Exoplanet Tourism

My first discussion, yay! Down to business. A thought I have always wondered and would like to share it with you all, is if in fact, we find advanced life on a near by planet, how long till they start shipping back and forth? I mean, would their be laws forbidding them from visiting our planet (assuming we could communicate with found aliens) or will a new section of tourism open up? Just some ramblings I figured we could discuss.

Space will be for the elite in the beginning.

Same happened with aviation.

up for your first thread!

If we find life in any form on another planet we will have to be very cautious! Physical contact will most likely be avoided due to possible risks of contamination with extra terrestrial bacteria, exposure could ultimately lead to a collapse of the immune system resulting in death, that goes for both sides, us and them.
There is an actual law on this called "THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL EXPOSURE LAW"

On 16 July 1969, a United States law was passed called the "Extra-Terrestrial Exposure Law" that made it illegal for the public to come in contact with extra-terrestrials or their vehicles. (Title 14, Section 1211 of the Code of Federal Regulations). Anyone found guilty of such contact could face up to one year imprisonment as well as a fine of $5000. Also, any individual who had been "exposed" could be quarantined under armed guard by the NASA administrator without a hearing.

Link

The only thing we might send there would be unmanned ground-vehicles or aerial drones, direct contact will most likely not be established. Being an silent observer will be the up-most priority in the first stages of discovery.

Originally posted by Clairaudience

up for your first thread!

If we find life in any form on another planet we will have to be very cautious! Physical contact will most likely be avoided due to possible risks of contamination with extra terrestrial bacteria, exposure could ultimately lead to a collapse of the immune system resulting in death, that goes for both sides, us and them.
There is an actual law on this called "THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL EXPOSURE LAW"

On 16 July 1969, a United States law was passed called the "Extra-Terrestrial Exposure Law" that made it illegal for the public to come in contact with extra-terrestrials or their vehicles. (Title 14, Section 1211 of the Code of Federal Regulations). Anyone found guilty of such contact could face up to one year imprisonment as well as a fine of $5000. Also, any individual who had been "exposed" could be quarantined under armed guard by the NASA administrator without a hearing.

Link

The only thing we might send there would be unmanned ground-vehicles or aerial drones, direct contact will most likely not be established. Being an silent observer will be the up-most priority in the first stages of discovery.

Thank you for posting that law and your right, they would be very careful in meeting an extraterrestrial because of the possibility of cross contamination (some type of adromeda strain scenario). That law shows you that the govt. believed in UFO's for decades and that law makes it possible for them to hold you if you go and report "officer officer I saw this or that and even walked up to it". Then they will have a reason to question you for however long they want without anybody knowing you are in their custody or not.

Nowhere in the law does it say come into contact with alien craft, it actually says this:

"the state of condition of any person, property, animal or other form of life or matter whatever, who or which has touched directly or come within the atmospheric envelope or any other celestial body or touched directly or been in close proximity (or exposed indirectly to) any person, property, animal or other form of life or matter who or which has been extraterrestrially exposed by virtue of paragraph (b)(1) of this section."
en.wikipedia.org...

Basically, it's about space germs, not grays or anything.

[edit on 24-8-2010 by hippomchippo]

I think the majority of the public would freak out (rightly so, I believe) and push for anti-ET laws. Imagine all of our problems with immigration, infectious disease, weapons dealing, and even drug control and multiply that by 1,000,000. ET contact is not such an awesome thing to look forward to when we can't keep our ducks in a row with everyone living on this planet.

Also, I seriously doubt ET's with the capability of inter-stellar travel would just start carting us around so we could take pictures of their planet. They would probably have far more important things to do then start an inter-planetary tourism industry with a civilation that has literally nothing to offer them.

reply to post by ArkayikRuination


I believe as long "they" don't bring any "bugs" along and have a special Visa...than I don't see any other issues. They also might need a business license to trade their technologies...hope there will be no "Trojan Horse' given to us...