I've opened this thread because recently i have been looking at the latest news regarding space travel.
After the pandemonium of the space race it seems the public at large have put space to the back of their minds, how many people could tell us even which Rover landed on Mars recently and i think that this is because for the layman space is still not within touching distance (the preserve of governments, scientists and the rich - in short the elite).
I'm here in this thread now to inspire at least one person to go and read because there are several notable things afoot.
1) Viable nuclear fusion - The EU primarily (i think the USA has a project in Canada) could well have an operable plant between 2020-2025 (currently under construction) which will revolutionize space travel as we can travel upto 10% the speed of light collecting the Hydrogen fuel en route once smaller versions of the generator are produced (lets say 2040 as a reasonable aim) which means two things..
a) Mining of the solar system - a near infinite number of resources with the power and capability to transport these - costs of rare earth metals and the like will plummet
b) Most importantly perhaps is that at 10% speed of light a probe could be in the Alpha Centauri star system in around 40 years from departure - as a trinary system the likely-hood is that no liquid bearing planets exist due to excessive solar radiation and cosmic winds however one rocky planet has been identified and with no gas giants in the system chances are that small earth sized planets do exist and so we have the potential for a Mars like planet. The nearest star system similar to ours with no gas giant near the sun is about 10 light years away so still out of reach however anti-matter research is already underway and viable for faster than light travel once produced.
...
Now with the future developments out of the way we still many things to explore in our own solar system...
1) [words=http://www.mattersofsize.com/join-now.html]Titan[/words] - Atmosphere as thick as earths mostly covered by Saturn's magnetic shield with a likely-hood of liquid Methane on the surface coupled with a primary Nitrogen atmosphere means that if we can warm [words=http://www.mattersofsize.com/join-now.html]Titan[/words] up then it would be very possible for microbial life to survive (though there is evidence that it may do already because simulations and experiments have found that [words=http://www.mattersofsize.com/join-now.html]Titan[/words] contains all 5 building blocks for DNA, RNA and Protein (likely based on a Hydrogen-Methane cycle)
2) Other water bearing moons - A couple of moons are basically all water so if we can get under there's a good chance of being able to find potential life, if we can create a cavern in the ice close to water than we could potentially stand outside as we would here (pitch black though).
3) Most importantly, Mars! Comparable to Earth for around half its life it died 2 billion years ago but there is frozen water and aquifers. Potential exists for terraforming.
4) As mentioned earlier, mining will do wonders for our planet!
After the pandemonium of the space race it seems the public at large have put space to the back of their minds, how many people could tell us even which Rover landed on Mars recently and i think that this is because for the layman space is still not within touching distance (the preserve of governments, scientists and the rich - in short the elite).
I'm here in this thread now to inspire at least one person to go and read because there are several notable things afoot.
1) Viable nuclear fusion - The EU primarily (i think the USA has a project in Canada) could well have an operable plant between 2020-2025 (currently under construction) which will revolutionize space travel as we can travel upto 10% the speed of light collecting the Hydrogen fuel en route once smaller versions of the generator are produced (lets say 2040 as a reasonable aim) which means two things..
a) Mining of the solar system - a near infinite number of resources with the power and capability to transport these - costs of rare earth metals and the like will plummet
b) Most importantly perhaps is that at 10% speed of light a probe could be in the Alpha Centauri star system in around 40 years from departure - as a trinary system the likely-hood is that no liquid bearing planets exist due to excessive solar radiation and cosmic winds however one rocky planet has been identified and with no gas giants in the system chances are that small earth sized planets do exist and so we have the potential for a Mars like planet. The nearest star system similar to ours with no gas giant near the sun is about 10 light years away so still out of reach however anti-matter research is already underway and viable for faster than light travel once produced.
...
Now with the future developments out of the way we still many things to explore in our own solar system...
1) [words=http://www.mattersofsize.com/join-now.html]Titan[/words] - Atmosphere as thick as earths mostly covered by Saturn's magnetic shield with a likely-hood of liquid Methane on the surface coupled with a primary Nitrogen atmosphere means that if we can warm [words=http://www.mattersofsize.com/join-now.html]Titan[/words] up then it would be very possible for microbial life to survive (though there is evidence that it may do already because simulations and experiments have found that [words=http://www.mattersofsize.com/join-now.html]Titan[/words] contains all 5 building blocks for DNA, RNA and Protein (likely based on a Hydrogen-Methane cycle)
2) Other water bearing moons - A couple of moons are basically all water so if we can get under there's a good chance of being able to find potential life, if we can create a cavern in the ice close to water than we could potentially stand outside as we would here (pitch black though).
3) Most importantly, Mars! Comparable to Earth for around half its life it died 2 billion years ago but there is frozen water and aquifers. Potential exists for terraforming.
4) As mentioned earlier, mining will do wonders for our planet!
