Name earth like planets we could realistically visit!

reply to post by ZeroKnowledge


Yes indeed, Mars is the only one we could realistically reach and land on. No other planet within our solar system would we even survive on with our tech, although we could certainly reach them with our current tech, but it would be pointless. Outside our solar system, there is no planet we could realistically even reach with our current tech.

So, sad as it may be, in order for us to reach other stars or planets, we need to focus on improving our tech first. Several breakthroughs are needed in the propulsion area, fossil fuels are out of the question as they would run out long before we get there and current engine techs are far too slow.

Primarily we need a new energy tech able to supply almost infinite amount of energy with no/extremely low consumption, and new drive tech (fusion drives perhaps, or antimatter) as well as hulls able to withstand not only all the interstellar radiation we might be subject to, but also meteor showers of invisible space debris which at those speeds would be able to puncture even the hardest titanium alloys available today...

Or warpgate/warpdrive tech

The first exoplanet scan of that one (Kepler I think) specialized telescope isn't even complete and I think it is a tiny fraction of the sky, so it would be kind of pointless to list the most feasible exoplanets to explore and colonize because the list is very, very incomplete.

man i just want to see another planet with life so bad!
even if its a hostile reptile full planet!
(long as i was observing it from afar lol)
its just the most fascinating thing in the world for me, i literally dream of what could be on a planet millions of light years away,
what kind of people.. whats there!

reply to post by NeoVain


If we could produce some kind of sufficiently sized solar shield we could begin terraforming Venus. I read a paper on it that said that if we lowered the temperature past a certain point the CO2 would begin to rain out of the atmosphere. That would probably be after we developed and perfected terraforming techniques involving space based solar reflectors on mars, however.

And while we're at it, this guy is actually working on a time machine. All in the very early stages of course but he does seem to be (a) very clever and (b) getting some results. Using ring lasers, whatever they might be. I can't find part one on youtube but part 2 is an interesting watch. He's had a few docu's and mentions in the press already.
Youtube segment
ETA All in nice layman's terms btw

reply to post by LightSpeedDriver


Thanks.

Interesting result that...

Confounding almost a century of Einsteinian physics, and all before dinner... How cool is that?

So, in theory anyway, FTL is possible if these results stand peer review. Then it becomes a hardware issue. ...and mankind is pretty damned good at building hardware.

That just opens of a whole universe of possibilities, doesn't it?

Maybe not in my lifetime... But barring catastrophe, our time in this nest may be finite... Here's to dreamers.

reply to post by seagull

Yup, I do vaguely remember reading its not significantly faster than light but still, laws are there to be broken, along with the speed limit. Wait, I'd need to change my username.

reply to post by admiralmary


That's a good dream.

Life is out there. I can't imagine, in this vast galaxy, no life other than our own. The only question is, what's it like...

Originally posted by admiralmary

Originally posted by ZeroKnowledge
How about Mars? It is Earth-like planet,at least according to NASA definitions of one. At least as far as i understand those definitions. And we should settle on Mars, it will solve lots of problems, while certainly creating lots of other problems. but this is what life is about.

ill give anything to bet that in the past mars was like a sister planet to earth, and there were frequent journeys maybe not wormhole and all that, but spacecraft journeys
and that the moon was like a stopping base.

you dont need a sci fi mind to believe it, it makes perfect sense that we had the technology in the past, and some kind of a flood or extinction wiped it out

I feel there's something about Mars that's not right. I have since I was a little kid. There's SOMETHING about Mars. Perhaps thousands to millions of years in the future Mars will be the new Earth, though when we talk about it most reference it as having to do something with the past.

I'm going to have to go with Mars as well. If we could jump start the process there we could probably go somewhere with it. With the vast amount of co2 already there it could probably be done. It's a tricky situation for sure, there are so many 'ifs'.

