All of the "Foundation" series novels by Isaac Asimov, I'm pretty much convinced WE may be it, at least in this Galaxy.

Ofcourse, through some sort of time/space warp, we might hear something from our progeny who are alive and well 20,000 years in the future.

They will have had to go through the whole Robot thing before hand.

For now, I'll just keep on working with my Astrophotography on clear, moonless nights and let my PC keep on listenin' for something.

Heading up to the "Okie-Tex Star Party" this weekend for seven days of lookin' and photographing DSOs....

Jim

Oh, did man ever land on the moon?

They were the Apollo 11 through Apollo 17 astronauts, by the way.

With the exception of Apollo 13.

What did they possibly encounter there?

Were they possibly asked not to never come back (meaning never return back to the moon)?

Who could have been so clever, sinister or mean in order to tell Neal Armstrong and "Buzz" Aldrin such a fact?

In fact - stating "Go away"!

In the end, is this true?

The moon is still visible in the heavens.

Damn budgets, always getting in the way of progress!

500 years ago, it was the Catholic church holding us in the stone-age, now it's accountants!

We were supposed to be inhabiting Mars and exploring the heavens by now. Not sat here on our little rock saying "oh it's too expensive".

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Life on earth is the global equivalent of not storing things in the fridge.

A total of twelve men have landed on the Moon. This was accomplished with two US pilot-astronauts flying a Lunar Module on each of six NASA missions across a 41-month time span starting on 21 July 1969 UTC, with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on Apollo 11, and ending on 14 December 1972 UTC with Gene Cernan and Jack Schmitt on Apollo 17 (with Cernan being the last to step off the lunar surface).

The programme stopped with lack of funding.

We haven't returned because NASA's budget was slashed during the Apollo program. We went to the Moon for political reasons; it was a matter of national pride. Once we beat the Soviets, the taxpayers didn't want to see their money wasted on a project that they believed wouldn't benefit them. It's not cheap to go to the Moon, and NASA was forced to realign its priorities.

I would say that the primary reason for such a break was that the mission had been accomplished----> To arrive to the Moon at the end of the 60´s and last but not least, to win the race between the USA and the Soviet Union.
After that the Russians (Soviets) were beaten to the ground, so something else could be done in a different front.

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Damn budgets, always getting in the way of progress!

500 years ago, it was the Catholic church holding us in the stone-age, now it's accountants!

We were supposed to be inhabiting Mars and exploring the heavens by now. Not sat here on our little rock saying "oh it's too expensive".

It's only TOO EXPENSIVE because the Military-Industrial complex controls the US now...has for a long time....

If there was a military necessity to control Mars, we would have been there a long time ago...



Lt

/humor

Ok I thing the author is pulling our collective legs.

He's from Oklahoma/Texas. Can read. And read Asimov. Get real.

/end_humor

That being said I didn't see anything in the Asimov stories that would preclude us from not being alone. Though some stories lead us to be evolving in the future.

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In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
Diogenes Of Sinope

Accountants are the reason i will never fly on Concorde, probably the most significant plane since the Wright brothers, a fact i find deeply saddening. I was at Filton airport in November 2003, when Concorde touched down for the last time, and even then in my adolescent years, i felt a great sense of loss at the passing of an Era.

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Life on earth is the global equivalent of not storing things in the fridge.

Not just accountants.

I'm happy to blame politicians as well if you like...

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Life on earth is the global equivalent of not storing things in the fridge.

It's only TOO EXPENSIVE because the Military-Industrial complex controls the US now...has for a long time....

If there was a military necessity to control Mars, we would have been there a long time ago...

I would have thought that the strong possibility of the Chinese building the first permanent manned Moonbase, and charging the USA exorbitant rates for B&B, would have galvanised them into action. Apparently not. Even having to hitch rides from the Russians, of all people, to the ISS doesn't seem to bother them.

Why this fascination with the asteroids, have they discovered gold or diamond mines there? Oooooh a new conspiracy theory ......

