Posted on 05/17/2012 6:11:59 PM PDT by KevinDavis
The cast of “Alien,” in Ridley Scott’s 1979 sci-fi blockbuster, may actually be more akin to future space-farers than our citizen heroes from NASA’s Apollo era. After all, the film presents a view of space travel that is based as much on economics as wanderlust and this is arguably as it should be.
How can anyone forget the hangdog eyes of Harry Dean Stanton, who so clearly is out that far in space solely for the cash? The crew of the Nostromo, the film’s ore-carrying cargo vessel under threat from a ravenous extraterrestrial, inherently understands that sometimes great profit only comes with great risk.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Watching the Top Gear rerun of the episode where James May drove the moon buggy that will never go to the moon. He sounded about as sad about the whole affair as you or I am.
I suspect most freighters will be mostly autonomous.
Interstellar travel is an impossible fantasy.
It is damned sad what has become of our space (er muslim outreach & feelgood) program.
It will be private enterprise that will get people back in space. How much gov-co will fight and regulate them is a big x factor, I would bet on heavily.
If they go too far they’ll fall of the edge of the solar system.
THe Laws of physics says we will never leave here.
Good point here.
BTW: There were some things I didn’t get about that movie. Why did the computer look like something out of 1975 and there was a futuristic android too?? Was the vessel so old that it by far predates the androids?
I don’t see anything in physics that won’t allow interstellar trips. The time scales are another matter if you’re talking about sending people.
The Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR) is technically feasible and has worked in small scale testing both here on earth and on the space station. Its believed that an interstellar trip to Alpha Centauri could be made in around 50 years.
I have seen several shows with James May discussing an American technological achievement; the man gets a lump in his throat. When he speaks of the Apollo Program, he borders on the emotional.
Since we have a probe in interstellar space (past the heliosphere) right now, I'd say that your statement might be bound by the facts, and a limited understanding of the current acceleration of technology.
No one is going to jump on an interstellar liner next year, but to say that it is an impossible fantasy is akin to:
"To place a man in a multi-stage rocket and project him into the controlling gravitational field of the moon where the passengers can make scientific observations, perhaps land alive, and then return to earth--all that constitutes a wild dream worthy of Jules Verne. I am bold enough to say that such a man-made voyage will never occur regardless of all future advances."
-- Lee deForest, American radio pioneer and inventor of the vacuum tube, 1957
/johnny
lets be ridiculous and pretend it is possible to go faster than the speed of light. Any man made craft going at that speed hitting something as small as a grain of rice would explode like a nuclear bomb.
Never say never... Luddites like you have always been proven wrong.
-- Albert Einstein, German-born American physicist, 1932
It's always dangerous to say something is impossible.
/johnny
E=MC2
To a layman what this means Energy (E) = Mass(M) X Speed of Light squared, so it would an infinite amount of energy to get anything with any mass at all (meaning everything that exists from space ships to mole crap) going anywhere near the speed of light. Get it? INFINITE Energy (there is no such thing, never will or can be such a thing).
Luddites like me have actually studied physics and got an A.
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