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After a seven year interplanetary voyage on board the the Cassini spacecraft, the European Space Agency's Huygens probe parachuted to a historic landing on Saturn's moon Titan on January 14.
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Cassini-Huygens/index.html
I dont know about you guys, but I think its pretty cool. Can't wait to see larger, full color images.
nah me either. I hate how long it takes to get High res pics from these things btw.
It kills me.
thats really cool - thanks for the article link
more news and a nice animation of the probes landing towards the bottom of the page
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4175099.stm
They should put a webcam there. Not that anything would really move, but you'd still be getting live video feed from Saturn's moon.
Now that I think about it, that'd be pretty stupid.
EDIT: Take a look at this. Sure is amazing...
http://esamultimedia.esa.int/images/...d/Picture3.jpg
Huygens only transmitted for about 2 hours and that cost billions, so I think a webcam is pretty improbably. Would be cool though. I think this is fascinating. To see something so far away is pretty neat. Makes me feel kinda small in the universe, thinking that even if I left at 1 and lived to 100, I wouldn't get very far out of the solar system. I want to see some close ups of Saturn though.
SC
That is one of the reasons that any sort of real space travel is impossible.Quote:
Originally Posted by spacecowboy
Also muscle fatigue. Or rather not using your muscles in 0 gravity causing them to go weak in a very short time. I think that's why the people on the space station need to work out all the time.
If you've ever been really sick and stuck in bed for a week or so, when you first get up to walk, it's not so easy.
Currently, ranged space travel is not very thesable but there are ideas to get around some of the challanges to it. None in practice just yet though.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JefmcC
I agree. But its a generational thing. We will reach a point when all this impossible shit we speak of is possible. Honestly, I'd just avoid using the word impossible pretty much ever.
That word has a tendency to make people liars.
Normally, I'd agree with you. But space travel as we see it in fiction like Star Wars and Star Trek is not going to happen for our species as we know it.Quote:
Originally Posted by youandwhosearmy
Hawking's The Universe in a Nutshell is where I base this on. It's a good book that every geek should read.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...books&n=507846
No, no, I agree to a point. But physics and our ideas about space, are always changing. Always. And 200- 300 years from now, uninteruppted, who knows where we might be, and most importantly what space travel loopholes we'll be able to capitalize on. I've just always been on the heavy theoritical sides of these things. Hawkins is a genius, almost unparalled, but his theories are usually grounded in the exact science of the now, and considering what we truly know about space/time (which is by his own admission is almost nothing) and even better, the implications of what string theory might to do all this, there are a lot of loopholes yet to find.
I believe nothing is impossible though, so I'm by no means asking anyone to stand on the edge of that cliff with me.