Who has the money to go back again so soon? Don't the planets need to be in a certain alignment unless you have a lot of fuel to burn.

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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.

maybe something similar to Europa mission can be organized?! ;)

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non-profit org. Play4Life in Zagreb, Croatia, EU

Who has the money to go back again so soon? Don't the planets need to be in a certain alignment unless you have a lot of fuel to burn.

There are various launch windows every so often for various space craft leaving earth. Cassini launched in 1997 and has taken 18 years to get to where it is. The total cost of this scientific exploration mission is US $3.26 billion. It has had extra funding since being renamed the Cassini Solstice Mission in 2010.

So no, we won't be going back any time soon. This news is more to justify the cost and time of the current mission. That it not to decry it, but to be realistic. And hey, hack pseudo sci fi journalists have to earn a crust at Christmas to feed their families!

the idea of "how much does it cost" in Space exploration is insignificant...'cause if Spanish (& any other king & queens) still asked that question, don't know if we ever got out of Europe!

certainly America was too far & unknown to us...
;)

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non-profit org. Play4Life in Zagreb, Croatia, EU

We might want to consider Europa for a similar life-detecting mission. It's half the distance to Enceladus, with about four times the solar energy for powering a probe. Europa reportedly has water plumes like Enceladus, which are also believed to connect with an ocean, under the icy crust.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europa_(moon)

the idea of "how much does it cost" in Space exploration is insignificant...'cause if Spanish (& any other king & queens) still asked that question, don't know if we ever got out of Europe!
certainly America was too far & unknown to us...
;)

You forgot the Vikings:)

the idea of "how much does it cost" in Space exploration is insignificant...'cause if Spanish (& any other king & queens) still asked that question, don't know if we ever got out of Europe!
certainly America was too far & unknown to us...
;)

You forgot the Vikings:)

In exploring the Vikings were analogous to the private enterprise of today, but regarding the topic at hand that raises an interesting question: It's one thing to be doing low-Earth-orbit projects or even asteroid mining - I'm not sure I'd be comfortable with a private company drilling holes in Enceladus or Europa or anywhere else as part of an active hands-on search for life on our behalf.

the idea of "how much does it cost" in Space exploration is insignificant...'cause if Spanish (& any other king & queens) still asked that question, don't know if we ever got out of Europe!
certainly America was too far & unknown to us...
;)

You forgot the Vikings:)

In exploring the Vikings were analogous to the private enterprise of today, but regarding the topic at hand that raises an interesting question: It's one thing to be doing low-Earth-orbit projects or even asteroid mining - I'm not sure I'd be comfortable with a private company drilling holes in Enceladus or Europa or anywhere else as part of an active hands-on search for life on our behalf.

Patents baby, Patents!

One of the problems we are finding with Mars, is that now we know there has been running water on the surface, the rover isn't aloud to get any where near it, in case it brought some microbe(s) from earth. Even though decontamination was stringent, the slightest contamination could continue for thousands of years, and start a whole new evolutionary tree. At best, it may disguise any native life, and cloud the science. I would guess that any other exploration would have the same problem.

Steve

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Warning, addicted to SETI crunching!
Crunching as a member of GPU Users Group.
GPUUG Website

One of the problems we are finding with Mars, is that now we know there has been running water on the surface, the rover isn't aloud to get any where near it, in case it brought some microbe(s) from earth. Even though decontamination was stringent, the slightest contamination could continue for thousands of years, and start a whole new evolutionary tree. At best, it may disguise any native life, and cloud the science. I would guess that any other exploration would have the same problem.

Steve

I suspect until we are able to build the craft entirely on the surface of the moon, in the hard vacuum, robotically, we won't be able to have some assurance it isn't contaminated. Extremophiles seem to be everywhere.

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One of the problems we are finding with Mars, is that now we know there has been running water on the surface, the rover isn't aloud to get any where near it, in case it brought some microbe(s) from earth. Even though decontamination was stringent, the slightest contamination could continue for thousands of years, and start a whole new evolutionary tree. At best, it may disguise any native life, and cloud the science. I would guess that any other exploration would have the same problem.

