30 year run coming to a close

[cartman]

With the liftoff of the shuttle Atlantis, that marks the final launch of the fleet of space shuttles. It never gets old watching something so large get hurtled into orbit.

[DaddyTorgo]

Yep. Brought a tear to my eye.

Think it's a shortsighted decision.

[JediKooter]

I can't wait until they start launching those manned mission to Mars...oh wait...never mind.

[GrantDawg]

Godspeed, Atlantis. Sad the era has to end, but hopefully new and better things are on the horizon. It might be a long while till we actually see it though.

I remember 20 years ago, going to the Air and Space museum. The plans were there for the prototype shuttles that would replace the originals (smaller, cheaper, easier to manage). For whatever reason, the programs were killed. It may be years before they get the alternative up. It is just sad the current state of our space exploration. :(

[GrantDawg]

Yep. Brought a tear to my eye.

Think it's a shortsighted decision.


No, I won't say that. Like I mentioned in my post, the "shortsighted" part happened 20 years ago. They should retired the shuttles back then, and had the alternatives ready to go. They have waited too long, and these shuttles are so out of date and expensive to keep up, it would be silly and a waist of money to keep using them.

[PilotMan]

Beautiful launch this morning. I watched the live feed with the family from about 90 min before the launch. I too, got teary eyed as I watched it go. I remember my first grade teacher bringing in a TV to class so we could watch the first launch of Columbia in 1981. Quite an era of amazing highs and incredible and powerful lows.

[Butter]

Yeah, I couldn't believe it either when I was watching it, but I choked up and had my boys watch it. I don't know if they'd ever actually watched a launch.

[DaddyTorgo]

No, I won't say that. Like I mentioned in my post, the "shortsighted" part happened 20 years ago. They should retired the shuttles back then, and had the alternatives ready to go. They have waited too long, and these shuttles are so out of date and expensive to keep up, it would be silly and a waist of money to keep using them.

Fair enough on that point.

I'd argue that I didn't say when the "shortsighted" decision was made.

I'd honestly argue that the whole space program has largely been a series of shortsigted clusterfuck decisions (punctuated by a few good ones) since after the Apollo missions. Far too little energy and $$ devoted to it...and that's going to bite us in the ass when either (a) the aliens come, or (b) the asteroid slams into the planet and wipes us out.

And no, I'm not joking. I think either of those are distinct possibilities. Statistically one of those is likely to happen, and yet we have all of our eggs in this one basket (literally as well as metaphorically) and are slowing down our efforts to change that.

Recipe for extinction.

[JediKooter]

And no, I'm not joking. I think either of those are distinct possibilities. Statistically one of those is likely to happen, and yet we have all of our eggs in this one basket (literally as well as metaphorically) and are slowing down our efforts to change that.

Recipe for extinction.

And in 65 million years after we go extinct, whatever species exists then that is smart enough, will make a movie about cloning human DNA...Welcome to Homosapiens Park!

[spleen1015]

How is it statistically possible for aliens to pay us a visit?

[DaddyTorgo]

How is it statistically possible for aliens to pay us a visit?

Statistically likely that they exist. Statistically likely that they're sentient. And likely is an understatement of a word too.

Haven't done the math myself, or seen it done, but given that, I would imagine it's not a stretch at all that on some other planet they could have been the first species evolved and thus could be ahead of us technologically to the point where they could find us and pay us a visit.

[jeff061]

While I'm certain they exist, both more and less intelligent alike. I think the chance they stumble specifically on us within our relatively brief existence is slim.

[JediKooter]

It may be a tiny tiny chance, but, I agree that there is a chance that aliens could pay our tiny little planet a visit. We've had rocket power for less than a century, so, we are still really in our embryonic stage of space travel in my opinion.

[jeff061]

Yep, and at the same time we develop rocketry we see the proliferation of nuclear weapons and the mastery of biological ones. I don't see us getting much out of the embryonic stage of rocketry.

But they call me cynical.

[DaddyTorgo]

Yep, and at the same time we develop rocketry we see the proliferation of nuclear weapons and the mastery of biological ones. I don't see us getting much out of the embryonic stage of rocketry.

