What is your estimate?

[Shift]

After playing Mass Effect and realising that with all those civilisations that they had discovered, and still less than 1% of the Milky Way had been discovered, had me wondering if, with warp drives etc, it still limits us to our boundaries, would mankind even still exist when it comes to exploring above and beyond even our own galaxy.

But im almost certain that there many wierd and wonderful new races just inside our galaxy, maybe quite a few more inteligent than us, what do you guys estimate will be the time, considering how fast our technology is growing, that we will be able to start exploring our galaxy.

Taking into account that, all the stars in the sky represent a sun, and its taking what? 4 years for that light to reach Earth, so at lightspeed, a craft would reach that sun in 4 years.

Personally, I think we have the know how of FTL speeds, but at the moment, we dont havr the technology to generate it and control within specific variables, but I think breakthroughs could be made in our lifetime.

Your thoughts?

 

[Narvi]

Unless you want to break relativity, FTL is impossible.

Anyway, you're way too imaginative. It will be centuries before we have an interstellar civilization. Think about what we can do here first! Moon bases, space elevators, the resources of an entire solar system...

 

[Dan]

I doubt that we will get off this rock. Basically we are currently at the peak of our total global power usage and we have barely gotten to the moon. The next century is going to be marked by a huge decrease in available power as oil stocks dwindle. Windmills aren't going to fuel rockets to the future. Meanwhile, our immediate energy needs are increasing as the global population continues to soar. Our only chance is to increase efficiency really really fast.

oh and

The earth was flat once ...

Flatness was never a governing physical law.

 

[Shift]

I dont think FTL travel is impossible, just impractical with current technologies, if you google it, there are numerous discussion about it, and certain methods that can be used.

Edit*But I agree, unless we become more reliable and efficient with out current supplies, then its going to be tough funding the resources to get to place like Mars etc, not to mention the goverments seem more worried about funding illegal wars than exploring our backyard (and medicine etc).

 

[Dan]

Faster Than Light travel isn't impossible, just impractical with current technologies, if you google it, there are numerous discussion about it, and certain methods that can be used.

There is no guaranteed "if we build it, it will 100% work" means for ftl travel. It is all theoretical.

 

[HunterSeeker]

I would say in 200 years, at most. Perhaps as few as 100 years. This will be done by slower then light travel though, and it will be the time where we send our first manned spacecraft outside the solar system. And by manned I mean crewed by either machines or genetically engineered beings where the long journey will only take a fraction of their lifetime despite it taking decades or even centuries.

 

[Shift]

Either that or WE are visited by others, however unlikely, or find advanced technology within our solar system that would throw our technology foward a few centuries. Rare but I think anything could happen out there.

 

[Saltpeter]

Windmills aren't going to fuel rockets to the future.

The fuels used in rockets aren't fossil per se ('cept for maybe the solid rocket boosters), so that's another thing. I agree with the rest of your post though.

Still, there's wide research going on for alternative fuels, and a great deal has already been taken up for utilization in real life. Here in Holland, a company has found a method of extracting energy from the molecular exchanges between salt and sweet water, and investors have agreed on building a powerplant with this technology that, once in operation, can supply the entire north of the Netherlands with power.

Then there's the biomass fuels, the hydrogen cells, etc. There's plenty of alternatives to fossil fuels, we just need to pay more attention to what's available.

 

[lePobz]

How awesome it would be to be on the first mission to another solar system, discovering the planets one by one and realising one of them can support life ... then landing on it...

I want to go

 

[Seppo]

I doubt that we will get off this rock. Basically we are currently at the peak of our total global power usage and we have barely gotten to the moon. The next century is going to be marked by a huge decrease in available power as oil stocks dwindle. Windmills aren't going to fuel rockets to the future. Meanwhile, our immediate energy needs are increasing as the global population continues to soar. Our only chance is to increase efficiency really really fast.

I'm not really an expert at this stuff, but isn't a diffusion reactor (or something) basically the solution to all energy problems?

 

[Cheomesh]

I always thought it would be cool if we where the leading technological species in the galaxy.

You rarely read a story about those.

Besides, if we meet another sentient species, see Solaris.

 

[Seppo]

It would be fascinating if the first crew sent to Mars discovered for example ruins of an ancient civilization, or like a huge fossil from the soil of Mars.

 

[Dan]

It would be fascinating if the first crew sent to Mars discovered for example ruins of an ancient civilization, or like a huge fossil from the soil of Mars.

Or a giant statue of a monkey

 

[Danimal]

Or me, swinging on my rocking chair, yelling while polishing my shotgun.

"Get off me sand farm, ye' ingits!"

 

[Cheomesh]

Hm...or a strange civilization that rides on sand-ships and flies with flaming birds.

They've weapons that shoot metal bees to kill.

They've yellow eyes and a delicate physique.

On the far side, we find shape-shifters.

Of course, this mission will begin in the summer...a Rocket Summer.

