One of the coolest things I have ever seen ...

[Emerald]

And to those Irishmen who WOULD hope to be next in line at NASA, may I suggest a degree in either Geology or Fighter Plane Pilotology? *

*ok, not an actual a degree. But flying fighter jets gives you the best edge, traditionally.

Heh, anyone who does a degree in Geology in Ireland is gonna be pretty screwed. It's like, the least sought-after profession ever.

[Nacho]

Sorry for digging up this old thread but...

WTF? I posted a link about the 9/11 "squibs" in the WTC. Sorry... I wanted to post a link about the ESA website to show Emerald that the space exploration is a thing of everybody, and not just the americans.

http://www.esa.int/esaCP/index.html

Why did I post a link about the WTC? I am fighting against a group of conspiranoids (In another forums) that say that the WCT collapsed because it was a controlled demolition... I think that if you watch the "incriminative" video carefully you'll realise that it wasn' t not a controlled demolition, but that' s another discussion...

Sorry for the missunderstood.

[evenwolf]

Wow, that's ...that's quite a hilarious coincidence.  Makes me blush at my overreaction.   But I could imagine SOMEONE blames Skull & Bones for US domination of space exploration.  Its uh... not a stetch to half expect that.


Anyways, is the video updated?  the ESA one I'd like to see.

[Nacho]

It was not a video, Evenwolf... It was just a link of the ESA website.

Emerald said "I can't  like space ships because space travels are made by americans" and I posted a link of the ESA, (European Space Agency, including Ireland, as well) to prove him that he won't go to the space not because of his nationality, but because going to the space is damn difficult...

Again, sorry for the missunderstanding. No bad feelings about the people' s reactions, since they were reactions bases in a missunderstood. 

[Snarky]

The point is that as long as you have money, American citizenship, and you're white, you could very easily buy your way onto a space craft in a few year's time. But the chances of them letting grubby foreigners touch their shiny buttons within the next century seem slim.

Did I miss the point where you retracted this statement as pure nonsense after evenwolf showed that nationality is not a precondition for buying your way into space?

Now America, being a soldily capitalist country, will inevitably see the value in space tourism, once it becomes more affordable. Which is a completely separate point from the way America treats immigrants and foreigners as second-class citizens, which is a totally different issue (keep in mind that someone who's 12.5% Irish is not an immigrant).

As a foreigner living in the US, I can say that the country does not treat me as a second-class citizen. Why? Because I'm not a citizen! Not in first-, second-, or business-class! So what does that mean? I can't vote, I need a work permit for jobs I take, and unless I get immigration status I'll have to leave at some point. Other than that, from day to day I can live my life just like any American.

There are some differences in my constitutional rights (stuff like whether the government can wiretap my phone without a court order) that I'm not too happy about, and going through immigration control each time I enter the country is a minor hassle, but overall I would have to say that the US (both the government and the people here) has been pretty welcoming, and treated me with great fairness. Poor immigrants and those who don't speak English have it much more difficult, of course. That's more a matter of class than of nationality, though. And illegal immigrants face much bigger problems still, but that's the case almost everywhere, not some special US perfidy.

Your statements do not seem to be grounded in fact, but motivated by blind anti-Americanism. (And if you don't want to attract ad-hominems, maybe you should stop posting inflammatory comments without any kind of backup.)

[Nacho]

Becoming an astronaut is the main goal of everyone interested in space.

Saying "I don' t like that because I am not going to reach to the top" is a bit unconsistent.

I mean... Do you like football? Yes? Why? You are not going to play the final of the World Cup.

Do you like cars? Yes? Why? You are not going to win an F-1 championship.

Do you like AGS? Yes? Why? You are not going to match the sales of GTA IV.

Same with the space/astronomy. We will never reach there, but we can read the news, make models, fly rockets...

I guess there must be something hidden behind that "I am not going to reach the space, so, those mission doesn' t interest me" argument, but I am not who to dig into your mind and guess the REAL reasons... but I am here to mention that your reasons are unconsistent.

[Huw Dawson]

*I* find space and space exploration cool.

Hence, the US is spending some of it's wealth properly.

Really, I say that the future isn't so bleak for manned missions - China, Japan, Russia, the EU, Brazil and India (I think that's all the major ones) have space programs. And each one has the capability to make it work. Brazil, Russia, India and China are all having resurgant economies following the end of the Cold War.

Really, there should be a "global space agency", like an expanded ISS project.

- Huw

[evenwolf]

ICE ON MARS!  ICE ON MARS!   ICE ON MARS!


Hey, there's ice confirmed on Mars, this is easily worth half a billion dollars don't you think?   

http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/06_20_pr.php

[Cornelia Morge]

Could we ever live there...

[Darth Mandarb]

Hey, there's ice confirmed on Mars, this is easily worth half a billion dollars don't you think?

I'd say that's worth several billion dollars!  I have to think there's a quite a few scientists out there right now just thumbing their noses (silently of course) at all the nay-sayers. 

Amazing news.  I can't wait to hear what's next.

[Tuomas]

Yay water. That's extremely alien. I bet they'll be bringing it back and study it. Melt it and boil it and all that, going all microscopic on it, and finally realising it actually is H2O, then they'll mix it in a drink with some whiskey and have some fun.

[Matti]

Hey, there's ice confirmed on Mars, this is easily worth half a billion dollars don't you think?

