Re: Not too happy about Tempel 1.


"Robert Geake" <robert.geake@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:42ce3de6$0$12899$cc9e4d1f@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

> With out reading all the other posts(cant be bothered at this time of the
> morning) i share a similar contempt for this operation as you. I did air
> my
> concerns on this group a few months back(just after the launch i think).
> My
> main concern is the ability of scientists to *beleive* they know all there
> is to know!
>
> My ideas that an alteration in orbit could end in disaster was imideately
> dismissed by every one that reply but as you i still find the operation
> and
> un-required *exploit* were the money would be better off spent on Mars
> colonisation(where our future lies)...
>
> These concerns are reflected accross the entire space exploration game!!!
> Why spend vast amounts of money looking at Jupiters moons that we know are
> near impossible to terra-form when that same financial investment could go
> to colonising Mars!!
>
> For those that will shout "But Mars is to suffer the same fate as us
> eventually!" yes, this i know but....It will give us another few thousand
> years! If the terrorists have not set of the third world war by then...

It's a shame you didn't take two minutes to read the other posts, Robert, as
they are mostly quite lighthearted. Your own contribution seems full of
doom and gloom (like 'Senna the Soothsayer, just passing through').

At some point in the future, we may be faced with an asteroid or comet
heading for Earth. If, like Tempel_1, it has volume/mass of about 100 cubic
kilometres/100 billion tonnes, it would be reassuring to know we could hit
it with something in an attempt to break it up and/or deflect it. The
technological achievement in this latest bit of target practice would appear
to be very worthwhile for that reason alone then.

The sums of money invested over the last decade on the various unmanned
missions, like Cassini/Huygens, Mars Express/Rover, etc. etc. do not amount
to a tiny fraction of what is required to launch a manned mission to Mars.
Consider the round trip requirements of the space vehicle alone. It will be
huge, let alone the cost of building the first pub there (Mars Bar 1)...

As for terra-forming Mars, we hardly have the technology, or willing
investors, to fill Africa with viable crops, let alone extraterrestrial
allotments. And what fate is to befall Mars that hasn't already? We know
it lost most of its atmosphere and free water in the very distant past,
becoming the desert we see now, so what are you on about guv'nor?

Finally, it's difficult to see how the breakaway terrorist groups will
initiate WWIII. By definition, they act in maverick style without the
support of any of the major powers. And it is the major powers who have
their fingers on the buttons.

---
Acknowledgements to the late great Frankie Howerd for my quotation above.
Never look a gift-horse in the mouth, it's the other end that feeds the
rhubarb.
(and that one).


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Not too happy about Tempel 1.
    ... >> near impossible to terra-form when that same financial investment could ... >> For those that will shout "But Mars is to suffer the same fate as us ... > Consider the round trip requirements of the space vehicle alone. ... > investors, to fill Africa with viable crops, let alone extraterrestrial ...
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