Posted on 02/24/2017 9:00:55 AM PST by Hostage
The discovery of seven habitable planets just 40 light years away is certainly impressive, but the fact is, they are still 40 light years away. Unless we're willing and able to spend thousands of years traveling through space, we won't be rolling into the TRAPPIST-1 system anytime soon. This means that over the coming decades, advanced scientific instruments closer to home will play very important roles in exploring these distant worlds – perhaps none more so than the James Webb Space Telescope. So what can we expect when it is fired into orbit next year? We checked in with some of the scientists behind yesterday's hugely exciting discovery to learn how astronomers will use NASA's next-generation space telescope to probe the secrets of the TRAPPIST-1 system.
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has been almost two decades in the making and, spanning the size of a tennis court, will be the largest space telescope ever assembled. Poised to take the reins from Hubble as NASA's premier orbiting telescope in 2018, it will boast seven times the light-collecting capacity of its predecessor and will be sensitive enough to spot a single firefly one million kilometers away.
(Excerpt) Read more at newatlas.com ...
You have a point. Red dwarf stars are not the best candidates for stable, habitable planets because they tend to also be flare stars. And the smaller the star, the closer the habitable zone is to the star, making flares even more dangerous. But at the same time, the larger the star, the more difficult it becomes to find planets around them using the standard Doppler method. But leaving that aside and more to the point, finding a planet in a habitable zone with an atmosphere, and especially one with water vapor, would be a tremendous discovery, making extraterrestrial life much more probable. And an atmosphere containing oxygen would be an almost certain indication of life beyond Earth.
I read somewhere that a big reason for building the portable 4th generation nuclear reactors that rely on some variant of liquid fluoride thorium is that they can be used for space travel.
Furthermore, habitability has more complex requirements than just an Earth-sized planet at a liquid-water-sustaining distance from a suitably-sized star.
I agree that the detection of significnt fraction of oxygen molecules (and not just oxygen as CO2) in an Earth-sized exoplanet's atmosphere would almost certainly indicate the presence of (at least photosynthetic plant) life.
The technological ROI Return On Investment of the 1950s through 1980s NASA Space program is exponential.
Everything from computer microchips to aluminum foil to plastic sheet wrapping to very advanced military products and missile technology, you-name-it had origins in the US Space Program. It is one of the best, if not the best, of government programs ever.
It puts a lot of young talent to work in careers that give back to society for generations. It keeps the US in the leadership of technology.
So many world class scientists have come through the NASA pipelines in the past. During the OBAMA years, it was subverted to an extent and steered to bizarrely politicized targets. I don’t think for a moment that type of mission planning will happen under President Trump.
This new telescope is an exploratory tool for astronomy and discovery. It is unfortunate that they use the term ‘habitable’ because that cannot be known. There will be no mission to send humans to such places unless a form of space travel is discovered that enables it. So for now it’s just a telescope.
But as an expense, this telescope was an effort that employed scientists in ways to discover improvements and breakthroughs. The benefit of these persons and what they discovered will carry over to other technologies both in the military and consumer space. For example, faster more high-resolution reconnaissance or security surveillance and video recognition for homes, schools, airports, public areas, robots. These kinds of seemingly unrelated applications are made possible because the engineers and scientists are engaged in life-long learning, what they learn and master in one area is carried over into other product spaces and applications.
It’s not a huge government program, it’s not a poorly defined program like social outreach to Muslims and underrepresented peoples, man-made climate change, etc.
It actually is a type of grand program that enables some of the best scientific minds to focus and develop their skills, knowledge, and development with like-minded colleagues. They become a community that has huge benefits to American society.
I see it as far superior to letting Elon Musk lead the scientific frontier. I see it as a continuation of Lewis and Clark that allows America to be first. It’s a good thing.
IIRC, NIST once published a quarterly catalogue of patents and procedures derived from NASA research and development, essentially placed in the public domain. Was a regular arrival at our design firms tech library, a peek across the tech horizon. Even the seemingly small bits were fascinating as what might be applied.
As you say a cornucopia of treats.
You raise an important issue. I sense the Trump Administration is going to set new standards for budgeting and scheduling in just about everything that government has a role in, including NASA. And I believe NASA and all their related partners in labs and universities are going to be happy with the new standards because it will allow for a lot more to be done faster and with fewer dollars.
Top engineers and scientists are really put off by government malfeasance and ignorance.
Werner Von Braun loved being a scientist and engineer for the federal government but that was during a time when the ranks of government scientists and engineers were at the top of the game. There are still incredibly brilliant government scientists but they have been increasingly crowded out by asinine social initiatives.
Let scientists be scientists and they will benefit everybody.
Also, America has a history of funding exploration going all the way back to Lewis and Clark. This is in the same vein of discovery and exploration.
Now that is thinking BIG! :)
Well, you just made a great example of how space research focuses America’s scientific brains on things that will no doubt have huge impacts for improving the quality of life on Earth.
That’s really the way it works.
And the President has said numerous times that he really respects and promotes education and skills development. I would love to see a new migration of youth to science, engineering, and manufacturing. NASA space research is a place for many of them to cut their teeth to get started.
Thank you for that very valuable input.
The President is very committed. I would say it is one his highest priorities in combination with a goal of creating a mission for promoting and forming a new breed and new generation of young people coming into the workforce.
And from recent announcements, another parameter may be the effect of nearby planets in creating planetary climate change by periodic orbital variations caused by small chaotic gravitational interactions between nearby planets.
It is a great shame that most of the American public has so little knowledge and therefore, recognition and pride of just how much the nation’s space program has improved their lives.
It would be great to see some of the new social media citizen reporters host a weekly or monthly show on this.
another problem with space travel is cosmic radiation.
Here is a light weight material stronger than lead that looks like it will stop it.
http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2017/02/23/this-foam-stops-bullets-cold-and-pulverizes-them-to-dust.html
You should post this!....................
All good points. In fact there may be a plethora of requirements, or there may be relatively few; we just don’t know because a single data element cannot provide a statistical basis. There are some absolute requirements for life, and a mountain of factors that are speculative. Assuming it’s carbon-based, life needs water—therefore an atmosphere, a temperature suitable for carbon compounds, an energy source, and a very long time of relatively stable conditions for evolution to take place. But there are a lot of additional conditions that are necessary for those conditions to even exist.
the killer technology on the earth and mars is the one that pulls
all the trace metals out of salt water and puts them to use in
products profitably.
Cool stuff if it’s cheap enough to use for things like insulation and ceiling tiles in building that is fireproof. Normal ceiling times may not burn but they do release poison gas.
Oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide and water must all be not only ‘present’, but in the correct ratios else the atmosphere will be either poison or flammable..................
Yes, I posted a couple years back how the Office of Naval Research (ONR) had demonstrated how to make gasoline from seawater, now at about $3.00 per gallon; kid you not!
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