1of6Billion

Keeping politics out of this discussion will prove to be *very* hard... Before the last US-election, I would have replied that we (the UN) would be discussing colonisation until well in the 2200's. After that we would probably go for a small (but quite heavily armed) research outpost somewhere in a remote area. There will be contact with the inhabitants. We would never go "Avatar" on them. Now, I am not sure that would never happen.

I'll take Astronomy, please. Give me a reason to, and means to do astronomy. Build telescopes on KSC, build orbital telescopes, build telescope on the far side of Eeloo, etc. Discover Asteroids (to intercept and divert), planets, moons to go to, nebulae (eye candy), imminent super novae (predict GRB's), comets! Yay for Astronomy! Oh, and a manipulation of the lithosphere. I would *love* to cover my bases with dirt

Never thought I would read thát in my life time

The other day I was wondering I should write to Lego to convince them to relaunch a Lego Space line. I would totally buy every set. This is an adequate start

What day is next saturday again?

Anyway, i'm aboard the Hypestein drive for season 2

What kind of forces are we talking about here? How does the "push" of a light sail compare to drag of solar wind, micrometeorites, last bits of atmosphere, etc?

The Nay-sayers forget that it's a fundamental driver of human nature to explore. If it was not we would still be throwing rocks in Africa.

You want to launch your sofa?

€2,49 on Steam Summer Sale right now

My calculator thinks 7 billion population growing 1,1% every year for 100 years is a little under 21Billion. Not 100 Trillion.

Ok, for the sake of argument, let's assume we want to launch a postage stamp sized probe of 1gram into low earth orbit just to Sputnik around a bit. What would it take?

We know about something like prions. Indeed. BTW: Is this thread about alien micro organisms, Tribbles or sentient beings? All will call for a different approach.

Probably like chicken Check genetic make up. If it's like our DNA, maybe even suggesting a common ancestor, then be very cautious to prevent interaction. If it's genetics is *really* alien, we're probably incompatible in any way. So we can study all we want

https://twitter.com/SarcasticRover/status/719924081655611392