formed on earth and possibly the begining of life itself.

interresting
so it seems that it actually CAN '...tell us more about life on earth';)
 
Here's my view:

They can theorize all they want. Let 'em send all their rockets up or whatever. But get private funding for it. I don't want them spending billions of our tax dollars sending up satellites that only work half the time and may or may not give us a little bit of data on what the origin of the universe MAY be.
 
Titan has an atmosphere similair to a primordial Earth. This would shed light on the enviroment life started in in the first place. Sending a lander to a comet would give us insight on their composistion. This would be extremely useful information on determining effective counter-measures against Comet impacts.
 
Hey, you could have said the same to Columbus "Get your private funding for your stunt, I'm not putting my resources into something that's going to fall off the edge of the world."

Yes, it probably won't tell us anything about life on earth. BUT it WILL tell us something about something else (unless it explodes before they can analyse). Nobody knows what, but that's what science is about. Discoverys by chance. Hardly any discovery was the intended one, but I can tell you something:
If you sit down and don't do anything you won't discover anything.

That's what all of science is about, about something that "may" have a chance, not only space travel. We'd all be in the dark ages still if we didn't do this kind of innovative thing.

Anyway the thing on the news "It may tell us more about life on earth" is just one of the many things they hope to achieve. That particular buzzphrase is just to keep the public interested with their work.

Also one of my professors is designing a NMR thing to put in a future mission to Mars.
 
TheAmazingRando said:
This would be extremely useful information on determining effective counter-measures against Comet impacts.
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Since they're soooo common and all...
 
TheAmazingRando said:
More so than one would believe and they are harder to detect than asteroids and meteors.
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Well, I do not remember the last time a comet crashed into Earth. I know that's not really a good argument, but it makes me feel better. Anyhoo, awesome handle, dude. I love MST3K.
 
Thanks for noticing the name, MST3K is my favorite show.

The only bad thing with using Rando is people say you stole the name from some show called Yu-Hakoshoe lol.
 
TheAmazingRando said:
Thanks for noticing the name, MST3K is my favorite show.

The only bad thing with using Rando is people say you stole the name from some show called Yu-Hakoshoe lol.
Click to expand...
Well, most people haven't watched the credits of the movie based on the TV show, you know?

...even though some of the best parts are in the credits.
 
TheAmazingRando said:
More so than one would believe and they are harder to detect than asteroids and meteors.
Click to expand...

I would think Comets would be easier to detect since they usually have an illuminated tail about a million miles long behind them.
 
alehm said:
I would think Comets would be easier to detect since they usually have an illuminated tail about a million miles long behind them.
Click to expand...

They have to be exposed to the Sun's rays for that. Some could be right on top of us before that happens.
 
I totally disagree with He_Who_Is_Steve, private funding for space exploration would totally ruin cooperation, which is the only real way to get there. Besides, there's only a private sector for things that actually make lots of money. Space exploration doesn't fits the description, that's why space tourism is only being developed now that conventional, tax-payed space exploration has cemented the base for it.
 
Sprafa said:
I totally disagree with He_Who_Is_Steve, private funding for space exploration would totally ruin cooperation, which is the only real way to get there. Besides, there's only a private sector for things that actually make lots of money. Space exploration doesn't fits the description, that's why space tourism is only being developed now that conventional, tax-payed space exploration has cemented the base for it.
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Yea...well you ain't the one paying the taxes. ;) Catch my drift?
 
I agree, i've read abit about the NASA/private thing, and imo space is not for the private sector. People would start to own different parts of space, and then only use it to get money, not gain knowledge.
 
He_Who_Is_Steve said:
Since they're soooo common and all...
Click to expand...

Just like tsunamis were soooo common before a few weeks ago. Does that matter to the 200,000 dead people? You probably weren't alive the last time there was a major tsunami.

Asteroids and comets have pummeled this planet many millions of times since the Earth has existed. Any rock over km wide could wipe out civilization as we know it. It hasn't happened in the last thousand years, does that mean it won't happen anymore?

The last few rocks big enough to end all life passed within a few hundred thousand miles of us and we had no clue until it was past us. We're only capable of watching a very small percentage of the sky. Several rocks within the last two years were near misses. Here we are with the ability to research what they are made of and how we can defend ourselves. But since we haven't been hit in our lifetime it's a waste right?

I'm not going to sit here and explain why Titan is so important. I'm not going to tell you about the many items you use daily that were initially invented for the space program. I'm not going to explain to you why some people find it important to understand what life is and how it developed. Do yourself a favor and take an astronomy course so you don't continue to sound so ignorant.
 
Fishlore said:
I'm not going to sit here and explain why Titan is so important. I'm not going to tell you about the many items you use daily that were initially invented for the space program. I'm not going to explain to you why some people find it important to understand what life is and how it developed. Do yourself a favor and take an astronomy course so you don't continue to sound so ignorant.
Click to expand...
Or perhaps I won't. It's impossible for everyone to know everything about all things, and you know this. How about I concentrate on what I'm interested in, and you stick with the astronomy. If I have any questions (when I start caring) I'll ask you.
 
Well its better then spending money on defense and anyway we learn stuff from this, knowledge is everything who cares if its useful its our duty to find out new stuff. Afterall computers were semi-discovered because of the moon landing stuff
 
Fat Tony! said:
Well its better then spending money on defense and anyway we learn stuff from this, knowledge is everything who cares if its useful its our duty to find out new stuff. Afterall computers were semi-discovered because of the moon landing stuff
Click to expand...
Well, when you put it that way, perhaps I'll need to reconsider my views.
 
Anger is one step closer to turning to the dark side, foolish one :eek:
 
But if everyone knew everything, could we know we knew everything?
 
This can tell us about earth as it was 4 billion years ago. That is the truth, the one truth, and nothing but the truth.
 
O geez, yes lets all stay ignorant, lets research nothing ever again, why don't we just crawl back to the nearest cave and stare at the fire in amazement.

Spacetravel is very important for future technological development, but hey, who needs that?
 
Yes at the time the moon lander computers were top of the line, state of the art. Today your pocket calculator is more advanced.

It is rather backwards and ignorant to say we don't need space exploration. We can't get a better understanding of our universe if we don't look outside our own backyard.

All technology you take for granted today, it is based on discoveries that unenlightened people branded "unimportant" and "a waste of time"
CD-Players? Pfft hogwash, give me Vinyl.

Computer word processors? What's the point, I've got a typewriter.

If all those people working in Intel and AMD stopped wasting their time researching new and faster processors, well maybe they could do something important with their time. Because we MAY be able to get 100 GHz home computers...pfft, yeah, nice one Einstein, we don't NEED 100 GHz personal computers. So stop researching them.

My opinion: We should listen to the professors and scientists who are qualified to make a judgement on this kind of thing, rather than ranting members of public.
 
the only directly observable advantage that most of us see is the advancement of technology required to study space. exploration stretches our technology to its limits, spurring further advancement.
 
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