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

Space elevators. Spaceborne production facilities. These things are needed before we can really go anywhere. Strapping small, fragile objects to giant explosive poles and hoping that they won't explode while wasting vast amounts of energy is stupid and unsustainable.

 

[Polaris]

We will not survive the next thousand years, unless we spread into space. We must continue in space exploration or we will face the extinction.
It will be very hard with people like US presidential candidate Tom Tancredo who indicated that he is against the space program and would not support a mission to Mars.

 

[Cheomesh]

We will not survive the next thousand years, unless we spread into space. We must continue in space exploration or we will face the extinction.
It will be very hard with people like US presidential candidate Tom Tancredo who indicated that he is against the space program and would not support a mission to Mars.

Really? When did he say that? I missed it then...if true, he is NOT getting my vote.

 

[Polaris]

Really? When did he say that? I missed it then...if true, he is NOT getting my vote.

In the republican debate of November 28th 2007, he also don't believe in evolution etc. Enemy of science No.1 !
Don't vote for this bastard.

 

[Tyguy]

Milky Way has about 200 billion solar masses, which probably encompasses around 300 billion stars...Milky Way is one of billions of galaxies...not to mention globular clusters. Chance for life is so good its not even funny.

Einstein wasn't always right mind you, many of his predictions have been disproven....especially his cosmological constant. However, his theory of relativity cannot be disproven, so that forces us to an impass. The most troubling part of this is that there are two sets of laws, 1 for relativity, and 1 for quantum mechanics....

 

[Atomic_Piggy]

I'm sure there are some, though I'm more exicted about what humanity may transform into.

 

[Cheomesh]

I'm sure there are some, though I'm more exicted about what humanity may transform into.

Oh **** that. The day we stop being human is one sad day.

 

[HunterSeeker]

Oh **** that. The day we stop being human is one sad day.

Why is that?

 

[Polaris]

We don't want to lose our humanity, only become something more, end human pain and suffering...

 

[Raziaar]

Really? When did he say that? I missed it then...if true, he is NOT getting my vote.

He said it was a waste of money.

We don't want to lose our humanity, only become something more, end human pain and suffering...

And begin a new era in robo-human pain and suffering!

 

[Seppo]

In the republican debate of November 28th 2007, he also don't believe in evolution etc. Enemy of science No.1 !
Don't vote for this bastard.

I seriously hope people don't vote for that dude then

 

[Kadayi]

Oh other forms of life are out there for sure, but the proportion of planetary bodies that fall in the Goldilocks zone ('just right') around other Stars that are capable of nurturing life is probably fairly minimal, of the 130 or so Exo-Planets (planets detected in other solar systems) so far discovered only one is believed to be a close match for earth in terms of atmosphere (though little else can be determined about it). The majority of Exo-planets discovered so are uninhabitable large Gas giants like Jupiter.

The other thing to bear in mind is that being in a location ripe for life to develop doesn't necessarily mean life will develop. All of our plant life and the bi-products that have developed as a result of it (Rubber, Oil, Textiles, food, etc etc) origins lie in the evolution of simple plants such as Moss into more complex forms. Our entire eco-system is built upon these small evolutionary twists, twists that might not occur or be radically different on other worlds.

With regards to life, one also has to consider the issue of evolution. As far as species go humanity is the exception rather than the rule in terms of ongoing development. Ants have been around far longer than humans have but they haven't developed at all or changed their living strategies, because they are very successful at what they do. Sharks are the same..they don't need to evolve because they have no competition.

There might well come a day when we do reach other solar systems and settle new worlds, but that isn't going to be anytime soon (even if we invented a FTL drive tomorrow). Mars does seem to be the next stepping stone, but a lot depends on what benefit Mars actually offers humanity (no plant life so no resources beyond basic elements are likely to be found there). Short of a one world government that is prepared to throw money and resources away for the benefit of their great great grandchildren any serious progress is likely to be a long time coming.

 

[Atomic_Piggy]

The goldilocks zone is stupid. We have no experiance of life on other worlds - yet we arrogently assume that it will be on an earth like world. Extremeophiles have demonstarted the ability to survive in incredibly extreme conditions. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolving_the_Alien

Also, like Cheomesh said, Solaris.

 

[delusional]

The goldilocks zone is stupid. We have no experiance of life on other worlds - yet we arrogently assume that it will be on an earth like world. Extremeophiles have demonstarted the ability to survive in incredibly extreme conditions. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolving_the_Alien

http://www.livescience.com/strangenews/060314_evo_repeats.html

Seems like convergent evolution may lead to the conclusion that aliens might have similar characteristics to earth.

 

[Dan]

Milky Way has about 200 billion solar masses, which probably encompasses around 300 billion stars...Milky Way is one of billions of galaxies...not to mention globular clusters. Chance for life is so good its not even funny.

