Moon Base Alpha

This treaty became effective on January 27, 1967. As its name implies, the Outer Space Treaty prohibits placing into orbit around the Earth any objects carrying nuclear weapons or any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction, the installation of such weapons on celestial bodies, or their stationing in outer space in any other manner. Also forbidden are the establishment of military bases, installations, and fortifications; the testing of any type of weapons; and the conduct .

Glass?

Moonbase Alpha Overview

NASA has once again landed on the lunar surface with the goal of colonization, research, and further exploration. Shortly after the return to the Moon, NASA has established a small outpost on the south pole of the moon called Moonbase Alpha. Utilizing solar energy and regolith processing, the moonbase has become self-sufficient and plans for further expansion are underway.


Moonbase Alpha Game ScreenShot -- Repairing the Life Support System

In Moonbase Alpha, you assume the exciting role of an astronaut working to further human expansion and research. Returning from a research expedition, you witness a meteorite impact that cripples the life support capability of the settlement. With precious minutes ticking away, you and your team must repair and replace equipment in order to restore the oxygen production to the settlement.

Team coordination along with the proper use and allocation of your available resources (player controlled robots, rovers, repair tools, etc.) are key to your overall success. There are several ways in which you can successfully restore the life support system of the lunar base, but since you are scored on the time spent to complete the task, you have to work effectively as a team, learn from decisions made in previous gaming sessions, and make intelligence decisions in order to top the leaderboards.

  "In Our Hands: The Moon"

Plato said...

Well Steven we know we need water if we are ever to establish a base. The support system for establishment of that base, require elements that can be found there, as they will be necessary for the foundation and support of "creating the place" in which to live. The property has to have some value. Who is to determine it's owner ship? So how one looks at the planets is to think about it's structure and what benefits can be gained from establishing locations for ventures further out into space. What it's gravity field looks like may aid in the determination of the mass and density of that planet n aiding the elemental determination of that structure? Colonization. I just thought if I was to gain from mining profits it would have to be for a reason in order to get my capital expenses out of such an investment. Then, what mining and values understood in terms of those elements is to be able to look at the moon in such a way that such support for that colonization for the moon base is established. Is it a international mining company, then a private one? Who shall have the say over where such mining can or can't occur, if property rights are or are not given? Just some of the thoughts that have occurred for me. Best,

January 13,

NASA's Mini-SAR instrument, which flew aboard India's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, found more than 40 small craters with water ice. The craters range in size from 1 to 9 miles (2 to 15 km) in diameter. Although the total amount of ice depends on its thickness in each crater, it's estimated there could be at least 600 million metric tons of water ice. The red circles denote fresh craters; the green circle mark anomalous craters.  NASA

Steven Colyer said...

Hi, Plato, Water, and air! In the long run I don't see that being as much of a problem as shelter from cosmic rays and solar radiation, which we can also solve. Air and water will have to be imported from Earth for the first century, maybe less. There's titanium oxide on the moon, right? That means oxygen. I'll make a deal with you. You can keep the titanium, I'll take the O2. With the O2 we'll get our air, and if we can locate some hydrogen we can combine that with the O2 to make water. And once someone gets off their duff and repeats Biosphere, except this time with less mistakes both managerial and engineering-wise of the first one, we'll recycle that stuff. For food: plants, and the small furry animals that love them. For shelter, the best news of late is that there are Caves on the moon! That's where we'll settle first. It'll sure save on excavation costs. Now, I know this will be pricey, but that hasn't stopped exploration before. We know who the Ferdinands and Isabellas of our day are, all that remains is to find the Columbuses, and I suspect there are no shortage of them either. And in any event, as Kennedy said, we won't go to the moon because it is easy, we will go to the moon because it is hard! A challenge! A goal. Goals are good. As a fringe benefit, we can solve the massive poverty problem here on Earth in doing this. Full employment for all humans is possible, provided we have a goal and people want to help. I have a cousin who worked at Grumman in the 60's - he was pretty darn proud to be one of the hundreds of thousands that allowed Neil and Buzz to step on our sister planet and return safely to the Earth. The Moon with it's 1/4th gravity will provide a saner place to build and launch a Mars mission one day. Also, in about 2 months we'll have a probe in orbit around planet Mercury. It's quite possible Mercury has more rich minerals and precious metals than any other planet, and if so, our successes on establishing a lunar base will be priceless in terms of experience to go after the Gold planet. Both seem equally hostile. So did North America back in the day, given the technology of those days, but, our ancestors conquered that eventually, eh? Yes they did, and we're the living proof. :-)

January 14, 2011 6:38 AM

Plato said...