Obama's announcement about going to an asteroid was a red herring. He knew by declaring this as NASA's next goal for manned space flight that no more manned flights by a US sponsored spacecraft would occur during his Presidency making it easier to furthe cut NASA's budget.

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

All the money spent 2 trillion ways to kill somebody and if we had all that no one would be broke., we could be using it for better thing.

Nah, the politicians would have found other ways to line their pockets and waste it.

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

Well, the Dawn spacecraft, powered by the Sun, has visited the asteroid Vesta and is now sailing to Ceres on solar power. It should arrive there in 2015. Ceres is a dwarf planet more than an asteroid.
Tullio

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Well, back from "The Okie-Tex Star Party"; it was almost a bust since we had only three nights clear enough to do any astro-photography.
I used my ED127mm APO Triplet for imaging and the little Orion SSAutoguide CCD on the ED80mm for tracking on the EQ-G mount.

What surprises me, is all the off topic responses I got to my original post regarding my "tongue in cheek" remarks about Issac Asimov's Foundation Books.
One guy is flat out insulting.

I don't get it.

I won't be bothering any of you again.

Hey now. only having a little fun. Being a Texas resident and an Asimov fan I thought it was interesting that a man that dresses for the farm/ranch would be a scifi fan and not more of a western fan.

No harm intended.

I do hope the viewings were good despite the weather

BTW I always thought that Asimov restricted his writing to just humans and robots to eliminate the use of xenophobia as a plot device.

I also found it interesting that in some his books advanced robots assimilated into society. More interesting is that he doesn't delve into where they were built or by who.

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In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
Diogenes Of Sinope

Hey !
Thanks for the "Comeback".
Once I get of few of my image "subs" processed, I'll put them on line for viewing.
"ElDorado Star Party" is in three weeks. Hoping for better conditions.

J.

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Tex if you read any of the other posts on this forum you will realise quickly that a subject never stays on "message" very long,if it stays in line with the origonal subject for more than the first few posts its a miricle

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Old enough to know better(but)still young enough not to care

Got a number of DSO image "Subs" processed from Okie-Tex, but not ready for prime time.

Here's my "PhotoBucket" link to a few of the Images I've produced.

http://s1220.photobucket.com/albums/dd447/Tex2024/Tex2024%20AstroPhotos/

Hope you like them.

Heading down to "The ElDorado Star Party" next weekend for another week of "shooting". Needless to say, hoping for clear, dark skies.

Jim (TEX) H.

Oh, and, by the way "skildude", how did I quess the "school" was a Medrasah without "clicking" it ?

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This is not a medrassa. What the organization does is provide local communities material and expertise in building long lasting structures and schools. The only requirement for acceptance is that all children including girls are educated.

THe idea is that an educated girl is less likely to have children early, they provide needed skills to their community, lead healthier lives, and educated women, even in remote villages, are less likely to allow their sons to go on a gihad.

Funny that the mother hold the key against holy warriors. Mom says no and the boy is unlikely to go.

read the Book Three cups of Tea. It gives incite into how to improve everyones lives

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In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
Diogenes Of Sinope

Got a number of DSO image "Subs" processed from Okie-Tex, but not ready for prime time.

Here's my "PhotoBucket" link to a few of the Images I've produced.

http://s1220.photobucket.com/albums/dd447/Tex2024/Tex2024%20AstroPhotos/

Hope you like them.

Heading down to "The ElDorado Star Party" next weekend for another week of "shooting". Needless to say, hoping for clear, dark skies.

Jim (TEX) H.

You must have some good WOW dark skys over there. Those look to be spectacularly good for such a modest scope.

Next to do some searching in the pretty pictures for what the "pros" might miss or don't have time for?


Have fun!

Keep searchin',
Martin

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

I'm betting he's got a computer assisted-guided scope with a timed exposure photo

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In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
Diogenes Of Sinope