Will we ever leave Earth?

Originally posted by twhitehead
More likely, you still don't know why because your news sources only report mysteries, war and conspiracies and not scientific findings.
And even more likely, the original story you heard was outright wrong. Or you are simply lying as usual.

I find it highly unlikely that life could be supported on a dead planet for any great length of time and still flourish.

The odds are against it.

Originally posted by whodey
I have a hunch that life is far more rare than scientists think.

there is currently no scientific consensus among scientists of how 'rare' life is and I would guess that most scientists have no opinion of life's rarity in the cosmos and, like myself, wouldn't hesitate in the slightest to say "I don't know" -it is merely a "maybe"; it may be very common or it may be extremely rare.
However, I would personally rule out the possibility of intelligent and technologically advanced alien life being 'very common' in the cosmos -else I think we would have been taken over by them many millions of years ago. In my opinion, IF life is 'very common' in the cosmos, it is probably nearly all just microbial or at least none intelligent. Perhaps life can be very common but evolution of intelligent life is so unlikely that the only intelligent life in the cosmos is on Earth? We could be just a freak.

Originally posted by whodey
I find it highly unlikely that life could be supported on a dead planet for any great length of time and still flourish.

The odds are against it.

There is evidence that there are microbes that can sustainably flourish on extremely harsh environments (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extremophile ) on Earth vary much like the environments that must exist in some places on some other planets and probability including some within our solar system.
Of course, that doesn't in anyway imply there probably is, let alone simply IS, such microbes on such other planets.

Originally posted by humy
There is evidence that there are microbes that can sustainably flourish on extremely harsh environments (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extremophile ) on Earth vary much like the environments that must exist in some places on some other planets and probability including some within our solar system.
Of course, that doesn't in anyway imply there probably is, let alone simply IS, such microbes on such other planets.

Well that is I think what is troubling to many scientists.

On earth, you can find life in the harshest of environments, but on other planets, not so.

Why?

Originally posted by whodey
... you can find life in the harshest of environments, but on other planets, not so.

How do you know this?
We have so far barely scratched the surface for our search for extraterrestrial life. For all we know, just like on Earth, there is microbial life in some of the permafrost in the subsoil on Mars; -it is just that no Mars probe or rover has sampled one of the right spots yet. I am not in any way implying such Martian life is probable, just possible.

Originally posted by whodey
Well that is I think what is troubling to many scientists.

On earth, you can find life in the harshest of environments, but on other planets, not so.

Why?

Just remember, we are still in kindergarten in space. I don't think you will be able to say that, not so, about life on other planets in say, 100 or 200 years, assuming continued growth in our technological prowess and avoiding future catastrophe's and such. New fusion powered or antimatter rockets will open up the solar system like our back yards within the next 50 years.

Originally posted by whodey
I find it highly unlikely that life could be supported on a dead planet for any great length of time and still flourish.

The odds are against it.

Well given your poor science background, I don't think your hunch on the matter is worth much.
Science on the other hand suggests that life would thrive on Mars and several other planets/moons in our solar system and also on a significant number of the triillions of billions of other planets in the universe.

Originally posted by humy
In my opinion, IF life is 'very common' in the cosmos, it is probably nearly all just microbial or at least none intelligent. Perhaps life can be very common but evolution of intelligent life is so unlikely that the only intelligent life in the cosmos is on Earth? We could be just a freak.

There is no reason to think that we are the only intelligent life in the cosmos. Your argument only rules out intelligent life being extremely common. The reality that inter-galactic travel is virtually impossible and intergalactic communication rather unlikely. So we can't really say anything much about the other 100 billion galaxies out there, and probably never will. A significant proportion of the visible universe is actually too young (when it was observed) to support life, but that doesn't mean it hasn't developed since.

Originally posted by whodey
On earth, you can find life in the harshest of environments, but on other planets, not so.

Why?

Because you don't know much astronomy?

We have so far had a look at one or two spots on the moon and Mars. No other planets / moons have really had any serious landers.

Originally posted by twhitehead
Because you don't know much astronomy?

We have so far had a look at one or two spots on the moon and Mars. No other planets / moons have really had any serious landers.

We already know several moons around Jupiter and Saturn look to have buried oceans of water, liquid water, more water than what we have total on Earth. Liquid water means heat source to keep that water liquid and that energy source combined with organics opens at least the possibility there could be life in those oceans. We won't be able to prove it probably till the 22nd or maybe even the 23rd century but assuming our civilization keeps growing in scientific prowess as it has for the last 200 years, we WILL know it there is life on those moons and for sure, and in century 21, we will know if there is or was life on Mars.

Originally posted by sonhouse
We already know several moons around Jupiter and Saturn look to have buried oceans of water, liquid water, more water than what we have total on Earth. Liquid water means heat source to keep that water liquid and that energy source combined with organics opens at least the possibility there could be life in those oceans. We won't be able to prove it probabl ...[text shortened]... fe on those moons and for sure, and in century 21, we will know if there is or was life on Mars.

Wow, way to be pessimistic.

I'm expecting a mission to Europa's oceans in the next ~30 years.

It's not that hard to get there, and with falling launch costs lifting the
required mass to be able to build a suitable submersible that we can
shift to Jupiter is going to become easier and easier.

We will know well before the 21'st century, let alone the 22nd [barring some
catastrophic civilizational collapse in the mean time]. This century has another
85 years to run, which is longer than our entire history as a space faring
species to date.

Originally posted by googlefudge
Wow, way to be pessimistic.

I'm expecting a mission to Europa's oceans in the next ~30 years.

It's not that hard to get there, and with falling launch costs lifting the
required mass to be able to build a suitable submersible that we can
shift to Jupiter is going to become easier and easier.

We will know well before the 21'st century, let al ...[text shortened]...
85 years to run, which is longer than our entire history as a space faring
species to date.

I was thinking about the political will to do space projects. I worked on the Apollo project but that was cancelled by Nixon as soon as he likened it to one big publicity stunt, having beaten the Soviets to the moon, end of program.

When things get tough for countries, the first thing getting cut is Arts and science. I just hope there is initiative to keep going on. The fact that China is putting probes on the Moon now may spur politicians in the US to respond in kind, but with no real interest in science but just to keep bragging rights.

Originally posted by sonhouse
I was thinking about the political will to do space projects. I worked on the Apollo project but that was cancelled by Nixon as soon as he likened it to one big publicity stunt, having beaten the Soviets to the moon, end of program.

When things get tough for countries, the first thing getting cut is Arts and science. I just hope there is initiative to ke ...[text shortened]... he US to respond in kind, but with no real interest in science but just to keep bragging rights.

China is a country that want to be the center of the world. So I understand them very well to make huge technological steps forward. If they want to put a taikonaut on the moon, please, go ahead. USA did it, then left the moon. Soviet didn't at all. It's all their to take, it's their turn now.

...if USA allows them to. ...and can afford to stop them.

Originally posted by FabianFnas
China is a country that want to be the center of the world. So I understand them very well to make huge technological steps forward. If they want to put a taikonaut on the moon, please, go ahead. USA did it, then left the moon. Soviet didn't at all. It's all their to take, it's their turn now.

...if USA allows them to. ...and can afford to stop them.

The Chinese have a master plan to turn the entire moon into a giant coin with a square hole in the middle. I'd like to at least wait and see how that turns out.

EDIT: Hey, today it's been exactly 1000 days since your last chess move. Get off your ass and do something!