Besides the current sci-fi theories of traveling through a nifty worm whole and conveniently ending up on a planet with other beautiful people such as yourself or jumping in a snug sleep chamber that doesn't seem to have a compartment for the body to expel its waste, while your mascara stays perfect- what are the current theories being studied for man's exploration of space?
132846
You would generate a ship capable of providing a mini-ecosystem capable of sustaining a self-replicating crew.  Astronauts have kids who become astronauts down the ages until the destination is reached.  \n\nAs far as drive mechanism, currently NASA is working on finalizing an ION drive that gets stuff to its destination faster than our current thruster tech by propelling them at an increasing rate of acceleration.
6820
100 years might be a bit quick, but I think this may happen faster than one might think at first.\n\nRay Kurzweil is a well-known predictor of technology trends and suggests that the technology to 'move' a person from their brain to an electronic replica will happen in the not-so-distant future. Once this is possible, the technology needed for interstellar flights will be greatly simplified because any approach to transport a human (as they currently live, in a biological body) would consume incredible resources just to provide an environment in which they could survive.
521072
Can you think of ANY objects in space?\n\nHow do you suppose they were discovered?\n\nF'r Chrissakes, clearly this is a schoolwork question. DO YOUR OWN HOMEWORK! IT'S SUPPOSED TO TEACH YOU, NOT YAHOO ANSWERS VOLUNTEERS, HOW TO DO RESEARCH.\n\nYeesh!
616461
Well, double-helix galaxies have been spotted in space, just do a search for it.  They are shaped by magnetic fields and enormous Birkeland  currents.  This should give us an idea about what purpose our DNA serves, and what the  connection between the small molecule chain and the galaxy is.\n\nWe're enormously complex creatures, but there should be no doubt that the consciousness is located in the various energy fields of the body.  Ancient lore handed down from the ages taught us this, and it should have finally been proven when science found that currents travel our nerves all around our body and create storms in our brain.\n\nEarth has a natural electric field, and where do you think your soul will exist when you die?
652926
Actually for the larger industrialized nations space research and exploration is a relatively small fraction of their overall national budgets, and space research, if used wisely, can help reduce, if not cure, some problems by monitoring crops for diseases or drought, help track weather, animal and fish populations, enivironmental problems, and provide new technologies and materials that can improve healthcare and life in general, and of course there is the knowledge gained about the Universe in which we live. I do agree that there is a great deal of money wasted in the space program (I think the Space Shuttle and International Space Station are make-work money pits that should be closed off), but I think the more germain question is why so many trillions of dollars worldwide are spent on weapons, corporate greed, and subsidizing the lifestyles of the already wealthy. Cutting even just one major weapons purchase program in practically every country around the globe could give each child of those nations a free college education.\n\nI think an argument also has to be made for the simple human need to know and understand what space is and what's in it. Questions like "Where did the Moon come from and what is is made of?" would never have been answered if we hadn't gone there. Sending robotic missions to Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and other planets in our solar system give us some hint of what those worlds really are like and fire our imaginations, and sending telescopes, such as the Hubble, up into space have given us a clearer, and often very beautiful picture of what the Cosmos is made up of and how it got here. Theories aren't worth much unless there is data to back them up, and these sorts of instruments help us gather data in ways that human eyes or ground-based equipment never could, and while it's true most of us go through life occupied by the more mundane pursuits of life, but all of us at some time have wondered what this Universe is all about and what our place is in it, and I think the questions being asked here bear that out. Exploring space helps answer some of those questions.\n\nIt isn't legitimate space programs (ie., non-militarized) that are starving the poor; it's the insatiable, contemptible greed of death merchants like Lockheed-Martin and greedhead corporations like Halliburton and Bechtel who want to enslave us that do...\n\nN.
675818
Check out Stephen Hawking's site.  It contains theories and lectures.  If anyone's an expert on workholes, it's him.\n\nThis second site looks pretty good.\n\nA candidate for breakthrough propulsion physics has been identified in the form of a traversable wormhole created by virtue of ultrahigh magnetic or electric fields with an additional exotic energy component. Maccone (1995) claimed that cylindrically symmetric ultrahigh magnetic (electric) fields can create a traversable wormhole in the Morris and Thorne (1988) framework. It has been shown that this is incorrect. Instead, a hypercylinder curvature effect having a position dependent gravitational potential is induced. This effect can be used to create a wormhole by patching the hypercylinder envelope to a throat that is induced by either radially stressing the ultrahigh field or employing additional exotic energy. Maccone correctly showed that the speed of light through the hypercylinder region is slowed by the magnetic induced gravitational field there. This suggests a way to perform laboratory experiments whereby one could apply an ultrahigh magnetic field in a vacuum, thereby creating a hypercylinder curvature effect, and measure the speed of a light beam through it. While chemical explosive/implosive magnetic induction technology has achieved static field strengths of ~ several x 103 Tesla, the peak rate-of-rise of field is ~ 109 Tesla/sec. Field strengths > 109 - 1010 Tesla would need to be generated to impart a measurable slowing of light speed in this scenario. It is proposed that the peak rate-of-rise of field be exploited as a means to achieve this goal in the near-term. Magnetic induction technologies based on nuclear explosives/implosives may need to be considered in order to achieve results of larger magnitude. A Wormhole Induction Propulsion system has been introduced to exploit the possibilities of traversable wormholes.
