Where The Hell Is Our Colonization Program!?

[filkertom]

Planet in habitable zone, possibly with Earth-like atmosphere, discovered 36 light years away.

Fuck yeah.

Comments

[markiv1111.livejournal.com]

Spectacular news. Thanks for the update.

Nate

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

What manned space program? NASA's been emasculated, and there are wimps who applauded. :-(

Maybe someday we'll get to our neighboring planets, much less the stars -- and maybe we'll stew in our own juices first, because "exploration is for robots". Dammit.

[smallship1.livejournal.com]

I wonder how many people realise that the fundamental premise of Firefly and Serenity is that humanity basically failed to establish a workable space programme till it was too late to do any more than that one desperate lurch to a new solar system before Earth became completely non-viable.

Whedon's people had "dozens of planets and hundreds of moons" to work with. As far as I know, counting this one, we now possibly have one. So yes, it's a bit of a valid question.

[batyatoon]

Whedon's people also had (mostly) reliable terraforming technology, including artificial gravity. Us? Not so much.

[his-spiffyness.livejournal.com]

It's also worth mentioning that today is the 49th anniversary of the historic "We Choose to go to the Moon (http://youtu.be/g25G1M4EXrQ)" speech.

[judifilksign.livejournal.com]

I want our space program back. I hope a future president will see the dream and fund it again.

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's time for a colonizationoscopy.

[archiver-tim.livejournal.com]

That means the inhabitats could be watching first runs of Saturday Night Live, the third season of MASH and of course, re-runs of I Love Lucy.

[judifilksign.livejournal.com]

Do radio and TV waves move at the speed of light, or the speed of sound through space?

[nagasvoice.livejournal.com]

The speed of sound is strictly in air, moving the gases in air in compression waves. Radio and TV waves travel through empty space in the same broad electromagnetic spectrum as light.

[shockwave77598.livejournal.com]

They move at the speed of light.

[batyatoon]

... aw HAIL yeah.

GIMME A MINUTE TO PACK

[wildcard9.livejournal.com]

36 light years away.... isn't that in the range of where Krypton was supposed to be (30-40 light years from Earth)??

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Oh good. 'Cause we've just about finished crapping all over THIS planet, let's go find another one to do this to.

And I'm sure whatever life forms are already living there will be just as thrilled as the Native Americans and Africans were to see all those white folks show up in their ships to bring them "civilization" (aka slavery, smallpox, genocide, & monoculture colonialism).

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

LIKE! LIKE!

[saganth.livejournal.com]

I missed your comment sir. Ok someone else did think like me too.

[saganth.livejournal.com]

This is exciting news indeed.... but what if someone already lives there? I don't mean simple life forms, I mean intelligence, a civilization?

Why sure yes let's go colonize, maybe we can teach them to drink whiskey and worship the One True God. Oh, and we better bring some blankets infested with smallpox to give them while we take their resources...

Sorry to sound so cynical and harsh Tom. I really do love news like this and I do find the idea of living on another planet also exciting... but did it occur to you we might not be welcome to just move on in? I firmly believe our enthusiasm and excitement must be tempered with sober respect for the mistakes of our past, and not just the environmental ones others have mentioned in their posts so far. I'm not saying we should not go exploring and visiting, but maybe that's *all* we should be doing unless someone gives permission for more. An invitation.

[shockwave77598.livejournal.com]

In a century, mankind will develop the tech to travel at .1c. And then coldsleep vehicles will be shot towards Gleise d. And so, 400 years from now, the first humans will arrive in the Gliese system and raise their hands high in the sky.

And they'll give praise to their ancestors... in Chinese.

[tandw.livejournal.com]

I remember reading some essay or other by Arthur C Clarke, written in the early 60's, in which he noted that given the West's lack of attention to space it was quite likely that the Soviets would have landed people on the Moon in time to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Revolution there.

I remember reading an essay by Robert Heinlein in Expanded Universe, where he talked about the prospects for a Martian colony in the near future with some optimism...but noted that if the reader wanted to go s/he should not be surprised if s/he needed to demonstrate a useful skill and be able to speak Japanese--because "there is intelligent life in Tokyo." (IIRC, that's a direct quote.)

I remember hearing Mitchell Burnside-Clapp sing "Red Star Rising" at an OVFF in the late 80's, in the pause between Challenger and the US manned flight restart.

This is all background to the question I have, to wit: Given that every one of those previous threats to US/Canadian/Western European preeminence in space was taken very seriously at the time by people for whom we all have some respect, why should I believe that the Chinese going to succeed where the Soviet commissars and the Japanese technocrats failed? Remember, at the time there were very strong arguments in favor of both the Japanese and the Soviets--Japan is full of hardheaded capitalists who will see the obvious economic advantages of space exploitation and leave us in the dust! The USSR is a command economy, not beholden to timid politicians and the whims of an electorate too stupid and shortsighted to see the obvious military advantages of space exploitation, and they'll leave us in the dust!

From where I sit, it's the same music with a slight change in the lyrics. Which is not to say that the US isn't in danger of losing technological preeminence, but that's an entirely domestic issue.

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

So, humans will make it to space. They just won't be WHITE humans. Is that supposed to be the horrific tragedy? Or is it that it won't be AMERICAN humans (aka God's bestest, favoritest peoples ever in the universe)?

[mouser.livejournal.com]

1) MARS is in that zone. So is VENUS.
2) Maybe we can concentrate on making THIS planet a bit more habitable before we move on to another one (under the "Prove you can take care of the toys you ALREADY have!" philosophy.)