The Astronomy Thread

Vvoid_sl said:

If I dwell on it too much, it slightly depresses me that the thing I have been interested in the most, and most consistently, during my lifetime (space) will still be so far from being understood, much less explored or even conquered, by the time I die. I was born 3 months before the moon landing, and while obviously I don't remember it, it was a big deal as I was growing up. I could not have imagined that we'd still be this far from space travel. Hell, I just watched Blade Runner again the other day, and the date that things are taking place in that movie are 2019. Obviously it is sci-fi, but still, the hopes for the future of space travel and exploration were so huge a few decades ago. Forty years ago it was all but a given that we'd have flying cars by now. While that was obviously a bit optimistic, we aren't even close to having the power plants/engines necessary for such things, and it is unlikely we'll even have them in another forty years unless public and political opinion swings drastically back towards the research side of things.

Sometimes I almost wish we did get attacked by (a very small contingent of) aliens so we'd be forced to shit or get off the pot. You know that if we were forced to invent actual spacecraft propulsion systems like we've seen in so many sci-fi shows (Battlestar Galactica, Babylon 5, whatever), we'd probably solve the world's energy crisis (and likely climate change as well) along with it. But no, we can't have that because all the politicians care about is being re-elected, not actually furthering science and/or society in any way.

Yeah, I'm rustled, because it bums me out, that's all.

Click to expand...

Just watch Prometheus to fill in the blanks.

Cad_sl said:

The depressing part is not only the above, but what if the results of Fermi's Paradox are what they are because there simply isn't any spacecraft propulsion system possible within our universes laws of physics that can reasonably propel anything reasonably into interstellar space?

Click to expand...

Who knows. There could be entirely new and different laws of physics or materials with exotic properties right behind the corner. Imagine if you told people about the properties and mechanics of powered flight in the late 1800s.

fucker_sl said:

naa...dont be so negative guys. Sure, we are still very far away from it, but just look what technology we had 1 century ago. We had barely started to use planes. 90% of the science field we know today were yet to be created. We are learning more and more at faster rate. We are about to invent cold fusion/LENR source of energy production. We are getting closer to quantum computers. Robotics is becoming more and more complex so much that we can imagine in a few decades an industrial revolution like we have with the introduction of motorized machines in agricolture and industrial chain production

the only question is if our society can survive the changes technology will bring, not if we will ever be able to reach space

i'm pretty optimistic in this. Sure i wont be see it, but i can live with that

Click to expand...

That last part is the part that bums me in particular, but aside from that, sure we have barely had planes for 100 years. The problem is, most of the planes we are still using to this day are barely different than the planes we used 40 years ago in terms of propulsion systems, structures, aerodynamics, etc. Computers are really the only "future tech" that has lived up to (and in some ways exceeded) the reasonable expectations that people had for it. 40 years ago a computer filled a room, now it fits in our phone. But the best thing we have to power our planes, cars, boats, etc. is still fossil fuels. With the exception of nuclear-powered naval vessels, we've just gotten better at making existing fuels produce more horsepower pretty much. We haven't gotten anywhere near even powering our cities with nuclear power or anything else "new", let alone individual vehicles. Hell, we've been "about to" invent cold fusion for decades now.

I know it is just the age creeping up on me more than anything, but when I was in grade school we used to all want to be astronauts and shit, and we'd draw pictures of flying cars and living on the moon. Do kids even think about that kind of thing nowadays? It's like we've given up on the wonder of space, and all the awesome inventions we get from trying to live there. As I've said, the breakthroughs that some sort of "ion thruster" or "plasma engine" (just making up names obviously) that allows people to fly around in space like it is no big deal would do wonders for our dwindling fossil fuels, pollution, global warming...who knows, maybe even agriculture, poverty, etc. Not to mention things like oxygen scrubbers/rebreathers/generators, water purifiers, etc. that would all have to be made vastly more efficient and compact. Those things will all come one day, we all know they will. But we're not even really trying much anymore, outside of a random few programs that don't have the funding or backing necessary to make much headway.

It doesn't matter whether there is anything else out there or not, in my mind. Striving to get there is what we should be doing, and we aren't. No one in charge cares anymore. And most people don't either. That's what makes me sad.

fucker_sl said:

you should really watch this video. He says pretty much what you just wrote about the cultural "dreaming" 70/80 society had and the reason why we(you) reached that apex of technological enterprise, and why no one else has adventured beyond that

Click to expand...

Thank you so much for that. I've always been a fan of his of course, but every time I hear him speak on a topic I'm even more amazed. If he were just in charge of funding projects, the world would soon be a much different place.

It is interesting to me that he mentions 1989 and the Berlin Wall, Soviet union crumbling, etc. as one of the major turning points, and his example of an aerospace engineer designing a 10% more efficient plane vs. the airfoil used on another planet. I was in my junior year of college by then, in Aeronautical Engineering, and by the time I graduated the job market for my field went from 90%+ employment rate after graduation to under 20%. I came back home to Sacramento and Aerojet laid off 2000+ people. It was amazing just how quickly everything stopped. Even non-defense oriented jobs came to a screeching halt. I mean, it wasn't like passenger airline technology was solely dependent upon whether or not the Soviets were going to nuke us, but once the threat wasn't there, even that research plummeted in importance. Not to mention all the other things he talks about, like particle physics and the like.

I would give my left nut to live in the world he and I both envision. Or at least the one that he mentions where politicians would be required to pass a law or bill every year that wouldn't have tangible benefits until far after the reelection terms of those politicians. Thank you again for linking that, I hadn't seen it before.