Steven:There's titanium oxide on the moon, right? That means oxygen. You get my point well then that, "the elements" are factors that we have to take into consideration if the future of colonization has a step off point. The life cycle of a lunar impact and associated time and special scales. The LCROSS measurement methods are “layered” in response to the rapidly evolving impact environment. See: Impact:Lunar CRater Observation Satellite (LCROSS) So one must first plan for the expansion based on a blueprint for future generations. So you develop a research scenario based on the development and support of building such a base. As you have shown we are part way to the moon "so structure of habitation is and has already shown it can "withstand" through how such a design must be built on the moon. Of course first habitations is going to be the capsules in which it got us there. Metallurgic and refinement processes are developed for specific kinds of materials needed in the development of. Politics is an interesting question when it comes to how we want to move out toward space colonization, beyond the boundaries earth has to this date incorporated so as to benefit investment, while developing for all humankind? So is it a "public company" or "a private Corporation" through future developmental designs that shall lead the way? Best,

January 14, 2011 7:09 AM

Plato said...

Extracting Oxygen from Moon Rocks If you have obtained a long term supply of elements specific, then how shall they be combined to support such a long stay? "A supply" for sure then. Best,

January 14, 2011 7:18 AM

Steven Colyer said...

So is it a "public company" or "a private Corporation" through future developmental designs that shall lead the way? You handle the Legal end and I'll handle the Sales end. :-) As a tip though, what did it take to start up the Dutch East India Trading Company? It's in the History books, a not-small dose of which I believe you lawyers had to study in your undergraduate days. :-) Also, regarding Columbus. Was he really Italiano, or was he the Portuguese double-spy Salvador Fernandes Zarco, who played King John against Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand and vice versa, until he got the 3 ships he couldn't afford himself? And who then, on the high seas, ran into, got info from, then killed: John Cabot, the alleged REAL discoverer of the New World? Well, I don't know, sounds like conspiracy crackpottery to me, but however he did it, he sure got it done.

January 14, 2011 7:29 AM

The Leader-Post - Dec 17, 1966

UN Approval Expected on Outer Space Treaty

Plato said...

 

Steven: You handle the Legal end and I'll handle the Sales end. You have to lead first by example? At 9:11 AM, November 05, 2009, Steven:How can Quantum Gravity help? Transmutation. Once we know how matter and energy work on the smallest scales, Engineers should shortly thereafter learn how to turn Lunar titanium into any other form of matter we desire, and Newton's dream of Alchemy will finally be realized. Unfortunately I am embroiled in United States sovereignty claim because of the flag planted on the moon and various mirrors for measure as claims to land. Setting up the infrastructure like Christine said is first and foremost. An elementary consideration as to how we can support that community on the Moon and provide for manufacture and production is why my companies move to land claims of the Aristarchus Crater and Surrounding Region. If different countries can challenge Canada's sovereignty of it's north, then I should have no problem contesting any rights to United States sovereignty on the moon.:) If we as a global community dispense with such borders then as a community it then belongs to all people, not just "capitalistic control." I as a mining company will bequeath all my lands to such an endeavor. Best,

January 14, 2011 7:43 AM

***

The Outer Space Treaty of 1967

Treaty on principles governing the activities of states in the exploration and use of outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies.


Opened for signature at Moscow, London, and Washington on 27 January, 1967


THE STATES PARTIES. TO THIS TREATY,


INSPIRED by the great prospects opening up before mankind as a result of man's entry into outer space,

RECOGNIZING the common interest of all mankind in the progress of the exploration and use of outer space for peaceful purposes,


BELIEVING that the exploration and use of outer space should be carried on for the benefit of all peoples irrespective of the degree of their economic or scientific development,


DESIRING to contribute to broad international co-operation in the scientific as well as the legal aspects of the exploration and use of outer space for peaceful purposes,

BELIEVING that such co-operation will contribute to the development of mutual understanding and to the strengthening of friendly relations between States and peoples,


RECALLING resolution 1962 (XVIII), entitled "Declaration of Legal Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space", which was adopted unanimously by the United Nations General Assembly on 13 December 1963,