GRAVITY

The problem that needs to be addressed first is that the gravity on Mars is less than 38% of that of Earth’s gravity. Even though human life could easily survive at this low gravity, it is believed that long term exposure would be detrimental for a long and healthy life especially for returning to Earth after several years of exposure to this low gravity. For example after only a single decade, weak bones would easily break in adults. Furthermore, the physical development of children at this low gravity would probably cause severe deformities and perhaps be even lethal especially to fetuses. It is already known that gigantism (never stop growing) causes death in people, now imagine how tall children would grow in this low gravity and the problems that will occur because if it. It is obvious that the human body has evolved to survive and work most efficiently with Earth’s gravity.

Therefore, the gravity of Mars needs to be increased to Earth’s level. This can only be done by increasing the mass of the planet by re-directing millions of asteroids in the near by asteroid belt to crash into Mars. Even the two moons of Mars could be used. Either rockets would be used to push these masses into Mars’ path or missiles could be used to redirect their paths. At mankind’s current level of technology, this would take a huge amount of resources and time, yet it is feasible. Hopefully, this undertaking should be much easier with future advancements in technology. Finally, the reason why this task should be executed first is because the bombardment of meteor strikes would be hazardous for anyone already on the planet.

ATMOSPHERE

This solution would also address the next problem that Mars has insufficient mass to keep a pressurized and breathable atmosphere from escaping into space. Once Mars has a higher gravity, comets could be redirected to impact the planet to provide needed gases for a thicker atmosphere and water for oceans. Eventually the atmosphere would be thick enough to completely disintegrate comets and asteroids without crashing onto the surface, so humans could start relocating to the planet at this time.

Since Mars is significantly farther from the Sun than the Earth, the atmosphere would have to be much thicker than Earth’s atmosphere. The reason why this is necessary is because the only way to get a smaller range of temperatures to stabilize the temperature differences between both day and night. Furthermore, mankind knows how to make factories that could easily create plenty of greenhouse gases to stabilize the planet’s temperature too. Eventually, the polar ice caps on Mars would melt and also help form a thicker atmosphere and oceans.

MAGNETOSPHERE

The only unsolvable problem with terraforming Mars is that the planet almost does not have a magnetosphere to shield life from certain types of solar activity (mostly ions and electrons). While a thicker atmosphere would protect people from deadly solar radiation such as UV rays, Mars lacks an active geothermal core with strong magnetic poles thus preventing a protecting magnetosphere from existing. Despite what happens in movies, it is impossible to drill a hole into the core of Mars to detonate a few nuclear warheads to jumpstart the planet’s core, thus activating strong magnetic poles and creating a protective magnetosphere. Furthermore, using conductors to create an artificial magnetosphere to cover an entire planet is currently not technologically feasible, yet shielding a small city may be possible. Unfortunately, more research is needed.

As a result, a human colony would not be able to survive on the surface of the planet for long periods of time; however there is a work around to this problem. People could live indoors under heavy shielding. This is possible by building entire cities either underground or within enclosed domed habitats on the surface of the planet. This is called paraterraforming. At first, living mostly indoors may seem as a failure to most definitions of terraforming, yet this means that a colony could live on Mars.

AIR

At this point, Mars will have an atmosphere, but the air will probably not be breathable or even safe. Because of the large number of asteroids, comets, and other debris impacting Mars, the atmosphere would have a lot of dust and other harmful particles floating around. So after a few years, these particles would mostly settle to allow light to reach the surface of the planet. When this happens and since Mars already has a lot of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (almost 96% right now), Mars can be seeded with bacteria and plant life that are hardy enough to survive this new harsh environment. Some genetic engineering may be necessary for them to survive better. These plants and bacteria would do the double duty of both filtering the air and producing breathable oxygen for people to breathe. Without a magnetosphere, the first plants and bacteria introduced on Mars would have a low survival rate, so species that have a very fast lifecycle would be preferred.

FOOD/WATER

Water should not be a problem on Mars, since the polar ice caps consist of a lot of water and more water would be introduced from comets.

www.philforhumanity.com...

Originally posted by Wrabbit2000
For all we know, there could be hundreds of lensing and distortion effects between here and Andromeda or even a place like Sirius, making it much much closer in travel than we can possibly know sitting safely inside our atmosphere and peering out, half in fear and half in wonder.

edit on 25-12-2011 by Wrabbit2000 because: typo

By the same reasoning maybe the lenses work like looking the wrong way through a telescope. Wouldn't that be one sick, cosmic joke?

reply to post by gortex


You know, it's this kind of negative thinking that ENSURES that we go nowhere as a species.

