Twinkle, twinkle little star.

Well not a star really, nor a lot of twinkling either but I was mightly impressed on the landing of the space ship on that commet last week.

I've not seen mention of it on the forum - forgive me if there was and I've missed it - but the planning and execution of the project is truly jaw dropping.

It took TEN years for the little spaceship to get to the commet.

So all the technology they are using is already that much out of date compared to what they must be able to do these days.

The spaceship travelled four BILLION MILES to get to the commet - which is just about 4 Kilometers big.

The commet is travelling at 40,000mph - so to must the spaceship.

As we can't build enginees or carry enough fuel to go anything like 40,000mph the only way the scientists can get to that speed is to use planets gravatation to 'sling-shot' the little spaceship off in to space at those speeds.

The planning to do all this took 15 years - so that's 25 years ago since the plan began - 15 years to build plus 10 years to get there.

How the feck they could see the commet 4 billion miles away (or whatever it was when they first came up with a plan) - and intercept it with a craft some how travelling at 40,000mph itself - is mind blowing stuff really.

Hats off to all involved.

I quite like all the star stuff.

Did you know for instance that all the stars that you can see with the naked eye, all come from our galaxy (the Milky Way) - you can't see a single star from another galaxy.

Our galaxy is roughly 100,000 LIGHT YEARS in diameter - how big is that!

But hold on, there are estimated to be about 100 BILLION other galaxies out there that we know about!!!

Get your head around that sort of figure!

Each galaxy as between a minimum of about ten million stars (our Sun is a star of course) and one TRILLION.

It is estimated that observable Universe contains 300 SEXTILLION stars - that is 300 with 23 zeros after it!!!

Mind blowing stuff.

and people still think there are no such things as aliens. Like you Sluffy, I love all this space malarkey, right from the days of the first moon landing. Incredibly clever stuff. ( I only ever read science fiction nowadays, for about  the last 30 years of so now),

For sale: Used comet landing craft. One owner. Slightly dodgy landing gear but still a runner. Buyer must collect.

Mind blowing stuff indeed. It's amazing how far technology has come along in the last 100 years and one can only imagine where the next 100 years will take us. Considering the number of stars in the mind boggling amount of galaxies I find it hard to believe that we are on the only rock that is in the 'Goldilocks zone' as it were. They may be more advanced and so far away it would take millions of years to get here or less advanced, such as small organisms on a young planet. Either way there must be something out there, and earth is the proof it can happen. I just wish I could be around when we find it, if ever. One thing is for certain, it won't be in our lifetime.

An amazing feat of technology. It really is mind blowing when you look at the years of preparation that took place to turn the project into success. 

I love all this kind of stuff.

If it took 10 years to get there and the objective is to learn how to be able to get to comets and asteroids that are on a collision course with earth, does that mean that we should send craft out in every direction and let them hibernate until needed?

gloswhite wrote:and people still think there are no such things as aliens. Like you Sluffy, I love all this space malarkey, right from the days of the first moon landing. Incredibly clever stuff. ( I only ever read science fiction nowadays, for about  the last 30 years of so now),

Although more fantasy than SF,I think Ray Bradbury is one of the greatest ever exponents of the genre.
'Everyone should read 'Something wicked this way comes'. A classic.

boltonbonce wrote:

gloswhite wrote:and people still think there are no such things as aliens. Like you Sluffy, I love all this space malarkey, right from the days of the first moon landing. Incredibly clever stuff. ( I only ever read science fiction nowadays, for about  the last 30 years of so now),

Although more fantasy than SF,I think Ray Bradbury is one of the greatest ever exponents of the genre.
'Everyone should read 'Something wicked this way comes'. A classic.

For folk new to the genre - and everyone else for that matter - The Illustrated Man is perfect. Every home should have a copy in the loo as the short story format is ideal for a data dump.
Avoid the film.

Dead right about the film. Even Rod Steiger couldn't help it. A real turkey.

have to admit liking all the old stuff, Asimov, Clarke, etc. The Robot stories when they first came out were  excellent, (still are really), not to mention the Foundation Trilogy, (which ended up at least 4). There are some excellent modern writers too.

gloswhite wrote:have to admit liking all the old stuff, Asimov, Clarke, etc. The Robot stories when they first came out were  excellent, (still are really), not to mention the Foundation Trilogy, (which ended up at least 4). There are some excellent modern writers too.

Have you tried Aldous Huxley Glos?

You should see "Mars Attacks!" - excellent work.

Men in black was also a great documentary. I recommend it if you haven't seen it.

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes was a vegetarians nightmare.

Aaaarrrrgh.

Another interesting subject thread gets the nuts treatment and goes off in a random direction........

Bwfc1958 wrote:Another interesting subject thread gets the nuts treatment and goes off in a random direction........

That's the beauty of nuts. The lunatics have taken over the asylum.

Ignore Boncey - his telescope's shit.