Posted on 04/14/2009 5:52:28 PM PDT by zaphod3000
IT’S a birthright proffered by science and prophesied by “Star Trek,” “Battlestar Galactica” and a thousand other space operas: We’re destined to go to the stars. Our descendants will spread beyond this nondescript solar system and seek adventure and bumpy-headed pals in the stellar realms.
Well, cool your warp jets, Mr. Scott, because we’re not about to breach the final frontier. Piling into a starship and barreling into deep space may long remain —like perfect children or effort-free bathroom cleaners —a pipe dream. . . .
[A] trip to Proxima Centauri, the nearest star beyond the Sun and 100 million times farther from us than the Moon, would consume a tedious 800 centuries or so. . . . .
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
O and the left want us back in the stone age
Party pooper is right and he ignores the real possibility that we’ve discovered water on Mars and possibly the moons of Jupiter. We don’t need to go to the stars to investigate whether life exists elsewhere in the Universe and discovery of any form of life (or simply water for that matter) would revolutionize science and exploration.
He ignores the impact that Quantum mecanics will have on designing engines.
The devices will only be testable in space. We have to get up there and start experiments related to particle acceleration using space vehicles.
Once we have fusion drives, we will be able to conquer time and distance.
Radiation will prevent any prolonged trips to Mars,so like,we`re stuck here.
http://www.space.com/news/061023_space_radiation.html
And the earth is flat and beyond the horizon be monsters and if man were meant to fly he’d have wings and all sorts of other visionary declarations that have been proven idiotic by time.
What about at warp 9?????
It’s pretty easy to imagine a way to circumvent lightspeed. Simply develop a time-machine.
Calculate the number of years the trip will take, then go back in time that amount. Bingo, the moment you arrive at your destination is the moment you started.
:-P
That picture brought back more memories of life under Carter than a 1000 words. Thanks. I've kept a copy. For anyone who was around at that time it speaks volumes.
"...-That Professor Goddard with his 'chair' in Clark College and the countenancing of the Smithsonian Institution does not know the relation of action to reaction, and of the need to have something better than a vacuum against which to react—to say that would be absurd. Of course, he only seems to lack the knowledge ladled out daily in high schools. 1921 New York Times editorial about Robert Goddard's breakthrough work on rockets. The remark was retracted in the July 17, 1969 issue, in a humorous editorial. This was just prior to the historic moon landing of Neil Armstrong, so of course Goddard’s theory of rockets had been proven correct after all.
-A rocket will never be able to leave the Earth's atmosphere. New York Times, 1936..."
Predicting science and technology is another area the Times sucks at.
He forgot about warp speed.....
Pffftt
I have been bugging both of my sons to hurry and finish a FTL drive that will get us off this rock.
So far, no luck. I keep bugging them tho - just in case....
That would be true without Warp Drive. Let's just put several trillion into developing WD, then we'll see how long it takes to get to Proxima C.
>>[A] trip to Proxima Centauri, the nearest star beyond the Sun and 100 million times farther from us than the Moon, would consume a tedious 800 centuries or so. . . . .
That would be true without Warp Drive. Let’s just put several trillion into developing WD, then we’ll see how long it takes to get to Proxima C.<<
While they are already printing out money like it is going out of business, they want to cut NASA and the Defense Budget....
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