Space and Astronomy Megathread (MERGED)

[Ice-man]

U.S. Planning Base on Moon To Prepare for Trip to Mars


by Guy Gugliotta





HOUSTON -- For the first time since 1972, the United States is planning to fly to the moon, but instead of a quick, Apollo-like visit, astronauts intend to build a permanent base and live there while they prepare what may be the most ambitious undertaking in history -- putting human beings on Mars.


President Bush in 2004 announced to great fanfare plans to build a new spaceship, get back to the moon by 2020 and travel on to Mars after that. But, with NASA focused on designing a new spaceship and spending about 40 percent of its budget on the troubled space shuttle and international space station programs, that timetable may suffer.
Still, NASA's moon planners are closely following the spaceship initiative and, within six months, will outline what they need from the new vehicle to enable astronauts to explore the lunar surface.


"It's deep in the future before we go there," said architect Larry Toups, head of habitation systems for NASA's Advanced Projects Office. "But it's like going on a camping trip and buying a new car. You want to make sure you have a trailer hitch if you need it."
Scientists and engineers are hard at work studying technologies that don't yet exist and puzzling over questions such as how to handle the psychological stress of moon settlement, how to build lunar bulldozers and how to reacquire what planetary scientist Christopher P. McKay of NASA's Ames Research Center calls "our culture of exploration."


The moon is not for the faint of heart. It is a lethal place, without atmosphere, pelted constantly by cosmic rays and micrometeorites, plagued by temperature swings of hundreds of degrees, and swathed in a blanket of dust that can ruin space suits, pollute the air supply and bring machinery to a screeching halt.
And that says nothing about the imponderables. Will working in one-sixth of Earth's gravity for a year cause crippling health problems? What happens when someone suffers from a traumatic injury that can't be treated by fellow astronauts? How do people react to living in a tiny space under dangerous conditions for six months?
"It's like Magellan. You send them off, and maybe they come back, maybe they don't," said planetary scientist Wendell W. Mendell, manager of NASA's Office for Human Exploration Science, during an interview at the recently concluded Lunar and Planetary Science Conference here. "There's a lot of pathologies that show up, and there's nobody in the Yellow Pages."


In some ways, the moon will be harder than Mars. Moon dust is much more abrasive than Mars dust; Mars has atmosphere; Mars has more gravity (one-third of Earth's); Mars has plenty of ice for a potential water supply, while the moon may have some, but probably not very much.

[Ice-man]

Future Spaceships Flight to Mars in 2.5 Hours

Humans can build spaceships capable of reaching the Moon within minutes; a flight to Mars will take 2.5 hours, and a flight to Alpha Centauri, which is scores of light years away from Earth, will take a mere 80 days.
Incredible journeys can be a reality, say two German Doctors of Physics who put forth an audacious theory. Walter Dresher from the University of Innsbruck joined forces with Joachim Hoiser, a leading scientist with the German company HPCC-Space Gmbh.


“The German physicists build their work on a theory formulated by the German scientist Burkhard Heim. The theory was put together in the 1950s,” says Vadim Pimenov, deputy director of the Institute of Theoretical and Applied Physics under the Russian Academy of Sciences, professor at the Lomonosov Moscow State University. “Heim, a brilliant physicist and philosopher, was the first scientist who began thinking over the principles of space flights using a “hyper-engine.”


The concept seems improbable at first sight. In actuality, it is a byproduct of the efforts aiming to combine the quantum mechanics and the general theory of relativity – two theories that so far have successfully foiled all the attempts to make them “friendly,” mostly due to differences in the interpretation of space and time. Heim made use of the Einstein concept regarding gravitation as a manifestation of distortions in the “fabric” of space and time. However, he suggested that all kinds of fundamental interaction be considered a manifestation of the complete set of spatial dimensions.
Heim introduced two additional dimensions since the existing ones were not enough for proving his theory. The physicist reportedly proved that gravitation and electromagnetism could combine in his 6-D space. He also maintained that a gravitational force could turn into an electromagnetic one, and vice versa, under certain conditions. It is still unclear whether Heim succeeded in combining the quantum mechanics and the general theory of relativity. For reasons unknown, the scientist refused to made public all details of his theory until he carried out a “decisive” experiment. The experiment did not materialize either due to technical reasons or a lack of funds.


