2-3 times the size of Jupiter, 100AUs out, 400ly away. It's a young system, and one of the more likely candidates to EVENTUALLY have rocky Earth-like worlds, once everything settles down.
Mark
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
Huh. And here I was, expecting a picture of the green guy from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy covers, or something.
Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :
Awesome.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Very cool.
Posted by Slokunshialgo (Member # 1569) on :
So, how long until humans start sending probes there?
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
A billion years?
Posted by Slokunshialgo (Member # 1569) on :
Why so long? Personally, I'd say, h, maybe, 5-25 years or so.
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
I will be gladly surprised if we've sent a probe to Europa within 25 years.
I mean, come on, 400 light years. According to some random website, the fastest human vehicle is Pioneer 11, at 172,163 kph. My math is probably very wrong, but if it isn't, it would take this, our fastest thing ever, 250,917,792 years to get there. What could possibly be the point of such an expedition? Unless you're willing to say that we'll all be posthuman by 2030, eager to unload archival copies of ourselves on unsuspecting planets, which, I will grant, is just vaguely possible, but not, I'll wager, by 2030.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
And why send probes there anyway? The photographed plnets are gas giants: we dont know shit about the ones in our own solar system yet.
I too, will be happy to see a probe sent to Europa in the next 25 years.
Speaking of Space, Japan announced today that it's going ahead with plans for a Lunar settlement.
Given Japan's current econemy.....I kinda doubt it.
Mabye we can jointly crash the (useless) ISS on the moon and build from there...
Posted by Slokunshialgo (Member # 1569) on :
quote:Originally posted by Sol System: According to some random website, the fastest human vehicle is Pioneer 11, at 172,163 kph. My math is probably very wrong, but if it isn't, it would take this, our fastest thing ever, 250,917,792 years to get there.
In the current time, yes, but with the way technology is advancing, how are the people of this time to know?
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
Well, sure; and we might discover a wormhole orbiting the sun. (There are those curious accelerational anomalies both Pioneers have been reporting.) Lots of things could happen between now and then. But I am going to go out on a limb and say that spacecraft are not going to be several orders of magnitude faster in five years than they are now. And if they're capable of a significant fraction of light speed in 25 years, well, I'll be surprised.
Posted by Mucus (Member # 24) on :
250,917,792 + 400 if you want confirmation of arrival Posted by Cartman (Member # 256) on :
And, if you want to be anally retentive to the max, spacecraft are already capable of significant fractions of lightspeed, just not of reaching them within periods of time you or I would find practical.
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
I see your "what if they accelerate for a really long time" and match it with a "no fuel tank large enough exists." Plus maybe "or engines designed to last that long without breaking."
I HOPE I GET A CROWN!
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Ion Drive. ou know, the one that works but on one uses.
I just want to develop my own FTL device and claim all the planets in the system for myself.
....of course, so lobbiest fuck in Washington would probably make me get insurance and pay taxes on them...
See?!? This is why there's no FTL drive. Right here.
Posted by B.J. (Member # 858) on :
Ion propulsion is nice, but it takes a really long time to accelerate, and at most its specific impulse is only about 10 times that of chemical propulsion. In other words, it will (eventually) go about 10 times faster than a chemical rocket with the same mass of fuel. Still won't get you up to a significant percentage of light speed. AFAIK, only two spacecraft have used ion propulsion as their main drive system - Deep Space 1 and SMART 1.
And Jason, after you develop your FTL drive and claim the planets, I'd like to see them try to come up there after you and *make* you pay taxes on them.
B.J.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
They'll probably impose some sort of "return tax"...or a tax on oxygen.
In my city, a lobbiest recently summoned the mayor to cast a deciding vote on a bill in their favor. Believe me, the most creative fuckings anywhere are done right here in South Florida- they'd tax me on something.
I agree that Ion drive takes a looong time to cycle up, but if we'd only develop the technology a little... Imagine everyone today still driving Model A cars. That's where Ion Drive tech is, but NASA seems to think it's not a major field of research.
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
And you base this on?
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
What? The lack of real development on the Ion Drive idea? NASA had passed on funding it several times in the 80's, then they finally did the Deep Space 1 probe, the tech is actually proven, and (so far as I know) NASA has not taken up the cause since.
How can they really, with no budget (compared to the heyday of Regan-era funding)?
PBS had a good program on it about a year or two ago: mabye it's on NOVA's website...
I did find a cool site about the general tech though.
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
Heyday of the "Regan" era?
Sure.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Well, comparitivly. Currently we have Bush making grandiose proclimations that he knows will never happen. Everyone knows that's bullshit.
With Regan, you at least believed some of the lies (like SDI).
Besides, we got a lot from NASA in the 80's/early 90's (yeah, post-Regan, but still) that they'd never be able to do today.
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
(My sarcasm is on the heyday part, not the misspelling.)
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
So, no cracks about how it was about as bad as the Goneril era, but things picked up during the Cordelia era?
Posted by Cartman (Member # 256) on :
YOU GET THE CROWN!
(Also, re: the fuel tank problem: there's "capable", and there's "capable", you know? Like, there's no law that says I am not capable of reaching .1c on my bicycle, only down-to-Earth concerns such as air and ground resistance, muscle cramp, and a general aversion to physical exercise. Yes.)
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