(November 22, 2010 at 2:30 am)TheDarkestOfAngels Wrote: I just recently saw Star Trek 3: The Search for Spock Collector's Edition on DVD and in its special features is a ~half-hour or so video on Terriforming and humans living on other planets. The video was made in 2002 and the thing that caught my attention was that the man said that the moon was barren and had no water.
It's funny how much things change in 8 years considering how great a prospect of human habitation the moon seems now. Also interesting was the mention of Mars having frozen water on it and being terriformable and the best place for human habitation. This is true, but it caught my attention because we didnt' technically know that with any certainty until fairly recently with the extremely detailed images from orbit and the combined findings of virtually every probe we've launched there in the past 8 years - most notably pathfinder, Spirit, Opportunity, and probably one or two others I'm forgetting at the moment.
I honestly hope we (humans) accomplish much much more in the next decade because those two targets appear to be more and more temping as permanent living establishments with each new discovery and advancement in engineering.
Also interesting is the prospect of floating cities inside of giant air balloons on Venus, though I would honestly prefer the planet to be terriformed as well. It would be much more difficult than Mars (or the other terrestrial planets and moons) but not impossible.
The only real obstacle to intensive human exploration of either Mars or the Moon is public opinion, since that is where the funding comes from. I'm afraid that a lot of people don't share such visions. On the other hand, I've always held such visions to be of paramount importance for our future as a species. But that's just me.
'The difference between a Miracle and a Fact is exactly the difference between a mermaid and seal. It could not be expressed better.'
-- Samuel "Mark Twain" Clemens
"I think that in the discussion of natural problems we ought to begin not with the scriptures, but with experiments, demonstrations, and observations".
- Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
"In short, Meyer has shown that his first disastrous book was not a fluke: he is capable of going into any field in which he has no training or research experience and botching it just as badly as he did molecular biology. As I've written before, if you are a complete amateur and don't understand a subject, don't demonstrate the Dunning-Kruger effect by writing a book about it and proving your ignorance to everyone else! "
- Dr. Donald Prothero
-- Samuel "Mark Twain" Clemens
"I think that in the discussion of natural problems we ought to begin not with the scriptures, but with experiments, demonstrations, and observations".
- Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
"In short, Meyer has shown that his first disastrous book was not a fluke: he is capable of going into any field in which he has no training or research experience and botching it just as badly as he did molecular biology. As I've written before, if you are a complete amateur and don't understand a subject, don't demonstrate the Dunning-Kruger effect by writing a book about it and proving your ignorance to everyone else! "
- Dr. Donald Prothero