“The German physicist Wolfgang Dresher dusted off Heim’s ‘strange ideas’ and threw in two more dimensions,” says Prof. Pimenov. “Dresher made a mathematical description of an 8-dimentional universe, the Heim-Dresher space, ‘featuring’ two more kinds of interaction,” says Prof. Pimenov.

Future Spaceships Flight to Mars in 2.5 hours
An artist's drawing of what a future spacecraft might look like leaving Earth en route to the Moon or Mars. Source: nasa.gov
Dresher’s colleague Joachim Hoizer, along with a U.S. scientist John Kelvin and a Russian academician Nikolai Kozyrev supported the theory. According to them, a fast-spinning circle combined with a ring-shaped magnet in a strong magnetic field can “push” a space ship to other dimensions where different values of the natural constants, including the speed of light, may exist. The machine will be capable of creating anti-gravitation by moving a spaceship in regular space. “We’re not trying to challenge the existing laws of physics, we are expanding our views on them,” said Kelvin.

“Academic scholars would have reacted quite skeptically to such argumentation had it taken place a few years ago,” says Prof. Pimenov. “Nowadays the situation has changed. The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics recently published a list of last year’s award winners for the best theoretical works in aerospace research.

“The instructions for a space drive based on the Heim quantum theory” by Hoiser and Dresher was awarded in the category “The Future Flight.”

According to New Scientist, the work is a collection of speculations on the possibility of making a material object pass into the so-called parallel space (or “other universes) and return.

The dreams of a time machine are beginning to take shape in America . The so-called Z-machine is being built by the American National Laboratory Sandia. The machine is one of the world’s most powerful “impulse” sources of a magnetic field and the most powerful generator of roentgen rays. Similar experiments are being conducted in Moscow , by the Institute of Theoretical and Applied Physics under the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Story source at english.pravda.ru

[ScottyBBadd]

Originally Posted by Ice-man

Future Spaceships Flight to Mars in 2.5 Hours

Humans can build spaceships capable of reaching the Moon within minutes; a flight to Mars will take 2.5 hours, and a flight to Alpha Centauri, which is scores of light years away from Earth, will take a mere 80 days.
Incredible journeys can be a reality, say two German Doctors of Physics who put forth an audacious theory. Walter Dresher from the University of Innsbruck joined forces with Joachim Hoiser, a leading scientist with the German company HPCC-Space Gmbh.


“The German physicists build their work on a theory formulated by the German scientist Burkhard Heim. The theory was put together in the 1950s,” says Vadim Pimenov, deputy director of the Institute of Theoretical and Applied Physics under the Russian Academy of Sciences, professor at the Lomonosov Moscow State University. “Heim, a brilliant physicist and philosopher, was the first scientist who began thinking over the principles of space flights using a “hyper-engine.”


The concept seems improbable at first sight. In actuality, it is a byproduct of the efforts aiming to combine the quantum mechanics and the general theory of relativity – two theories that so far have successfully foiled all the attempts to make them “friendly,” mostly due to differences in the interpretation of space and time. Heim made use of the Einstein concept regarding gravitation as a manifestation of distortions in the “fabric” of space and time. However, he suggested that all kinds of fundamental interaction be considered a manifestation of the complete set of spatial dimensions.
Heim introduced two additional dimensions since the existing ones were not enough for proving his theory. The physicist reportedly proved that gravitation and electromagnetism could combine in his 6-D space. He also maintained that a gravitational force could turn into an electromagnetic one, and vice versa, under certain conditions. It is still unclear whether Heim succeeded in combining the quantum mechanics and the general theory of relativity. For reasons unknown, the scientist refused to made public all details of his theory until he carried out a “decisive” experiment. The experiment did not materialize either due to technical reasons or a lack of funds.