I like to think in more optimistic terms.

I still think we haven't hit the holy grail of planets just yet. Even so, there's likely plenty of hidden technology that could help us get there. The trick is to figure out how to unearth that technology for everyday use.

Originally posted by admiralmary
man i just want to see another planet with life so bad!
even if its a hostile reptile full planet!
(long as i was observing it from afar lol)
its just the most fascinating thing in the world for me, i literally dream of what could be on a planet millions of light years away,
what kind of people.. whats there!

Mars might very well still have life underneath the ground. Doubt it will be more than simple organism or bacterias at best though.

reply to post by murkraz

Not so sure about Mars anymore. Interesting to visit but living? I asked Phage why some planets have an atmosphere and keep it, and others do not. Its not gravity, or at least not totally. He said that there is either little or no magnetosphere on Mars for reasons not yet understood. In my limited understanding, my take on that was that its magnetic field is "broken" which then possibly brings us to the question of its core, which again, in my limited understanding is what is responsible for Earth's magnetic field. We might need to "fix" that first. Just theorising, not a scientist.

Originally posted by juleol

Originally posted by admiralmary
man i just want to see another planet with life so bad!
even if its a hostile reptile full planet!
(long as i was observing it from afar lol)
its just the most fascinating thing in the world for me, i literally dream of what could be on a planet millions of light years away,
what kind of people.. whats there!

Mars might very well still have life underneath the ground. Doubt it will be more than simple organism or bacterias at best though.

you know i sometimes think mars was left as a warning to earth, you know what may happen to earth if we go down the wrong path

Originally posted by yourmaker
Milky way.

that is all.

little perspective, Andromeda is 2.5 million LIGHT YEARS AWAY. that means it takes 2.5 million years to even get there at light speed.

we are not leaving our galaxy for 3-4 million years assuming we can stay alive that long and create the necessary tech.

um nope
in order
Sagittarius: in middle of collision with milky way our sun supposedly originated in it;
followed by The Magellanic Clouds

Until the discovery of the Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy in 1994, they were the closest known galaxies to our own. The LMC lies about 160,000 light years away,[7][8][9][10] while the SMC is around 200,000.[11] The LMC is about twice the diameter of the SMC (14,000 ly and 7,000 ly respectively). For comparison, the Milky Way is about 100,000 ly across.

reply to post by LightSpeedDriver


I think it is possible that the core of mars cooled to the point where the core stopped spinning and the magnetic field failed

Originally posted by muse7
None

Our nearest galaxy which is Andromeda is 2.2 million light years away. So unless we discover Worm Holes and learn how to use them I don't see any way how we could visit another Galaxy. Even if we could travel at light speed, it would still take 2.2 million years to get there.

Good luck maintaining a speed of 299,000 MPS for 2.2 million years

edit on 12/25/2011 by muse7 because: (no reason given)

C'mon its Christmas, what's with all the negativity! If Santa can make it around the world visiting all the little boys and girls houses (only the good ones obviously) then am sure we can shave a little time off 2.2 million light years.

I have read many theories now on how to travel faster than light from folding space to passing through parallel universes and although none of them have any material evidence or superior technology at this moment in time at least they have the imagination and that my friends is all it takes, the rest will follow in good time.

reply to post by admiralmary


Gliese D1 would be a great planet to visit, it seems like recent scientific evidence points that it is within a "habitable zone" from its sun, which is pretty fascinating. I definitely believe that there is life out there in the universe, there are so many planets to the point where the possibility of no life existing on them is minute.

reply to post by Mkoll


Just like in the movie The Core, where the Earth's core stopped spinning and in the end the sun cooks it up with its solar flares.

ultimately we are going to need to have some kind of self-sufficient starfleet with hubble/keplar telescopes embedded into supercomputers while we scour the galaxy for new forward operating base locations.

nomadic space travel is the way to go searching about for life.

they won't necessarily need the fastest propulsion systems, just the ability to find resources on planets or moons on the trip along the way.