Comments on: Crowdfunding the hunt for habitable moons http://boingboing.net/2012/03/19/crowdfunding-the-hunt-for-habi.html Brain candy for Happy Mutants Sat, 18 May 2013 18:03:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.1 By: miasm http://boingboing.net/2012/03/19/crowdfunding-the-hunt-for-habi.html#comment-1375126 miasm Tue, 20 Mar 2012 23:09:00 +0000 http://boingboing.net/?p=149988#comment-1375126 How lucky to have been born where and when I was. Comfort, education and the sheer spectacle of seeing the infancy of the internet. I lucked out in all sorts of ways that tickle my sci-fi fancy; so feel I am being especially ungrateful to hope that somehow, some way, there will be a massive paradigm shift in our thinking that makes extra-solar travel a species prerogative within my lifetime. Shit's about to get really weird and to miss all that potentia because of some stupid biological reasons irks the hell outta me. Oh, first world problems. How lucky to have been born where and when I was. Comfort, education and the sheer spectacle of seeing the infancy of the internet.
I lucked out in all sorts of ways that tickle my sci-fi fancy; so feel I am being especially ungrateful to hope that somehow, some way, there will be a massive paradigm shift in our thinking that makes extra-solar travel a species prerogative within my lifetime.
Shit’s about to get really weird and to miss all that potentia because of some stupid biological reasons irks the hell outta me.
Oh, first world problems.

]]> By: chenille http://boingboing.net/2012/03/19/crowdfunding-the-hunt-for-habi.html#comment-1374603 chenille Tue, 20 Mar 2012 15:35:00 +0000 http://boingboing.net/?p=149988#comment-1374603 Except anything about traveling to these moons is something you read into this. The article mentions why they'd like them habitable: because it gives them a chance of discovering life. Which is a very, very long shot, but I guess sells a bit better than surveying them simply to better understand how the universe is put together, which sounds pointless to all too many people. Except anything about traveling to these moons is something you read into this. The article mentions why they’d like them habitable: because it gives them a chance of discovering life. Which is a very, very long shot, but I guess sells a bit better than surveying them simply to better understand how the universe is put together, which sounds pointless to all too many people.

]]> By: Wreckrob8 http://boingboing.net/2012/03/19/crowdfunding-the-hunt-for-habi.html#comment-1374434 Wreckrob8 Tue, 20 Mar 2012 08:39:00 +0000 http://boingboing.net/?p=149988#comment-1374434 Science has crossed the barrier between imagining possible worlds and fantasising to escape what science in the service of capitalism/corporations has created. It has become a game for bored over-educated Western elites with no immediately discernible sense of reality and is much more spiritual in nature than either its language or practitioners would lead us to believe. Science has crossed the barrier between imagining possible worlds and fantasising to escape what science in the service of capitalism/corporations has created.
It has become a game for bored over-educated Western elites with no immediately discernible sense of reality and is much more spiritual in nature than either its language or practitioners would lead us to believe.

]]> By: eldritch http://boingboing.net/2012/03/19/crowdfunding-the-hunt-for-habi.html#comment-1374392 eldritch Tue, 20 Mar 2012 06:03:00 +0000 http://boingboing.net/?p=149988#comment-1374392 The nearest star to our own, Proxima Centauri, is roughly 4.25 lightyears away. With extant technology, it would take roughly 100 years to get there, each way. With proposed nuclear pulse propulsion, it would take roughly 50 years each way. Of course, the Centauri stars have no exoplanets - they're just three stars orbiting each other. The nearest *known* exoplanet is Gliese 674 b (not to be confused with the better known but more distant Gliese 581 c), at a distance of roughly 15 lightyears, or about 175 years with nuclear pulse propulsion. Epsilon Eridani b, an unconfirmed but suspected exoplanet, may lie a mere 10 lightyears away, or about 115 years with nuclear pulse propulsion. And even at the speed of light, it'd take a decade each way. If you're going to crowdfund a space-minded research endeavor, you might as well put the money toward researching wormholes, warpcores, jump gates, or other such fantastical dreams of science fiction, because without faster-than-light travel, it's kind of pointless to locate distant exomoons. They're simply too far away, even for earth-based observational learning - we rely on pin-pricks of light and gravitational distortions to even *detect* them as it is. The nearest star to our own, Proxima Centauri, is roughly 4.25 lightyears away. With extant technology, it would take roughly 100 years to get there, each way. With proposed nuclear pulse propulsion, it would take roughly 50 years each way.

Of course, the Centauri stars have no exoplanets – they’re just three stars orbiting each other.

The nearest *known* exoplanet is Gliese 674 b (not to be confused with the better known but more distant Gliese 581 c), at a distance of roughly 15 lightyears, or about 175 years with nuclear pulse propulsion. Epsilon Eridani b, an unconfirmed but suspected exoplanet, may lie a mere 10 lightyears away, or about 115 years with nuclear pulse propulsion. And even at the speed of light, it’d take a decade each way.

If you’re going to crowdfund a space-minded research endeavor, you might as well put the money toward researching wormholes, warpcores, jump gates, or other such fantastical dreams of science fiction, because without faster-than-light travel, it’s kind of pointless to locate distant exomoons. They’re simply too far away, even for earth-based observational learning – we rely on pin-pricks of light and gravitational distortions to even *detect* them as it is.

]]> By: Noctilucent Studios http://boingboing.net/2012/03/19/crowdfunding-the-hunt-for-habi.html#comment-1374172 Noctilucent Studios Tue, 20 Mar 2012 00:17:00 +0000 http://boingboing.net/?p=149988#comment-1374172 Wow....something about that image of the ringed planet in the blue sky. I saw the exact same thing once in an incredible dream. There it was, hanging in the sky, and then all of these mathematical equations started scrolling across the sky, from horizon to horizon. When are they going to invent that machine that lets us record our dreams? Wow….something about that image of the ringed planet in the blue sky. I saw the exact same thing once in an incredible dream. There it was, hanging in the sky, and then all of these mathematical equations started scrolling across the sky, from horizon to horizon. When are they going to invent that machine that lets us record our dreams?

]]> By: arrowspace http://boingboing.net/2012/03/19/crowdfunding-the-hunt-for-habi.html#comment-1373992 arrowspace Mon, 19 Mar 2012 20:37:00 +0000 http://boingboing.net/?p=149988#comment-1373992 "As we all learned from watching Return of the Jedi" ...or A New Hope, as Yavin IV was also a habitable moon. “As we all learned from watching Return of the Jedi”

…or A New Hope, as Yavin IV was also a habitable moon.

]]> By: crowdfunding http://boingboing.net/2012/03/19/crowdfunding-the-hunt-for-habi.html#comment-1373904 crowdfunding Mon, 19 Mar 2012 19:26:00 +0000 http://boingboing.net/?p=149988#comment-1373904 The possibilities are only starting w/ the crowd. The possibilities are only starting w/ the crowd.

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