Posted on 07/15/2014 6:45:01 AM PDT by BenLurkin
We usually talk about SLS here in the context of the astronauts it will carry inside the Orion spacecraft, which will have its own test flight later in 2014. But today, NASA advertised a possible other use for the rocket: trying to find life beyond Earth.
At a symposium in Washington on the search for life, NASA associate administrator John Grunsfeld said SLS could serve two major functions: launching bigger telescopes, and sending a mission on an express route to Jupiter’s moon Europa.
The James Webb Space Telescope, with a mirror of 6.5 meters (21 feet), will in part search for exoplanets after its launch in 2018. Next-generation telescopes of 10 to 20 meters (33 to 66 feet) could pick out more, if SLS could bring them up into space.
“This will be a multi-generational search,” said Sara Seager, a planetary scientist and physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She added that the big challenge is trying to distinguish a planet like Earth from the light of its parent star; the difference between the two is a magnitude of 10 billion. “Our Earth is actually extremely hard to find,” she said.
(Excerpt) Read more at universetoday.com ...
Finding life or not finding it, giant telescopes will still increase our understanding of the universe by orders of magnitude.
We’ll begin to reach the point in which said telescopes will have the ability to analyze exoplanet atmospheres via spectroscopy.
How about going back to the moon or Mars? Maybe hauling our own astronauts into space would be a good start instead of hitching rides...
Even if we do find life on Europa, all they’ll do is ask us for money and send their people here for welfare.
Makes perfect governmental sense: Spending money we don’t have on extra-terrestrial life that ain’t there.
why not send the message: “Free food and labor” whilst we’re at it. i mean what could possibly go wrong?
Ah, SLS. A multi-billion dollar heavy-lift rocket looking for employment...
There is alien life in all big cities.You can identify it by color and behavior.
Interesting.
Have you seen these little green men yourself?
HAS to be, because the implications of the opposite are more than some human(ist)s want to fathom:
There is a Creator.
We are accountable to Him.
We will be judged by Him.
Finding “alien life” “proves” that what happened here on Earth was nothing special.
And you don’t need no special glasses to see them.
There is at least ONE giant reason to fund telescope projects: as we learn more about the nature of matter and energy - and that is often done by seeing how it plays out on the mega-macro scale of the Universe as presented by the night sky - we learn more about physics.
When we learn more about physics, we learn more about many things, but high up on the list is about what kind of previously-unthinkable weapons technology either we can make, or that our enemies can beat us to making. It isn't the most pleasant thing, but it is reality.
So, while there may indeed be some waste, there is a Constitution-approved reasoning for space exploration, by many means.
I just hope that the aliens don’t have dark skin and speak English poorly, or they’ll become a new victim class, and start swarming in by the billions.
Unless the new rocket travels at several multiples of the speed of light, there’s little chance of finding anything at all.
LOL.CHEW BUBBLEGUM AND KICK AZZ.
SLS-1/EM-1 December 2017 Block I[11] Send Orion/MPCV on unmanned trip around the Moon.
SLS-2/EM-2 2021[106] Block I[11] Send the Orion (spacecraft) with four members to an asteroid that had been robotically captured and placed in lunar orbit two years in advance.[94]
SLS-3 August 2022[105] Block IA[11]
SLS-4 August 2023[105] Block IA[11]
SLS-5 August 2024[105] Block IA[105] Mars Sample Return Mission[98]
SLS-6 August 2025[105] Block IA[105] Manned "Exploration" Mission: Orion BEO picks up Mars sample & returns to Earth
SLS-7 August 2026[105] Block IA[105] Cargo launch
SLS-8 August 2027[105] Block IA[105] Manned launch
SLS-9 August 2028[105] Block IA[105] Cargo launch
SLS-10 August 2029[105] Block IA[105] Manned launch
SLS-11 August 2030[105] Block IA[105] New configuration, Cargo launch
SLS-12 August 2031[105] Block IA[105] Manned mission
SLS-13 August 2032[105] Block II[105] New configuration, Cargo launch
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Impressive launch schedule...NOT! We'll barely have enough money to test the engines.
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