Steve

I suspect until we are able to build the craft entirely on the surface of the moon, in the hard vacuum, robotically, we won't be able to have some assurance it isn't contaminated. Extremophiles seem to be everywhere.

I don't really understand the fastidiousness about "perfection" with the robot cleanliness if plans are being made to send people to Mars.

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

One of the problems we are finding with Mars, is that now we know there has been running water on the surface, the rover isn't aloud to get any where near it, in case it brought some microbe(s) from earth. Even though decontamination was stringent, the slightest contamination could continue for thousands of years, and start a whole new evolutionary tree. At best, it may disguise any native life, and cloud the science. I would guess that any other exploration would have the same problem.

Steve

I suspect until we are able to build the craft entirely on the surface of the moon, in the hard vacuum, robotically, we won't be able to have some assurance it isn't contaminated. Extremophiles seem to be everywhere.

I don't really understand the fastidiousness about "perfection" with the robot cleanliness if plans are being made to send people to Mars.

I don't either, but perhaps they will come up with a method to test cleanly, before we do contaminate things. I can just imagine the first person to throw a cigarette butt out on the surface of mars.

Steve

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Warning, addicted to SETI crunching!
Crunching as a member of GPU Users Group.
GPUUG Website

I brought this up before. If the existence of life is established on Mars there is a good chance that we won't go there in person.

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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.

the idea of "how much does it cost" in Space exploration is insignificant...'cause if Spanish (& any other king & queens) still asked that question, don't know if we ever got out of Europe!
certainly America was too far & unknown to us...
;)

You forgot the Vikings:)

that's another type...when you discover sthg by mistake! ;)

so Vikings were scientists, if they employ that kind of principles! :D

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non-profit org. Play4Life in Zagreb, Croatia, EU

I brought this up before. If the existence of life is established on Mars there is a good chance that we won't go there in person.

That's a good point, but how do you feel about that? I think we should go ahead and go, regardless.

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

I brought this up before. If the existence of life is established on Mars there is a good chance that we won't go there in person.

I agree...

we should send more drones there...& not send them to war, but to frontier! ;)

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non-profit org. Play4Life in Zagreb, Croatia, EU

the idea of "how much does it cost" in Space exploration is insignificant...'cause if Spanish (& any other king & queens) still asked that question, don't know if we ever got out of Europe!
certainly America was too far & unknown to us...
;)

You forgot the Vikings:)

that's another type...when you discover sthg by mistake! ;)

so Vikings were scientists, if they employ that kind of principles! :D

Well. Here is an another accidental discovery that also earned the Nobel Prize.
Cosmic microwave background, CMB.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_microwave_background

I brought this up before. If the existence of life is established on Mars there is a good chance that we won't go there in person.

That's a good point, but how do you feel about that? I think we should go ahead and go, regardless.

I think it shouldn't make any difference unless they are walking and talking and carrying weapons.

Idealism can be carried to an extreme and it is very unlikely that any native organisms on Mar or anywhere else in the solar system would ever evolve to become sentient beings.

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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.

Idealism can be carried to an extreme and it is very unlikely that any native organisms on Mar or anywhere else in the solar system would ever evolve to become sentient beings.

But wasn't life on earth supposed to have developed from primordial slime?

Yes, but we are supposed to believe that earth had special conditions that allowed life to advance to where we are, mainly a large moon and ideal environmental conditions.

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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.

In astronomy and astrobiology, the circumstellar habitable zone (CHZ), or simply the habitable zone, is the region around a star within which planetary-mass objects with sufficient atmospheric pressure can support liquid water at their surfaces.

This of course pre supposes that all life would be like us.

Odds are good, that they are carbon based & bread oxygen!
;)

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non-profit org. Play4Life in Zagreb, Croatia, EU

Odds are good, that they are carbon based & bread [breathe) oxygen!
;)

Why?

Because from what I understand about biology and chemistry the only elements that produce the right compounds to make life possible center around oxygen, hydrogen and carbon. And water is the only molecule that is a solvent for making all of it happen. No other combinations of the elements even come close to having the right properties to make life work.

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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.