How could they do this??!!!

news.bbc.co.uk...

This is #ing ridiculous! They are cancelling the first (and only) probe can actually look for Earth-sized planets around other stars! Do they know the impact the discovery of an Earth-like planet would have on humanity? IDIOTS!! I thought we were going to to have to wait until 2016 or whatever when NASA is launching the Inferometer(sp?). I saw the plans for this probe and it gave me hope...well that hope has now been crushed. Damn you ESA!!!!

This sucks. I know things are risky and they might not have the money, but in the long run this stuff can really pay off! What if we discovered another earth-like planet? All the leaders of the world can leave earth and have more stuff to take over on the other planet. Maybe that's just wishful thinking. But seriously, I wish more people understood how serious and how much needed things like these probes are!

That is annoying, but its not going to matter all that much as only small numbers of people would be able to be transported at this moment in time. If there was any need for this to happen

I dont think its a matter of whether or not we have the money, we just threw 80 billion out the window on Iraq, we can find money for this. How many billions was it the air force "lost track of" last year? Lack of money is the worst excuse the government could possibly use for not doing something in space. A probe like this is critical in my opinion, why they wouldnt want to send one up is pure ignorance.

Well it's not NASA, its the ESA. They don't exactly have as huge of a budget. It still pisses me off though. It's something that concerns mankind not the EU or US or Cambodia....

Meanwhile NASA's creating sattilites that look at Nebulae or something boring like that. I'd say finding Earth-like planets should be the biggest priority after exploring the other planets in our solar system. That 87 Bil we wasted on Iraq would easily pay for another manned mission to the moon and almost pay for one to Mars. Dumb bastards.....let me have control of NASA. No, why stop there, the entire government!!!

[Edited on 11/11/2003 by Flinx]

i remember reading a manned mission to mars would cost 600 billion, well, there goes 87 billion. That would have been a nice step in the right direction. I dont mean to get off topic, it just seems like we throw money all over the world to countries that hate us when we could use that money for actual useful things. Its a sad world we live in. Would be nice to see that money go to space exploration and other areas in the name of science.

Didnt someone just post a thread about this?
Well anyway.... if this is a different probe... GODDAMIT! MONEY? We spend tons of money on pointless bull# each year.... # # damn. I was really looking forward to this. It would have been very exciting to get the the first bits of data from it.

I am sure, ESA has pretty good reasons for cancelling the probe. I'm guessing political or religious reaction or maybe they are just out of money.
Anyway what are the chances of a planet like earth nearby? Pretty slim.

I dont believe there is one 'nearby'. But define 'nearby'. In our solarsystem? Most definetly not. Once we leave the solar system they all might as well be the same distance from Earth. All the stars are far away. However it is not impossible to get there, and finding an Earth like planet would provide enough motivation for us to get there. IMHO.

How far do you think our best piece of satellite could go and send back videos or pictures?
Can they get even to the Andromeda Galaxy?
No, no even a couple of solar systems away.
Think about the negative side of funding a project of that scale. ESA will go bankrupt and will its members into depression.
The chances of us finding life within ten or twenty years are nearly impossible.
ESA probably wants immediate results, like most of us.

I dont think we should worry about traveling to other galaxies just yet.
Right now we cant send anything to another star in any decent length of time. There are proposed methods wich if developed, would let us get there.
I dont remeber the specifics, but the probe (or one of them) would have gathered data that could have been analyzed to see what sort of atmosphere a planet had. If we found a planet orbiting the same distance from its sun, with an atmosphere similar to Earths, that would suggest the strong possibility of life. The only way to prove it though would be a telescope that could see the planet (provided greenery covered large parts), or ofcourse, sending something there.

Surfup- the andromeda galaxy you refer to is actually 2 million light years away. Our nearest star is Alpha Centauri. To give you an idea of how far it is (4.3 light years), in a physics class we learned that using modern technology it what it would take to get there. In the end it would take 300,000 hydrogen bombs worth of fuel with a constant acceleration rate of about 9.5 g's for 10 days and then sustain that speed for 112 years. All these figures were approximate, depending on size of ship and other factors. Pretty far when you think about it, now imagine trying to reach any other star or even a galaxy. This star is out closest neighbor in our own galaxy.

I read an article in....Discover Magazine, I think. May have been something else.
They were discussing proposed methods for traveling to other stars, one of them (wich right now, cant be built) could get us to Centuri in 12 years I think........ there were other interesting methods too.....
Anyway, I dont think WE need to worry about travel to other stars. That is something our great grandchildren or thier great grandchildren will worry about. I think that we should be concerned with establishing the begginings of a colony on Mars and/or the moon.