106335
Time travel is pretty much a sure thing, at least to the past.  Tiny little wormholes pop up everywhere all the time.  If one were able to be captured, and then expanded to fit a person through (say with antigravity from the casimir effect or a lazer) a time machine could be made.  Now there are a couple of hoops to jump through of course.  Wormholes have TREMENDOUS pressure, they pretty much crush matter to a single point (called a singularity), so you would have to find a way to survive the trip.  Now, the wormhole has a beggining and an end, two sides like a tunnel.  Now, very large and very dense objects tend to slow down time, so does traveling very fast.  Drag one side of the wormhole next to something VERY dense, like say, a pulsar.  Leave it close to the pulsar and then it will experience time differently than the other side of the wormhole.  Leave it there until there is a time differential between the two that you are satisfied with (like say a year or whatever), and then drag it back right next to the other end of the tunnel.  Now you have two holes in space/time in reletively the same place, but if you walk through one side, you will come out right next to it, but in a different time, dictated by that time differential that you created.\n\nThere are of course paradoxed assciated with this.  One is the famous killing your mother paradox.  If you go back in time and kill your mother, you will not exist.  BUT, if you do not exist you could not have killed your mother and therefore you DO exist and you kill her etc etc etc.  How about a scientist which goes to the future a couple of years, opens up a scientific journal, takes quick notes of a new theory, and goes back to his time and gives the info to one of his students.  This studen then works a few years perfecting the theory and has it published.  This just so happens to be the journal that the scientist had read.  Where did the information come from in the first place, did it just appear out of nowhere?  There are lots of logical problems with this, but by the time we manage to develop the technology necessary to do all this we'll probably have figured it all out.
654714
I think that a return to space is inevitable, and will reap enormous benefits in our understanding of ecology, medicine, electronics, propulsion and power generation, food production, and a host of other areas that we can only guess at from this side of the process. \nMars is a good goal, simply because, as JFK said, "it is hard." Landing on, and staying on, Mars, or the moon, is a tremendous undertaking, and one well worthwhile.\nThe problem, as I see it, is that while we are wasting so much of our energy combatting phantoms, we may find it difficult to coordinate the necessary effort to succeed in such an endeavor.\nSo until "terror" stops being the driving force in American politics, I think any serious striving for "progress" will be put on the back burner.\nAnd that is a terrifying though, isn't it?
376656
Dear Sir:\n\nWhile there have been some actual transmissions from Earth to the Solar System seeking echos, and some of this might still be going on in a coordinated fashion, as I understand it, the primary mission of the existing radio telescopes is to "Listen" to upper wavelength radio emissions from gas clouds, and other phenomina in the universe. Of course, once some interesting\nradio emissions are detected, a full spectrum scan of the target is most likely conducted to determine the full extent of radio\nsignals from that source.\n\nOther radio transmissions are made from Earth to our traveling Space Probes and Robotic Explorers at various locations in the Universe. A continual litany of telemetry, television and voice signals also flows between the Space Station and Ground Control Center to keep a constant watch on the health, status, and activities of the space crew, mission, and the station itself.\n\nI will defer to someone from one of those positions for an\nanswer as to the power and frequency of transmissions from Earth to the Space Station, Earth to the Robot Explorers, and Earth to the existing Space Probes way out in deep space.\nMy guess is that these various transmissions take place on frequencies between 2,500 Mhz and 40,000 Mhz. That is a \nvery large radio spectrum. \n\nSince my response turns around your question, in that I am telling you that the biggest radio telescopes listen rather than\ntransmit, let me also tell you that the biggest radio telescopes are not simply single structures at a given location. In recent years a scheme for the linkage of two or more radio telescopes was developed. Therefor, the biggest radio telescope would be an electronic combination of the signals from most of the largest installations on Earth. A lot of work has been done in that vein in recent years. Using more than one receiving antenna provides an easy means for researchers to filter out local ground (earthbound) noise generators and radio disturbances. Signals heard at the same time by widely separated receiving antennas (and equipment) are most probably from the sighted target source (assuming both antennas are aimed at the same target). It is also interesting to know that the radio signals that are received require a vast amount of processing to be identified and detected. The processing of the radio telescope incoming signals takes a huge array of computers and some very complex software programs to yield useable data.\n\nYes, radio waves do go on forever. However, their strength at the point of interception decreases by the square of the distance from the source. So, the strength of radio waves become very, very weak as you move into distances like 100,000,000 miles.\nThe wave front would continue out like rings of water in a pond until they hit something and bounced back off of it. In that sense,\na portion of the radio wave would not go on forever, but would become a new wave moving in the oposite direction from the new source (which was the object that the wave struck). The\nrest of the wave front would continue on until it struck something, and we repeated the above scenario. The exact same thing happens to signals transmitted from a sonar transducer in the water. Those devices are used to detect the depth of the bottom of rivers/oceans (depth finder), fish in the water (fish finder), or even other vessels (sub hunting). Sonar, uses sound waves and not radio waves, but the principle is almost the same.  Sound waves radiate out. Nearby echos are strong enough to be detected with existing equipment and are plotted and displayed on information screens. Some echos are so weak coming back that the existing equipment cannot detect/plot/or display  them.\n\nRegards,\nZah
204142
Several probes have been sent to other planets. There is currently a probe going to Pluto. I believe it will reach that planet by 2010ish.\n\nOne reason to not send humans to other planets is that it would take SO long to get there. Living in space for extended periods of time is very hard on the human body. Mostly it just degenerates your muscles.\n\nIt would cost a lot of money to develop a vehicle to transport more people than the shuttle carries. And there isn't really a need to develop one at this time.