“The German physicist Wolfgang Dresher dusted off Heim’s ‘strange ideas’ and threw in two more dimensions,” says Prof. Pimenov. “Dresher made a mathematical description of an 8-dimentional universe, the Heim-Dresher space, ‘featuring’ two more kinds of interaction,” says Prof. Pimenov.

Future Spaceships Flight to Mars in 2.5 hours
An artist's drawing of what a future spacecraft might look like leaving Earth en route to the Moon or Mars. Source: nasa.gov
Dresher’s colleague Joachim Hoizer, along with a U.S. scientist John Kelvin and a Russian academician Nikolai Kozyrev supported the theory. According to them, a fast-spinning circle combined with a ring-shaped magnet in a strong magnetic field can “push” a space ship to other dimensions where different values of the natural constants, including the speed of light, may exist. The machine will be capable of creating anti-gravitation by moving a spaceship in regular space. “We’re not trying to challenge the existing laws of physics, we are expanding our views on them,” said Kelvin.

“Academic scholars would have reacted quite skeptically to such argumentation had it taken place a few years ago,” says Prof. Pimenov. “Nowadays the situation has changed. The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics recently published a list of last year’s award winners for the best theoretical works in aerospace research.

“The instructions for a space drive based on the Heim quantum theory” by Hoiser and Dresher was awarded in the category “The Future Flight.”

According to New Scientist, the work is a collection of speculations on the possibility of making a material object pass into the so-called parallel space (or “other universes) and return.

The dreams of a time machine are beginning to take shape in America . The so-called Z-machine is being built by the American National Laboratory Sandia. The machine is one of the world’s most powerful “impulse” sources of a magnetic field and the most powerful generator of roentgen rays. Similar experiments are being conducted in Moscow , by the Institute of Theoretical and Applied Physics under the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Story source at english.pravda.ru

I have read such theroies. Hyper drive, warp drive, worm holes, prue theroy, but could happen. The most "realistic" way for getting to Mars "quickly" is solar sail ship.

[FaT_tONle]

Originally Posted by Ice-man

Future Spaceships Flight to Mars in 2.5 Hours

Humans can build spaceships capable of reaching the Moon within minutes; a flight to Mars will take 2.5 hours, and a flight to Alpha Centauri, which is scores of light years away from Earth, will take a mere 80 days.
Incredible journeys can be a reality, say two German Doctors of Physics who put forth an audacious theory. Walter Dresher from the University of Innsbruck joined forces with Joachim Hoiser, a leading scientist with the German company HPCC-Space Gmbh.


“The German physicists build their work on a theory formulated by the German scientist Burkhard Heim. The theory was put together in the 1950s,” says Vadim Pimenov, deputy director of the Institute of Theoretical and Applied Physics under the Russian Academy of Sciences, professor at the Lomonosov Moscow State University. “Heim, a brilliant physicist and philosopher, was the first scientist who began thinking over the principles of space flights using a “hyper-engine.”


The concept seems improbable at first sight. In actuality, it is a byproduct of the efforts aiming to combine the quantum mechanics and the general theory of relativity – two theories that so far have successfully foiled all the attempts to make them “friendly,” mostly due to differences in the interpretation of space and time. Heim made use of the Einstein concept regarding gravitation as a manifestation of distortions in the “fabric” of space and time. However, he suggested that all kinds of fundamental interaction be considered a manifestation of the complete set of spatial dimensions.
Heim introduced two additional dimensions since the existing ones were not enough for proving his theory. The physicist reportedly proved that gravitation and electromagnetism could combine in his 6-D space. He also maintained that a gravitational force could turn into an electromagnetic one, and vice versa, under certain conditions. It is still unclear whether Heim succeeded in combining the quantum mechanics and the general theory of relativity. For reasons unknown, the scientist refused to made public all details of his theory until he carried out a “decisive” experiment. The experiment did not materialize either due to technical reasons or a lack of funds.


“The German physicist Wolfgang Dresher dusted off Heim’s ‘strange ideas’ and threw in two more dimensions,” says Prof. Pimenov. “Dresher made a mathematical description of an 8-dimentional universe, the Heim-Dresher space, ‘featuring’ two more kinds of interaction,” says Prof. Pimenov.

