Nipate
Forum => Kenya Discussion => Topic started by: veritas on September 24, 2014, 05:51:56 PM
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If the Indians can do it, why can't we?
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Looks to be around 500million... not bad.
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Wouldn't you need a tad more than a rocket? Say a habitable environment, for example? :D
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It might actually be affordable oneday to travel around space.. with better aircrafts, technology etc. we might be travelling around the cosmos oneday instead of just flying in a Boeing.
When SpaceX put a communications satellite into orbit yesterday, it wasn’t a just triumph of technology. It was a victory for cost control.
The enormous expense of rocket launches—especially to the heights needed to keep a large satellite orbiting in a fixed spot over Earth—is a problem for both the nascent space industry and space science in general. That price tag has limited operations of both NASA and the NSA. Until now, most commercial operations contracted with Russia’s space agency in Kazakhstan or Europe’s space agency, which launches from South America. Depending on a number of factors, mostly the size and weight of payload, the cost of a single launch ranges from $100 million to $260 million.
SpaceX charged SES, a global satellite company, a mere $55 million for this launch. CEO Elon Musk attributes the low cost of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket to its modular design and engineering choices, as well as to SpaceX’s preference for making its own components rather than outsourcing.
The success of this first launch for a private client—the company had already contracted with NASA to deliver supplies to the International Space Station via its rocket and reusable robotic space capsule, called Dragon—clears the way for SpaceX to fulfill its $4 billion book of business. If future launches confirm Falcon 9’s reliability, SpaceX will “own the satellite launch industry,” as space journalist Michael Belfiore puts it. That will give it the cash flow to pursue its more technically challenging plans, such as a trip to Mars.
But SpaceX isn’t done with cost-cutting just yet. One of the most expensive things about rocket launches is that the rocket typically burns up in the atmosphere when it returns to earth or winds up in the ocean—literally, a sunk cost.
That’s why the Grasshopper, the company’s prototype for a reusable Falcon 9 rocket, is so exciting:
http://qz.com/153969/spacex-just-made-rocket-launches-affordable-heres-how-it-could-make-them-downright-cheap/
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Kadame, there's no land tax on Mars. Whoever has the weapons wins. I'm talking militia style. Coup d'etat those American scientists. Hold them hostage to send us supplies. Once have enough go to other planets, collect food there.. calculate a map around the cosmos for guaranteed fuel and food. Like Europa that moon in Jupiter is apparently similar to Earth... I think we'd be genetically sufficient oneday so we don't need to eat so much, age quickly, or even need oxygen. We'd be half robot in some sense... maybe we can fly as well... no need for rockets. I wonder who in the brains will get there first. Medical scientists or rocket scientists...
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Sure, there is plenty on nitrogen gas out there. May be we should adapt to breath this instead of the more scarce oxygen, but then shall we still be humans?
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Sure, there is plenty on nitrogen gas out there. May be we should adapt to breath this instead of the more scarce oxygen, but then shall we still be humans?
LOL. You and veritas have some wild--should I say, ambitious?--imagination. Do we have a choice in the matter? We can just choose not to need oxygen anymore? :D
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I think we can learn a lot from amphibians and fish. I'm sure there's a genetic sequence that can switch from oxygen to nitrogen systems. Even just a super filter which can constantly switch from nitrogen to oxygen.. you can virtually program anything with genes, more powerful than programming computers. Truly the finest creation from the Heavens. His signature all over it. Genes is like understanding a programming language the gods built.
OLK, let's not bring ethics/philosophy into this... that just makes it too complex..
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Colonization of Europa... living like Atlantis on another planet.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonization_of_Europa
Europa as a target for human colonization has several benefits compared to other bodies in the outer Solar System, but is not without challenges.
Possible advantages
Europa is thought to have a liquid water ocean underneath its icy exterior.[1] Access to this liquid water ocean is a major difficulty, but the abundance of water on Europa is a benefit to any considerations for colonization. Not only can water provide for colonists' drinking needs, it also can be broken down to provide breathable oxygen. Oxygen is also believed to have accumulated from radiolysis of the ice on the surface that has been convected into the subsurface ocean and may prove sufficient for oxygen-using marine life.[citation needed]
Possible problems
The colonization of Europa presents numerous difficulties. One is the high level of radiation from Jupiter's radiation belt, which is about 10 times as strong as Earth's Van Allen radiation belts. As Europa receives 540 rem of radiation per day (500 rem is a fatal dose),[2] a human would not survive at or near the surface of Europa for long without significant radiation shielding. Colonists on Europa would have to descend beneath the surface when Europa is not protected by Jupiter's magnetotail, and stay in subsurface habitats. This would allow colonists to use Europa's ice sheet to shield themselves from radiation.
Another problem is that the surface temperature of Europa normally rests at ?170 °C (103 K) (-275°F). However, the fact that liquid water is believed to exist below Europa's icy surface, along with the likelihood that colonists would spend much of their time under the ice sheet in order to shield themselves from radiation, may somewhat mitigate the problems associated with low surface temperatures.
The low gravity of Europa may also present challenges to colonization efforts. The effects of low gravity on human health are still an active field of study, but can include symptoms such as loss of bone density, loss of muscle density, and a weakened immune system. Astronauts in Earth orbit have remained in microgravity for up to a year and more at a time. Effective countermeasures for the negative effects of low gravity are well-established, particularly an aggressive regimen of daily physical exercise. The variation in the negative effects of low gravity as a function of different levels of low gravity are not known, since all research in this area is restricted to humans in zero gravity. The same goes for the potential effects of low gravity on fetal and pediatric development. It has been hypothesized that children born and raised in low gravity would not be well adapted for life under the higher gravity of Earth.[3]
It is also speculated that alien organisms may exist on Europa, possibly in the water underlying the moon's ice shell.[1][4] If this is true, human colonists may come into conflict with harmful microbes, or aggressive native life forms. More recent studies have indicated that the action of solar radiation on the surface of Europa might produce oxygen, which could be pulled down into the subsurface ocean by upwellings of the interior. If this process occurs, Europa's subsurface ocean could have an oxygen content equal to or greater than that of the Earth's, possibly providing a home to more complex life.[5]
An unstable surface could represents another potential problem. It has been shown that the moon is geologically active, with an outer crust with plate tectonic that resembles that on earth. The reconstruction of the geological activity over a few years of an area the size of the state Alabama showed that a piece of the surface as big as Massachusetts had moved down underneath the crust and disappeared.[6]
Artemis Project Colonization PlanEdit
In 1997, the Artemis Project produced a plan to colonize Europa.[7] According to this plan, explorers would first establish a small base on the surface. From there, they would drill down into the Europan ice crust, entering the postulated subsurface ocean. The colonists would then create (or, possibly, find) a pocket between the icy surface and the liquid interior in which to establish a base. This location would be protected from radiation by the ice overhead, and would be at a more reasonable temperature than the surface, as indicated by the presence of liquid water.[8]