Few, if any, of the Golden Age writers predicted that the solar system's first wave of exploration would be done by robots--not even Dr. A.
There are currently (as of August 2011) no less than 21 observing and/or exploring spacecraft in Planetary, Solar, or Hyperbolic orbits within the boundaries of our Solar System and one still operating on the Martian surface (not counting the array of robots watching the Earth).
Water's ubiquitous beyond the Asteroid Belt and there's CHON (add a little bit of Sulfur and Phosphorus and you've got life) in Carbonaceous Chondrites, on Titan as well as beneath the outer coating of comets.
This promises wonderful things in other solar systems. Here, we have two planets that could have held life early--Mars and Venus, three that have or could have life now--Earth, Enceladus, and Europa, and one that is custom made for life in a couple of billion years--Titan.
The large quantity of life-making materials and situations makes the Fermi Paradox much more dire. Something is seriously wrong with our perceptions of physical laws or our model of how things work. The sky should be brilliant--shining with the lights of advanced civilizations galactiforming everywhere we look.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2011-08-04 10:31 pm (UTC)There are currently (as of August 2011) no less than 21 observing and/or exploring spacecraft in Planetary, Solar, or Hyperbolic orbits within the boundaries of our Solar System and one still operating on the Martian surface (not counting the array of robots watching the Earth).
Water's ubiquitous beyond the Asteroid Belt and there's CHON (add a little bit of Sulfur and Phosphorus and you've got life) in Carbonaceous Chondrites, on Titan as well as beneath the outer coating of comets.
This promises wonderful things in other solar systems. Here, we have two planets that could have held life early--Mars and Venus, three that have or could have life now--Earth, Enceladus, and Europa, and one that is custom made for life in a couple of billion years--Titan.
The large quantity of life-making materials and situations makes the Fermi Paradox much more dire. Something is seriously wrong with our perceptions of physical laws or our model of how things work. The sky should be brilliant--shining with the lights of advanced civilizations galactiforming everywhere we look.
Instead, there's silence. Really scary.
Tom Trumpinski