Space: The Final Frontier

[Kaboose the Moose]

I love the space, space is awesome but I dislike the idea of astrology. When it comes to space I rather the feel of actually being able to go out and "touch" it; not look at it dreamily and hoping that maybe, one day, we'll get there.

And this also explains why I love Privateer/Freelancer/Those-styled-games so much (Which is a pity because the only game released recently is Starpoint Gemini)

I think you mean astronomy there but yeah I see the appeal of space based games as well. This is why I love Homeworld 2

I'm asking more in terms of knowing what the planets are (that it's a planet similar to earth but bigger) around the time Jesus was born in the bible rather than a big star randomly named saturn. Because I don't see people being aware of it in early times especially since we used to think the world was flat and the shinny dot named saturn is circular. The answer has to be no, since if they knew planets like earth existed then they would have concluded earth was round.

I dont know, after watching Carl Sagan's video, I'm just thinking that religious views are very... everything extends from earth rather than earth is a small dot in everything. I have no point to lead into.

I don't how how Religion can explain their function, if it does at all

Hm, I am not sure how astronomy was back in the day of Jesus but I suppose people would have noticed the planets, at the very least they would have spotted Venus - the morning/evening star and Mars.

However, that doesn't necessarily mean they would have conclude that the Earth was spherical. Let alone identifying that the objects are planets and not, stars or moons.

 

[Josh123914]

Spoiler

I believe this is the right moment to post this:
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/01/04/insanely-awesome-solar-eclipse-picture/

It's tuesday's solar eclipse but additionally featuring the ISS passing in front of it.

A 10-year-old girl in Canada has become the youngest person to discover a supernova - an exploding star which can briefly outshine a whole galaxy.

Kathryn Gray was studying images taken at an amateur observatory which had been sent to her father.

She spotted the magnitude 17 supernova on Sunday.

"Kathryn pointed to the screen and said: 'Is this one?' I said yup, that looks pretty good," Mr Gray told the newspaper.

"It's fantastic that someone so young would be passionate about astronomy. What an incredible discovery. We're all very excited," said Deborah Thompson of RASC.

The new supernova is called Supernova 2010lt.

The last supernova in our galaxy occurred several hundred years ago.

Source [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12110747]

So... she pointed at the screen with daddy's pictures and now she's a "discoverer"?

Woah that picture is awesome, the ISS is ridiculously tiny in comparison but..despite the obviousness of it I am still amazed.

I think its cute she was made "discoverer" btw. If adopting the strictest definition of discover, then yeah, she did sort of spot it first. Besides, clearly someone on the committee has a big heart to let her into such a prestigious rank. I can't blame him/her though, have you seen her face?

Daaaw....

Edit: Here's another question. Why haven't we sent humans to Mars yet? We have the technology, we have the equipment. I just don't see why we can't all rally around the TV like it was 1969 and watch homo sapien sapien place his two feet on another planet for the first time EVER.

Come on somebody, America, Russia, Europe, India, China

Yeah, the picture looks great. And I'm still bummed because I could not watch it properly due to me missing the proper filters.

And to your edit:
We don't have the competition anymore. In 1969 it was a capitalists vs communists thing who'd first send a person to the moon, now that we have a cooperating world we miss that important factor.
Stupid communist breakdown, I know. I too want to finally see humans set foot on another planet.

When I'm in the ESA things are so gonna change damnit!

It's really silly that we need competition to do extraordinary things nowadays. I mean I know most of our best work was due to competition but I would have thought that curiosity should be able to propell man forward on its own.

The ESA as fantastic as they are really need a shuttle or re-usable space flight program. At the rate they are moving countries like India and China might get their own shuttle launch capabilities before we ever do.

On that note I wonder if the US are replacing their shuttles? Last I recall they only have Discovery and Endeavor.

Yep, ESA certainly needs to man up and get something done. How hard can it be to get the plans to a space shuttle from the internet and rip off half of it?

US replacing their shuttles? Last I knew was that the shuttles are getting decommissioned although NASA is not done with developing the successor yet. So now they'll have to rely on Russian Soyuz for their transportation and to be honest... this spacecraft sucks like a black hole. They are far inferior to the shuttle as they can't really transport heavy cargo or a lot of stuff at once.

Well from what I've heard Japan have some pretty big plans for space domination, I'm surprised no one's talked of them yet, basically from what I've learned is starting from 2015 and(being the geniuses at cybernetic that they are) will use ROBOTS to build a space station on the moon(along with making said station habitable without a suit constantly on you) and use it as a half-way point to get to Mars and make(possibly) another station there, after that my memory of it goes a little fuzzy but they hope the program will take about 25 years to do, impossible?....... probably but it's nice to see SOMEONE is trying, as to quote yahtzee ''It's better to fail with ambition than to succeed with very low standards.''

 

[LupusDei]

I really enjoyed looking at them pictures.

Such beauty.

 

[Skuffyshootster]

One of my favorite asterism (not constellation) is Orion's Belt.

Spoiler

EDIT: It's the three bright stars center-left in the first picture.

I don't know, there's something about seeing the same stars in such close proximity with a guarantee of them being there every night (although not necessarily visible).

 

[Dragonearl]

NASA has taken the wraps off three concept designs for quiet, energy efficient aircraft that could potentially be ready to fly as soon as 2025. The designs come from Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and The Boeing Company. In the final months of 2010, each of these companies won a contract from NASA to research and test their concepts during 2011.

Apparently, NASA is aiming to develop a line of super-planes that larger, faster, quieter, and that burn fuel slower and cleaner than their present counterparts.

These pictures look cool! [http://www.ispyce.com/2011/01/nasa-next-generation-airplanes.html]