Life on Mars

[Chas]

What really happened when Curiosity landed

 

[Graham]

ha, ha, ha

It does bear a thought though, to the unanswered question, "are we alone"

A very much decided subject, taking all the religious stuff out of it, because I just can't be hassled with all that "made in 7 days et al"

Under a cabbage leaf, brought by a stork , ,

Any way, it seems on balance of probability, with all the stars,m which are suns, and may have planets around them, not do dissimilar to ours, I guess there may be others.

Gra.

 

[Chris]

Graham, I'd be inclined to agree. However, having understood a bit more recently about the distances involved, the reality of space travel is less than the likelihood of of other lift. Truth is we are very unlikely to ever meet our nearest neighbours. Looking at the numbers, whilst maybe possible to get a man to Mars, it would probably be a one way trip. There are things out there to which just don't have answers at the moment.

Even if we could go at light speed, it wouldn't be enough!

Chris

 

[adrianr]

Based on current knowledge yep it would take too long to get anywhere else.

of course there will be other methods not yet known that would make such things possible.

 

[Graham]

Yeah,
The distances are beyond we could ever thing to imagine.
Even with having generations of space sailors, it's just so far away, any where .

Gra.

 

[Crispin]

Speed of light is no longer the fastest thing out. Neutrinos, which pass through us all the time ('though, some folk at outside the local chippie have enough mass to slow them) are faster: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/ ... -neutrinos

it would be arrogant to think that we are the only ones and there was nothing else. I would love to be part of the star trek age and would be first in line if they were looking for volunteers but I suspect not even my great great grandchildren would see it.

it'll happen one day though

 

[Chris]

What will? Grand children? Jeez I was hoping the line might not get that far - it's not something I want to see in your lifetime

Nurse - one for shaving please..

Chris

 

[Graham]

Snip, snip, That's fine Mr, all done

Gra.

 

[Chris]

Certainly didn't sound like a big job did it Dr Gra

Chris

 

[Crispin]

No one is snipping anything thank you very much.

 

[Graham]

Naw, Chris,
Monsieurs got nothing to worry about, he can be in and out in 15 mins.
Snipping is child's play,
I'll make the appointment

Putting it all back together again years later is the hard part

Gra.

 

[MuckyPup]

Distance isn't the only barrier, consider time.
Few thousand years ago our little rock wasn't much of a tourist destination either and quite possibly won't be in another few thousand years.

 

[nivapilot]

Even if we could go at light speed, it wouldn't be enough!

We got warp drive though, haven't we?

 

[Chris Green90]

As far as I remember from reading something, somewhere the biggest problem is the timescales involved and the fact that we have not come up with a way to gestate children in space. Because of the lack of gravity babies would be born severely deformed plus even if you sent 1000 people on that sort of journey it wouldny be long at all until the all started playing dueling banjos

 

[Chris]

Apparently, the only food that would last long enough to go that far is Pot Noodle. Seems it put a lot of people off. Not me; I'm booked for a week next Thursday.

Actually, it's mostly muscle degeneration and some rays of some sort that they can't block which eventually will destroy your retinas.

Yes, but think of all those pots of wonder you could get through before that happened.

Gorgeous!

Chris

 

[Andrew Prince]

No one is snipping anything thank you very much.

If you keep producing kids, we'll need Mars just for the overflow of people

 

[Ian Rubie]

The whole idea of looking for alien life by listening for radio transmissions has me worried. We have been transmitting radio waves for about 115 years. That means our earliest transmissions are about 115 light years from Earth. In terms of space this is no distance.

According to this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nearest_galaxies the nearest galaxy to ours is 11.7 million light years away. Do we really want to meet "people" who are 11.7 millions years more advanced than we are?

Ian

 

[fridayman]

The whole idea of looking for alien life by listening for radio transmissions has me worried. We have been transmitting radio waves for about 115 years. That means our earliest transmissions are about 115 light years from Earth. In terms of space this is no distance.

According to this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nearest_galaxies the nearest galaxy to ours is 11.7 million light years away. Do we really want to meet "people" who are 11.7 millions years more advanced than we are?

Ian

Doesn't bother my neighbour.

 

[Chas]

the nearest galaxy to ours is 11.7 million light years away. Do we really want to meet "people" who are 11.7 millions years more advanced than we are? Ian

That doesn't necessarily mean they started evolving 11.7 million years ago. They may have started at the same time as we did.

 

[Lorin]

Speed of light is no longer the fastest thing out. Neutrinos, which pass through us all the time ('though, some folk at outside the local chippie have enough mass to slow them) are faster: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/ ... -neutrinos

Think these findings were discredited, statistical or measurement error or similar Either way, even twice the speed of light wouldn't cut it for visiting our nearest potential interstellar neighbour.

What exactly do we think an alien visitor would think of us and our 'civilisation'....