Posted on 11/09/2018 5:15:22 PM PST by plain talk
Government agencies may not have a monopoly on life-hunting space missions for much longer. Breakthrough Initiatives, which already scans the heavens for possible signals from faraway alien civilizations, is considering looking for E.T. on worlds close to home, founder Yuri Milner said.
"We are thinking very seriously about solar system-based initiatives," Milner said here Sunday (Nov. 4) at the seventh annual Breakthrough Prize ceremony at NASA's Ames Research Center. "We're thinking, within our foundation, is there something we can do, privately funded, which will supplement the government-funded projects?"
A potential Breakthrough mission to a destination in our own solar system would probably have a budget in that neighborhood as well; Milner said program funds are an order of magnitude lower than what governments can provide. (For perspective: NASA's 2020 Mars rover, which will look for signs of ancient Red Planet life, has a price tag of around $2.1 billion.)
"But we can take more risk," Milner said.
So, where might this putative Breakthrough mission go? Milner cited as possibilities Jupiter's moon Europa and the Saturn satellite Enceladus, both of which have oceans of liquid water beneath their icy shells, as well as Venus.
Venus may seem like an odd choice, given that its surface is bone-dry and hot enough to melt lead. But conditions in the clouds, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) up, are much more life-friendly, Milner noted.
Milner also mentioned Mars as a potential abode for life, but he said the Red Planet is a less "realistic" Breakthrough target.
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
More money than brains...
We can’t ‘get along’ yes with the people we evolved with - what would make us think some superior culture - one that could make it here - woudn’t just sterilize the planet before we ‘became a threat’...
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
Most people have been brainwashed by science fiction in the last hundred years. They don’t understand the math of just how impossible it is for life on Earth to even exist much less anywhere else in the universe.
Have they forgotten this?:
“ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS, EXCEPT EUROPA. ATTEMPT NO LANDING THERE. USE THEM TOGETHER. USE THEM IN PEACE.”
What happens when they want to get on welfare?
Topics about this guy's alleged SETI search funding go back at least three years .
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I don’t think potential bacteria on Enceladus is much of an alien threat.
He’s looking in the wrong direction (outward). Look inward.
Proof of alien contact could easily be written in our DNA.
THIS project is not a search for sentient life, it would be a search for any kind of non-Earth based life. Odds are it would be quite simple life, and even if not, what would a sentient being from the destinations mentioned find of interest - beyond scientific curiosity - here? Our environment would be as inhospitable to them as theirs is to us. (If there is any doubt, just show ‘em vids of fires in CA.)
The other thing is, while other projects DO attempt to find sentient “alien” life, those target intelligent life in other star systems. Communication is a LONNNNGGGG way from physical contact. Barring something like warp technology (Star Trek) or jumpgates (Babylon 5), it’s very near impossible for aliens other than of virtual godlike characteristic to come here and harm us. If they ARE super advanced, or have relatively “easy” (for them) FTLT, they almost certainly already know we are here, and we better hope they are either benevolent or uninterested. Whether or not we try to find them is likely rather irrelevant to them.
I would add: Very little Sci-Fi is actually some sort of study of what alien life might be like. But exciting drama often needs danger to make it exciting.
All I know is that it usually doesn't turn out well in the movies:
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