But they call me cynical.

This yet another reason why we need to get all of our eggs out of this one basket...

[jeff061]

Definitely agree there, not sure we have enough time to realistically accomplish that.

[JediKooter]

Yep, and at the same time we develop rocketry we see the proliferation of nuclear weapons and the mastery of biological ones. I don't see us getting much out of the embryonic stage of rocketry.

But they call me cynical.

Totally in agreement with you on that. We should use the nukes to try and get project Orion to work.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_%28nuclear_propulsion%29

[DanGarion]

It may be a tiny tiny chance, but, I agree that there is a chance that aliens could pay our tiny little planet a visit. We've had rocket power for less than a century, so, we are still really in our embryonic stage of space travel in my opinion.

I don't think it will happen till Zefram Cochrane creates warp drive in 2063.

[JediKooter]

I don't think it will happen till Zefram Cochrane creates warp drive in 2063.

That's a very good point. Hopefully my mind and ticker will hold out long enough to see.

[bronconick]

As much as it was probably a good idea to sign a treaty banning weapons in space, I can't help but think that if the military had been put in charge of space exploration and exploitation, we'd have a permanent base on the moon and had visited Mars and asteroids by now. They would immediately have seen the bonuses of the "high ground" and been more willing to take risks, and they wouldn't have had their funding cut constantly like NASA has.

[johnnyshaka]

When I was a young gaffer, I got to meet Marc Garneau (Canada's first astronaut) about a year before he went into space. I was at a curling bonspiel (my parents were avid curlers when I was growing up) when he noticed my younger brother and I sitting at a table watching our parents curl. He sat down and introduced himself and gave us each a little toy shuttle and spent the next hour explaining what it was and how everything worked. Very cool for 8 and 6 year old boys.

I think I still have his autograph on a coaster from CFB Uplands curling rink (dad was in the Canadian Air Force at the time).

[SteveMax58]

Yep. Brought a tear to my eye.

Think it's a shortsighted decision.

+1 though agreed that the decision(s) have been shortsighted for so long that we aren't ready for more efficient exploration and transport methods.

Had we funded the space program more adequately over the years, perhaps we'd be closer to finding more self-sustaining ways to power vehicles and buildings. I know its not a guarantee...but I trust scientists to discover the most effective technology, which can then be used & refined for optimum cost/benefit by wealthy investors...not the other way around.

[sterlingice]

As much as it was probably a good idea to sign a treaty banning weapons in space, I can't help but think that if the military had been put in charge of space exploration and exploitation, we'd have a permanent base on the moon and had visited Mars and asteroids by now. They would immediately have seen the bonuses of the "high ground" and been more willing to take risks, and they wouldn't have had their funding cut constantly like NASA has.

And our supply of unobtanium would be off the charts :D

SI

[Racer]

I find it highly unlikely that our planet is invaded by aliens. I think intelligent sentient life certainly exists elsewhere but our planet has been habitable for millions of years. Humans, meanwhile, have been around for thousands of years.

Why would some alien civilization wait until the near future or the next couple hundred years to attack us and attempt to colonize our planet instead of doing prior to us using its natural resources? This leads me to believe that

A.) Interstellar travel isn't possible.
B.) There is some sort of Intergalactic Law that protects us as well as other planets with intelligent life that have not yet developed interstellar travel from being colonized or attacked.
C.) Either there are more Earth like planets then we realize or the aliens that have developed interstellar travel aren't oxygen breathing and don't want to invest the time and money to attack our planet and subsequently terraform the atmosphere to include whatever gas they breath.

[jeff061]

D: We aren't smart enough to understand it

[tarcone]

We have already visited Mars. In fact, we have been going there for years. Right now the USAF is in charge of Space. NASA is just the publicity wing. There to keep the masses excited.
The U.S.A. government pays for the USAF version through black ops funding, as well as, the other goofy ways the government can $3000 for a hammer.

We are a lot more advanced as a civilization then we think.

[cartman]

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[JediKooter]

We can land someone on the Moon and send probes to deep space, but, it still takes 14 freaking business days to get a new ATM card!? WTF????