Future Spaceships Flight to Mars in 2.5 hours
An artist's drawing of what a future spacecraft might look like leaving Earth en route to the Moon or Mars. Source: nasa.gov
Dresher’s colleague Joachim Hoizer, along with a U.S. scientist John Kelvin and a Russian academician Nikolai Kozyrev supported the theory. According to them, a fast-spinning circle combined with a ring-shaped magnet in a strong magnetic field can “push” a space ship to other dimensions where different values of the natural constants, including the speed of light, may exist. The machine will be capable of creating anti-gravitation by moving a spaceship in regular space. “We’re not trying to challenge the existing laws of physics, we are expanding our views on them,” said Kelvin.

“Academic scholars would have reacted quite skeptically to such argumentation had it taken place a few years ago,” says Prof. Pimenov. “Nowadays the situation has changed. The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics recently published a list of last year’s award winners for the best theoretical works in aerospace research.

“The instructions for a space drive based on the Heim quantum theory” by Hoiser and Dresher was awarded in the category “The Future Flight.”

According to New Scientist, the work is a collection of speculations on the possibility of making a material object pass into the so-called parallel space (or “other universes) and return.

The dreams of a time machine are beginning to take shape in America . The so-called Z-machine is being built by the American National Laboratory Sandia. The machine is one of the world’s most powerful “impulse” sources of a magnetic field and the most powerful generator of roentgen rays. Similar experiments are being conducted in Moscow , by the Institute of Theoretical and Applied Physics under the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Story source at english.pravda.ru

This is a load right??? Yah these guys know more than me but cmon... pushing crafts to extra dimensions??? Okay..........

Originally Posted by FaT_tONle

This is a load right??? Yah these guys know more than me but cmon... pushing crafts to extra dimensions??? Okay..........

Actually its not as farfetched as it sounds, its really plausible and well... cool

[Wilhelm-Scream]

Space is cold, dead, barren, boring, dangerous and proof that we are ants in an Ant Farm.

[Sam Fisher]

The only reason they want a space station is to deal with aliens.

[Erzengel]

Originally Posted by Wilhelm-Scream

Space is cold, dead, barren, boring, dangerous and proof that we are ants in an Ant Farm.

Of course. We're one big happy fleet. Ah, Kirk, my old friend, do you know the Klingon proverb that tells us revenge is a dish that is best served cold?
(pause)
It is very cold in space.

[Franklin Richards]

Originally Posted by Erzengel

Of course. We're one big happy fleet. Ah, Kirk, my old friend, do you know the Klingon proverb that tells us revenge is a dish that is best served cold?
(pause)
It is very cold in space.

[Duke]

Originally Posted by erzengel

of course. We're one big happy fleet. Ah, kirk, my old friend, do you know the klingon proverb that tells us revenge is a dish that is best served cold?
(pause)
it is very cold in space.

khan!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Timstuff]

Originally Posted by Wilhelm-Scream

Space is cold, dead, barren, boring, dangerous and proof that we are ants in an Ant Farm.

I disagree with this statement. I think that space is beautiful, and that God gifted humans with our desire to explore so that we can better understand the cosmos that he has created.



Whatever is out beyond our atmosphere, I think it is in mankind's best interest to look for it. Even if it turned out our planet is the only one in the cosmos capable of sustaining life, wouldn't that make us better appreciate what a miracle Earth is amidst a sea of dead planets? And if there are other planets out there which life can exist on, then we should do everything we can to discover them. Some day our population will outgrow our planet, and I would rather see people have a chance to make new lives for themselves on new planets than see them killing each other for tiny apartments and scraps of food. I will probably not see overpopulation or interplanetary colonization in my lifetime, but for the sake of future generations I think it's imperative that we continue to build so that future generations will be able to benefit.

[Ice-man]

^some of that may be true, but i gotta know whats out there.

but a few things, space isnt dead, there are galaxus planets and stars being bourn as i type this. its deffinitly not boring, i love learning about whats out there, and what can be achived in the near or distant future.


but itl be a long time before we learn anything mind blowing. such as alien inhabited planets.

