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Eric Jansen
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 27 October 2013
Location: United States
Posts: 2292
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| Posted: 23 February 2017 at 11:30am | IP Logged | 1
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It took less than 100 years to go from the Wright Brothers to Mars. I think we'll be able to shorten that trip. Who knows what another 100 years will bring.
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Erin Anna Leach
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 21 February 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 746
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| Posted: 23 February 2017 at 12:03pm | IP Logged | 2
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I think space flight is going to mirror ocean travel. In the early days of travel over the seas, we stayed in sight of land for many years. Then we made ships that could go faster over the water and figured out navigation by the stars. This allowed us to travel greater distances, and we started to discover places we hadn't been before. It took a long time to travel from Europe to America in the sailing vessel days, no different than us traveling the stars. Eventually we invented ways to make ships go even faster over the ocean. Space travel will follow a similar route, it really already is. An engine has been invented that would cut the trip to mars from nine months to thirty-nine days. We are about to have the technology to start traveling in our own solar system in reasonable amounts of time. Now all we need to do is figure out the gravity and solar radiation problems.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 132303
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| Posted: 23 February 2017 at 12:46pm | IP Logged | 3
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The planets in our solar system are actually touching each other, compared to interstellar distance. We are going to have to find some Texas sized loopholes in relativity if we hope to become true sojourners to the stars. Don't count on it!
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 132303
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| Posted: 23 February 2017 at 2:26pm | IP Logged | 4
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Reading further on TRAPPIST-1's family of planets, I find my enthusiasm dimming. All their orbits would fit inside that of Mercury around our Sun, and the most "Earth-like" has an orbital period of just over 12 days!I profess no expertise on extraterrestrial weather, but if those planets have seasons they must be lightning fast, and not stable enough to support complex life.
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Don Zomberg
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 23 November 2005
Posts: 2355
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| Posted: 23 February 2017 at 2:36pm | IP Logged | 5
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Who knows what another 100 years will bring.
I lose sleep thinking about it some nights.
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Don Zomberg
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 23 November 2005
Posts: 2355
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| Posted: 23 February 2017 at 2:38pm | IP Logged | 6
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if those planets have seasons...
I thought they were fixed orbits. Would that imply consistent weather?
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 132303
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| Posted: 23 February 2017 at 2:45pm | IP Logged | 7
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I thought they were fixed orbits. Would that imply consistent weather?•• The inclination of the Earth's axis is as much responsible for weather as is out distance from the Sun.
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John Cole
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 02 March 2008
Location: United States
Posts: 504
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| Posted: 23 February 2017 at 10:01pm | IP Logged | 8
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Whose to say that they are not ancient satellites and not planets because of their proximity to the star?
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Brian Hunt
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 5178
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| Posted: 23 February 2017 at 10:29pm | IP Logged | 9
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To further JB's point about the weather on those
planets, it looks like they may be tidally locked with
one side facing their star. That would make for some
interesting winds going from their day sides to their
night sides.
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Matt Clouser
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 25 September 2007
Location: United States
Posts: 178
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| Posted: 24 February 2017 at 6:54am | IP Logged | 10
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... and to add to Brian's point, only three of those seven are likely to be in the star's habitable zone - where it is potentially warm enough for liquid water to exist.
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Conrad Teves
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 28 January 2014
Location: United States
Posts: 2175
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| Posted: 24 February 2017 at 8:38am | IP Logged | 11
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Caveat about the "Habitable Zone" around stars:
Our own star system has planets with liquid water far outside said habitable zone. Even (bafflingly) asteroids like Ceres and Kuiper Belt objects like Pluto have evidence of underground liquid water oceans, not to mention some of Jupiter or Saturn's big moons.
Considering that there's life on Earth which have chemosynthetic life and get no energy from the Sun...
The Universe never ceases to amaze.
Not holding my breath on the Warp Drive. ;)
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Eric Ladd
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 August 2004
Location: Canada
Posts: 4506
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| Posted: 24 February 2017 at 8:48am | IP Logged | 12
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"Texas sized"Have you been watching Letterkenny, JB?
One of the more interesting things to me is how our night and day cycle seems to have influenced the various organisms on the planet. Humans routinely struggle with life at the poles when light and darkness for a given 24-hour period are extremely out of balance. What kind of life develops in an environment when it is light for 36 hours followed by 36 hours of darkness. Conrad, as usual, brings up an even more interesting idea that life exists with the absence of a sun. Morlocks anyone?
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