653072
lol I can't believe you though of that question. They have other things in mind other than sex.  They are thinking about space stuff which is more fascinating than being on earth and they'll problaby forget about sex. Men can't be that horny or are they? They'll  problably do it with a martian or something.
347471
My gut agrees with you, but I wouldn't jump to any conclusions. A sobering (and excellent) read is Rare Earth by Ward and Brownlee. One is an astronomer, the other a geologist. They make a convincing case that sentient life elsewhere in the universe is probably quite rare. At a minimum, they make minced meat out of the Drake Equation. Still, with so many possibilities ...\n\nThe other thing to remember is that first and possibly second generation of post-Big Bang stars could never have supported planets with life of any kind. It took billions of years before stars produced sufficient quantities of heavy elements that are essential for life.\n\nand, all those stars and all those galaxies don't exist simultaneously. As we look farther out into space, we are more and more likely looking at objects that no longer exist.\n\nso, having said all that, we must consider this. a) sentient beings are probably quite rare - whether you accept Ward and Brownlee's extreme argument or not. b) that life could only have existed for, say, the last 8 or 9 billion years of the universe's existence. c) the distances to other stars in our galaxy are vast, but the distances *between* the galaxies are mind boggling vast (there's a reason that even in Star Trek, with it's fantasy warp drive, the story lines are all confined to our own galaxy).\n\nJust food for thought.
631983
Wow.  You're asking if the cosmos is producing reality.... Hmm... \n\nThere are two theories that are generally accepted as the most plausible; General Relativity, and Quantum Mechanics.  General Relativity deals with things on a large scale, like the movement of planets, asteroids, people, etc.  Quantum Mechanics deals with the actions of things on a much, much smaller scale, the building blocks of matter, particles much smaller than the particles that make up protons and neutrons.  The problem is rectifying these theories, because at the moment, they don't agree with each other, but they're the best we have.  A new emerging theory is String Theory, which blends them together reasonably well.  If you want to learn about them, a simple Google search will tell you all you need to know.
97
Don't know yet, but lots of wild theories and mathematical approaches being tried (some, via\nhttp://myweb2.search.yahoo.com/search?p=4%208%2015%2016%2023%2042):\n\nhttp://www.d.kth.se/~dicander/lost.html\n\nhttp://www.4815162342.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=3
47040
Yes - we learnt that there was no cheese in the moon or that there were no green men in mars.\n\nJokes apart - improvements in space travel - hs helped in improving sea going vehicles (submarines etc) also treatment of paraliysed people, also treatment of muscle atrophied etc...\n\nalso the satelite age heraled the ability for us all to better predict weather changes and also determine where the next oil deposit could well be...etc\n\nso you need to look at it all in the context of the benefits of space travel...so yes its important...\n\nand the money spent is well spent
261864
I haven't.But.......\n\nTime travel has been a popular science-fiction theme since H. G. Wells wrote his celebrated novel The Time Machine in 1895. But can it really be done? Is it possible to build a machine that would transport a human being into the past or future? \nFor decades, time travel lay beyond the fringe of respectable science. In recent years, however, the topic has become something of a cottage industry among theoretical physicists. The motivation has been partly recreational-time travel is fun to think about. But this research has a serious side, too. Understanding the relation between cause and effect is a key part of attempts to construct a unified theory of physics. If unrestricted time travel were possible, even in principle, the nature of such a unified theory could be drastically affected....
541192
Well, you are correct in that sittin' around will end in our collective lifes' destruction.  And attempts at proving life beyond Earth are ongoing.  Many of the missions to Mars are currently trying to prove that (among other things).  SETI is also an attempt to see or hear if anything is out there.  But that's a shot in the dark (har, har, de har har).\n\nThere are some significant steps being made to make spacecraft that can go "fast".  VASMIR (plasma rocket) among other things.\n\nThe two technologies that will drive us into the next level of abilities are quantum and nano technology.  Those will have significant impact on everything we build and contemplate.\n\nEventually our sun will get hotter, that could boil off our oceans (way before the sun bloats).  The Earths core could also cool enough that our magnetic field dissappears.  This would cause our atomosphere to slowly whisp away.\n\nBeing able to live in more hostile environments with nearly 100% recycling ability is our greatest challenge.  WIth that, we can start making our way out of this solar system and on to the next.\n\nWrite me for more discussion.  Fa shizzle.