Earth 2- Super Earth!

[The Anti-Targ]

This made me geek out. I'm so excited to hear more about the Uranus/Neptune mission, whatever it turns out to be.

NASA's issue with plutonium saddens me, although the Department of Energy says they'll be ramping up to 400 grams a year by 2019, if Congress doesn't follow through on the funds they need, NASA will end up deprived of missions that so many in the astronomy community have set their hopes on.

I'll hold out hope for the moment though as we're in an upward trend with promises to go upward-er still...

In other news, the POTUS just signed a law allowing for privatization of asteroid resources. Here's to hoping that if money-interests realize they can turn a profit in space, NASA will see some collateral benefits.

With the advent of reusable rocketry, I'm hoping that we'll finally get that golden age of space exploration we've been promised and not some sort of Office Space... 

Wouldn't the UN or something need to agree to that? The US doesn't own space. I am all for space mining, but I think a global agency needs to oversee mining rights not one country. There's going to have to be exoplanetary laws on these things that apply to everyone otherwise it's going to be a lawless wild west.

[BookWyrm2]

Wouldn't the UN or something need to agree to that? The US doesn't own space. I am all for space mining, but I think a global agency needs to oversee mining rights not one country. There's going to have to be exoplanetary laws on these things that apply to everyone otherwise it's going to be a lawless wild west.

While I agree that the privatization of resources in space will be messy and wild westy at first, I don't really see much the UN can do about it in terms of enforcement.

I sort of hope this catalyzes (somehow) wider access to space for other agencies like the ESA or JAXA (and eventually regular people), so it's not just the United States taking everything that's up there. I think that effective regulatory forces aren't likely to make an appearance for awhile... I just don't see any such efforts being made even on the horizon yet

[rocksniffer]

I love these science threads. I'm not very knowledgeable about the cutting edge of space exploration - I do my best to keep track of what NASA/ESA/etc are actually doing in the next decade or so, but I really enjoy reading what more knowledgeable people have to say about it.

So, fairly recent, semi-pertinent news: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-35051034

 Such a long time to wait, though. It'll be nearly 2030 before it arrives.

to reach 79 i shall have to forgo may of my vices...ah the sacrifices are more than i can bear....

 

They're made out of meat.

... sweet jesus spare us from the singing meat...

[The Anti-Targ]

While I agree that the privatization of resources in space will be messy and wild westy at first, I don't really see much the UN can do about it in terms of enforcement.

I sort of hope this catalyzes (somehow) wider access to space for other agencies like the ESA or JAXA (and eventually regular people), so it's not just the United States taking everything that's up there. I think that effective regulatory forces aren't likely to make an appearance for awhile... I just don't see any such efforts being made even on the horizon yet

The thing about privatising space mining is that eventually stuff has to come back to Earth in order to become a profitable product, at least that is until we establish space colonies, which will be self governing and will regulate things in their own way. So that is a regulatory choke point much like ports are choke points of Customs departments and any international treaties that are established for the exploitation of off planet resources can be enforced at the point of entry. And for the time being it's pretty hard to sneak a vessel back from space. You don't need to enforce out there if you can seize back here.

[The Anti-Targ]

On to the matter of life. Does a planet need a liquid medium for live to exist, our would a super heated gas do the trick? If a plant has a chemically complex, hot, dense atmosphere would that not potentially be similr to having surfcae liquid in terms of the potential for life to exist? Could our gas giants have life forms in the lower, denser, hotter layers. Could Venus have life in its atmosphere rather than on its surface?

Seems to me like in theory biochemical processes can happen in a gaseous medium under the right conditions just as much as they could happen in a liquid medium under the right conditions. In theory most of the planets in our solar system could have life, or once have had life. And all those gas giants we've found around other stars could also have life. Nothing approaching the sophistication and complexity of Earth life, but life nonetheless.

[BookWyrm2]

The thing about privatising space mining is that eventually stuff has to come back to Earth in order to become a profitable product, at least that is until we establish space colonies, which will be self governing and will regulate things in their own way. So that is a regulatory choke point much like ports are choke points of Customs departments and any international treaties that are established for the exploitation of off planet resources can be enforced at the point of entry. And for the time being it's pretty hard to sneak a vessel back from space. You don't need to enforce out there if you can seize back here.

When it comes to landings, they could happen almost anywhere. Most things that come back from space land in the ocean, far from any regulatory powers, not at a spaceport.

Were landings to happen in the ocean, it would still be a prohibitively difficult effort to zero in on objects that are made difficult to track down. The background radio noise on Earth is such that any telemetry from a spacecraft would be totally transient, and that's before you get to the issue of decryption.

Some landings will also presumably happen on American soil:

So long as the official American stance on space commerce diverges from the UN's, I don't see any reasonable expectation we can have that the UN, or any international agency, could police American launches and entries from American spaceports anyways.

[Spring Bass]

I don't know about other solvents for life, but Venus theoretically could have life in its upper atmosphere. The temperatures and pressures aren't too bad for microbial life, and they'd have access to water and other materials in the sulfuric acid cloud decks. I've also heard that Venus' atmosphere is out of equilibrium for reasons we don't know, so . . . who knows?

Interestingly enough, Venus' upper atmosphere has been proposed as a possible destination for human colonists. At around 56-57 kilometers above the surface, the air pressure is around 50-60% that of Earth, the temperature is around 10-15 degrees Celsius, and you're above the thickest part of the sulfuric acid cloud deck. Regular nitrogen-oxygen air is a lifting gas in Venus's atmosphere, too, with about half the lifting power of helium gas. You could build an acid-resistant, transparent balloon filled with air (which you can get out of Venus' atmosphere, since it's about 3% nitrogen and oxygen can be made out of CO2) and live inside of it. There's an interesting pair of Mars Society videos on it.

[BookWyrm2]

For anyone interested: SpaceX will be returning to flight tomorrow night at 8:33 PM in a satellite launch. More interestingly though is that it seems like they'll be slowing the rocket down in space and bringing it back to Earth in an attempt to land it on a new "rocket landing pad" (note: a pad on land, not a seaborne drone).

If you are curious you'll be able to watch it on this live webcast here.