Using the large number of stars by itself is not an argument for anything. There are trillions of atomic collisions in your coffee cup every morning, and there is a small chance that nuclear fusion might occur for every collision, but you don't expect to see your morning coffee go nuclear ever. The odds of a particular collision having enough energy are infinitesimally small, even in comparison to the huge number of collisions. The same thing is true of the chances of life occurring. We don't even know for sure what the probabilities of life are, but we know that it is small enough that we aren't swimming in alien visitors right now. Saying that the chance for life is really good is completely baseless.

 

[K e r b e r o s]

There is no guaranteed "if we build it, it will 100% work" means for ftl travel. It is all theoretical.

Okay, so ... I'm not a religious zealot, but last time I checked ... didn't space technically not move? Or move around us?

Can someone explain this dynamic to me?

 

[Cheomesh]

The goldilocks zone is stupid. We have no experiance of life on other worlds - yet we arrogently assume that it will be on an earth like world. Extremeophiles have demonstarted the ability to survive in incredibly extreme conditions. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolving_the_Alien

Also, like Cheomesh said, Solaris.

Agreed.

 

[Deleted member 56031]

The earth was flat once ...

You do know no one actually thought that back in the day it was hollywood crap that made that up.

 

[HunterSeeker]

You do know no one actually thought that back in the day it was hollywood crap that made that up.

Yes, people once thought the world was flat. That idea got discarded far earlier then most people think though.

 

[Kadayi]

The goldilocks zone is stupid. We have no experiance of life on other worlds - yet we arrogently assume that it will be on an earth like world. Extremeophiles have demonstarted the ability to survive in incredibly extreme conditions. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolving_the_Alien

There is nothing arrogant about it, there have been countless species that have come into existence out of the chemical soup that makes up our planet which is bubbling along at 'just the right temperature'. There is no real reason to assume that planets of a similar disposition throughout the universe might not yield similar results in terms of being harbours for life. As for Extremophiles, sure they are a form of 'life' but they are almost all low level bacteria of one form or another, nothing much to get excited about in the long run there.

Also, like Cheomesh said, Solaris.

Solaris..the novel. What next Dracula?

 

[ShinRa]

Imagine that it's possible that somewhere out there, a world just like ours exists. Buildings, cars, humans, animals, oceans, continents.....exactly like ours, and who knows, maybe making games like half-life, or making music like rock and rap. Seeing the vastness of the earth, i doubt we're the only planet to evolve this way.

 

[Smoke]

Imagine that it's possible that somewhere out there, a world just like ours exists. Buildings, cars, humans, animals, oceans, continents.....exactly like ours, and who knows, maybe making games like half-life, or making music like rock and rap. Seeing the vastness of the earth, i doubt we're the only planet to evolve this way.

You're grabbing snowflakes.

 

[Cheomesh]

There is nothing arrogant about it, there have been countless species that have come into existence out of the chemical soup that makes up our planet which is bubbling along at 'just the right temperature'. There is no real reason to assume that planets of a similar disposition throughout the universe might not yield similar results in terms of being harbours for life. As for Extremophiles, sure they are a form of 'life' but they are almost all low level bacteria of one form or another, nothing much to get excited about in the long run there.

Not trying to start a fight but I really think that's unlikely. I'm no super genious, but even ONE change in the billions of variables at the creation of life on our planet would be a prism for making a totally different world. Hell, for all I know, Panspermia has created another, or many, worlds like our own.

Solaris..the novel. What next Dracula?

It brings forth an interesting way of seeing things.

 

[Tyguy]

Saying that the chance for life is really good is completely baseless.

No, your wrong. Baseless would be if I said there are aliens living on the moon. If you are trying to say that out of the trillions of stars out there, all with the strong possibility of having planets in the so called "Goldie lox" zone, that there isnt a good chance of life emerging, then your just a fool.

The earth has gone through many planet-wide extinctions over the 4.5 billion years it has been around. Whether it be meteorites or volcanoes, the earth has started from scratch about 6 times.

 

[Dan]

No, your wrong. Baseless would be if I said there are aliens living on the moon. If you are trying to say that out of the trillions of stars out there, all with the strong possibility of having planets in the so called "Goldie lox" zone, that there isnt a good chance of life emerging, then your just a fool.

The earth has gone through many planet-wide extinctions over the 4.5 billion years it has been around. Whether it be meteorites or volcanoes, the earth has started from scratch about 6 times.

Not from scratch, started small. Notice that we have the same bone structure as dinosaurs. Small animals, bacteria, insects, rodents, they survive. Of all of the planets we only have one single data point for life starting from nothing, that is our planet, and it only happened once, perhaps under very specific conditions. And that data point is biased because it is fundamental to our own existence. There is no sound basis for the probability of spontaneous life occuring, we just know that it is small, very small. Goldie Lox zone is no guarantee of life, or even the chance of life. I never said that the chances of life in the universe are bad, I just said that we don't know enough to say that they are good. You in particular don't know enough to say that there is a good chance of life, you are just hoping.