[Wilhelm-Scream]

Drift off into the Milky Way.
You'll just die out there.
You'll be fighting to the death over that last pouch of dehydrated soup.

Earth is where it's at.

[Mr Sparkle]

Don't they know Mars ain't the kind of place to raise the kids?
Infact

It's cold as hell!

[Wilhelm-Scream]

Originally Posted by Mr Sparkle

Don't they know Mars ain't the kind of place to raise the kids?
Infact

It's cold as hell!

But then again,..NO

[Ice-man]

Originally Posted by Mr Sparkle

Don't they know Mars ain't the kind of place to raise the kids?
Infact

It's cold as hell!

well they see mars as being in the habitable range, but, my guess is wed live in biospheres of some kind. we wouldnt be able to addapt to the outside, but the reasorces there could help us live.

but hell there are billions of planets and moons, im sure well find a new place to live... earth is good for now, but one day we will **** up. and have no choice but to migrate.

[Mr Sparkle]

And all this science
I don't understand

[Ice-man]

^ thats what i was thinkig the sun can generate imense power, but making the actual ship and getting it there will prove to be a challenge.

[ScottyBBadd]

Originally Posted by Ice-man

^ thats what i was thinkig the sun can generate imense power, but making the actual ship and getting it there will prove to be a challenge.

That is quite right. The sail would have to be the size of Texas. It would have to be constructed in space.

[Mike_D202]

The moon is not for the faint of heart. It is a lethal place, without atmosphere, pelted constantly by cosmic rays and micrometeorites, plagued by temperature swings of hundreds of degrees, and swathed in a blanket of dust that can ruin space suits, pollute the air supply and bring machinery to a screeching halt.
And that says nothing about the imponderables. Will working in one-sixth of Earth's gravity for a year cause crippling health problems? What happens when someone suffers from a traumatic injury that can't be treated by fellow astronauts? How do people react to living in a tiny space under dangerous conditions for six months?

I smell a new reality tv show.

[redmarvel]

If an asteroid is headed towards Earth, it might be wise to get some of the population off the planet. We need to start making viable life domes on the moon and viable self supporting space stations. Spread our genes to the rest of the universe!!!

[SoulManX]

Originally Posted by redmarvel

If an asteroid is headed towards Earth, it might be wise to get some of the population off the planet. We need to start making viable life domes on the moon and viable self supporting space stations. Spread our genes to the rest of the universe!!!

[SoulManX]

Seeing how we screwed up this rock...why not the universe.

[Asteroid-Man]

Originally Posted by redmarvel

If an asteroid is headed towards Earth, it might be wise to get some of the population off the planet. We need to start making viable life domes on the moon and viable self supporting space stations. Spread our genes to the rest of the universe!!!

If an Asteroid comes to earth, I got it covered.

[redmarvel]

Zooming to Pluto, New Horizons Closes in on Jupiter



This image was taken on Jan. 8, 2007, with the New Horizons Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI), while the spacecraft was about 81 million kilometers (about 50 million miles) from Jupiter. Jupiter's volcanic moon Io is to the right; the planet's Great Red Spot is also visible. The image was one of 11 taken during the Jan. 8 approach sequence, which signaled the opening of the New Horizons Jupiter encounter. Even in these early approach images, Jupiter shows different face than what previous visiting spacecraft - such as Voyager 1, Galileo and Cassini - have seen. Regions around the equator and in the southern tropical latitudes seem remarkably calm, even in the typically turbulent "wake" behind the Great Red Spot. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute.

Just a year after it was dispatched on the first mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is on the doorstep of the solar system's largest planet — about to swing past Jupiter and pick up even more speed on its voyage toward the unexplored regions of the planetary frontier. The fastest spacecraft ever launched, New Horizons will make its closest pass to Jupiter on Feb. 28, threading its path through an "aim point" 1.4 million miles (2.3 million kilometers) from the center of Jupiter. Jupiter's gravity will accelerate New Horizons away from the Sun by an additional 9,000 miles per hour — half the speed of a space shuttle in orbit — pushing it past 52,000 mph and hurling it toward a pass through the Pluto system in July 2015

For full article: http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=21708