Definitively not! Same thing with the scyscrapers in your other thread. Well, it's nice to know that there's ice on mars and perhaps some scyscrapers look stunning, but how could all that possibly be worth billions of dollars I wonder? It's just playing around instead of concentrating on more serious issues.

[MrColossal]

holy crap holy crap holy crap.

I want only 2 things from this discovery.

1: The water has microbial life in it

2: The microbial life does not have DNA.

Please O Please O Please

[Darth Mandarb]

It's so amazing to me to see/hear the different opinions in this thread ... I know I've commented on that before but it really does amaze me.

I can't fathom how people don't see the relevance of space exploration.  To me it's just ... alien (pun intended).

How can we not see the incredible importance of the fact that there's frozen water on Mars?  It's not that it's water ... it's that it's water ON MARS!

I have this saying that I live by (and an acronym for it; TETO) "to each their own" which definitely applies here.  Whenever somebody/thing vastly differs in opinion on something I usually just mumble, "TETO".

So ... TETO.

[Tuomas]

holy crap holy crap holy crap.

I want only 2 things from this discovery.

1: The water has microbial life in it

...

You know what would be totally cool? That the life on Mars was actually brought to near extinction by a virus or bacteria of some sort. And in the end, the only thing the local highly advanced scientists could do about it was to freeze the whole planet. That way the virus would be immobile, and they'd flee to some far away galaxy never knowing that the dinosaurs around Earth quarters would actually develop into monkeys and come after their prison substance. Once we melt it, we'll be totally wiped out, and then I'll go njah njah.

[Darth Mandarb]

You know what would be totally cool? That the life on Mars was actually brought to near extinction by a virus or bacteria of some sort. And in the end, the only thing the local highly advanced scientists could do about it was to freeze the whole planet. That way the virus would be immobile, and they'd flee to some far away galaxy never knowing that the dinosaurs around Earth quarters would actually develop into monkeys and come after their prison substance. Once we melt it, we'll be totally wiped out, and then I'll go njah njah.

I find that statement rather ironical ... Because I got the impression by your last post that you didn't find this important (may have misinterpreted)?

Well ... those ancient life-forms would never be able to leave the planet if they didn't invest in space exploration in the first place.  So what would be even cooler, in my opinion, would be to find proof of that ancient civilization that was wiped out by that virus because they listened to the nay-sayers and didn't invest in space exploration thus were trapped on their planet and promptly went extinct.

[evenwolf]

Yeah I guess those theories are cool.   Eric's hope is simple enough YET mind-blowing.   

I'd be happy with the water reserves on Mars supporting human life.   I mean, sure there's no E.T. in that scenario but its groundbreaking in every way possible and a step toward finding sustainable life on Earth.

Every pound that we send to the moon costs $300,000 so ... imagine how much that same pound costs to send to Mars.    This water makes the trip a lot more feasible.


On another note:  NASA announced the first child in Africa to receive his Martian Snowcone!   It's South African Charles Grumbo!   Grandson of American oil tycoon Dalton Grumbo!  Congrats Charlie!   Enjoy your snowcone!

[Matti]

How can we not see the incredible importance of the fact that there's frozen water on Mars?  It's not that it's water ... it's that it's water ON MARS!

...and what happens then? We waste 6 bottles of water to make 1 bottle of Coca Cola. So we'll take water from mars to have enough to drink?

Don't misunderstand me, I'm quite interested in space and spacetravel. But it all seems to me like some sort of escapism with the attitude: With exploration and science we'll either solve the problems on our planet OR, if mother earth is wasted, we'll leave and colonize some planet somewhere..

Shouldn't we instead work on our problems BEFORE we explore outer space? How can it be that so many people live without healthcare, but billions are going into space-science? Of course it's the same thing with weaponscience for example...

..I think you get the point.

[evenwolf]

So we'll take water from mars to have enough to drink?

Oh Jesus.  What a hump melon.    When you travel overseas do you actually carry all the water you'll be drinking on the trip?   Well perhaps if you were going to Mexico... 

Listen.  Sadly the boat has sailed past you and you are not onboard.   I think you're flailing in the water somewhere in its wake.

Shouldn't we instead work on our problems BEFORE we explore outer space? How can it be that so many people live without healthcare, but billions are going into space-science? Of course it's the same thing with weaponscience for example...

And hereby you trivialize the entire mission with your misguided understandings.   Our current understanding of the universe comes from Earth and what we see from a lens in a telescope.   Understanding the universe gives us new methods of solving's earth's problems.   Exploring the universe is not a waste.

The last post I made (the one about the snowcones)  was for you.   I hope you enjoyed my sarcasm because any further explanation I feel will fall on deaf ears.    NASA doesn't need you to clap your hands and *believe*  to succeed in its missions.    So its your own loss and your own little snow globe of ignorance you choose to sit glumly inside.  I hope one day you will open your doors to the people who are working towards solving the world's problems, and not spit in their face.

[Tuomas]

Understanding the universe gives us new methods of solving's earth's problems.  Exploring the universe is not a waste.

This is actually pretty interesting. I assume, that we can, because of all this, foretell meteors and such hitting the Earth, and also predict the end of the world as sun either sucks us in or explodes, was it 2012 or something? But I really can't see the benefit of getting some guy on the moon just to discover there's nothing there. Unless it's said to have ended the cold war through political influence. Satellites and such that go around the orbit do actually work, as long as they don't spy on me jerking off on the balcony watching little children play.