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.
(With mock smugness) If it's not bottled water, what good is it? (Smug sound.)
So, we're on a big rock hurtling about through vast nothingness, and there are other rocks, and one of them is a little less dried up than we thought. What else is new?
Since Waters of Mars was the next episode I had in the re-watch pile, I did view that last night. In their supplemental material, they did get the idea from a 2006 NASA report on finding this water there, and that it had flowed in the past 10 years. Now we got repeated visual proof that the flow occurrs.
Arthur C. Clarke was once shown some Mars pics, prompting him to exclaim "Great Googly Moogly! There are bushes on Mars!" Okay, that is not an exact quote, but it does sum up his reaction.
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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
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So, we're on a big rock hurtling about through vast nothingness, and there are other rocks, and one of them is a little less dried up than we thought. What else is new?
no subject
Since Waters of Mars was the next episode I had in the re-watch pile, I did view that last night. In their supplemental material, they did get the idea from a 2006 NASA report on finding this water there, and that it had flowed in the past 10 years. Now we got repeated visual proof that the flow occurrs.
no subject
Arthur C. Clarke was once shown some Mars pics, prompting him to exclaim "Great Googly Moogly! There are bushes on Mars!" Okay, that is not an exact quote, but it does sum up his reaction.