RECALLING resolution 1884 (XVIII), calling upon States to refrain from placing in orbit around the earth any objects carrying nuclear weapons or any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction or from installing such weapons on celestial bodies, which was adopted unanimously by the United Nations General Assembly on 17 October 1963,


TAKING account of United Nations General Assembly resolution 110 (II) of 3 November 1947, which condemned propaganda designed or likely to provoke or encourage any threat to the peace, breach of the peace or act of aggression, and considering that the aforementioned resolution is applicable to outer space,


CONVINCED that a Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, will further the Purposes and Principles of the Charter of the United Nations,


HAVE AGREED ON THE FOLLOWING:


Article I


The exploration and use of outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, shall be carried out for the benefit and in the interests of all countries, irrespective of their degree of economic or scientific development, and shall be the province of all mankind.


Outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, shall be free for exploration and use by all States without discrimination of any kind, on a basis of equality and in accordance with international law, and there shall be free access to all areas of celestial bodies.


There shall be freedom of scientific investigation in outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, and States shall facilitate and encourage international co-operation in such investigation.


Article II


Outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means.


Article III

States Parties to the Treaty shall carry on activities in the exploration and use of outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, in accordance with international law, including the Charter of the United Nations, in the interest of maintaining international peace and security and promoting international co- operation and understanding.

Article IV


States Parties to the Treaty undertake not to place in orbit around the earth any objects carrying nuclear weapons or any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction, instal such weapons on celestial bodies, or station such weapons in outer space in any other manner.


The moon and other celestial bodies shall be used by all States Parties to the Treaty exclusively for peaceful purposes. The establishment of military bases, installations and fortifications, the testing of any type of weapons and the conduct of military manoeuvres on celestial bodies shall be forbidden. The use of military personnel for scientific research or for any other peaceful purposes shall not be prohibited. The use of any equipment or facility necessary for peaceful exploration of the moon and other celestial bodies shall also not be prohibited.


Article V

In carrying on activities in outer space and on celestial bodies, the astronauts of one State Party shall render all possible assistance to the astronauts of other States Parties.


Article VI

States Parties to the Treaty shall bear international responsibility for national activities in outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, whether such activities are carried on by governmental agencies or by non-governmental entities, and for assuring that national activities are carried out in conformity with the provisions set forth in the present Treaty. The activities of non- governmental entities in outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, shall require authorization and continuing supervision by the appropriate State Party to the Treaty. When activities are carried on in outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, by an international organization, responsibility for compliance with this Treaty shall be borne both by the international organization and by the States Parties to the Treaty participating in such organization.

Article VII


Each State Party to the Treaty that launches or procures the launching of an object into outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, and each State Party from whose territory or facility an object is launched, is internationally liable for damage to another State Party to the Treaty or to its natural or juridical persons by such object or its component parts on the Earth, in air space or in outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies.

Article VIII


A State Party to the Treaty on whose registry an object launched into outer space is carried shall retain jurisdiction and control over such object, and over any personnel thereof, while in outer space or on a celestial body. Ownership of objects launched into outer space, including objects landed or constructed on a celestial body, and of their component parts, is not affected by their presence in outer space or on a celestial body or by their return to the Earth. Such objects or component parts found beyond the limits of the State Party of the Treaty on whose registry they are carried shall be returned to that State Party, which shall, upon request, furnish identifying data prior to their return.


Article IX


In the exploration and use of outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, States Parties to the Treaty shall be guided by the principle of co-operation and mutual assistance and shall conduct all their activities in outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, with due regard to the corresponding interests of all other States Parties to the Treaty. States Parties to the Treaty shall pursue studies of outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, and conduct exploration of them so as to avoid their harmful contamination and also adverse changes in the environment of the Earth resulting from the introduction of extraterrestrial matter and, where necessary, shall adopt appropriate measures for this purpose. If a State Party to the Treaty has reason to believe that an activity or experiment planned by it or its nationals in outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, would cause potentially harmful interference with activities of other States Parties in the peaceful exploration and use of outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, it shall undertake appropriate international consultations before proceeding with any such activity or experiment. A State Party to the Treaty which has reason to believe that an activity or experiment planned by another State Party in outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, would cause potentially harmful interference with activities in the peaceful exploration and use of outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, may request consultation concerning the activity or experiment.


Article X

In order to promote international co-operation in the exploration and use of outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, in conformity with the purposes of this Treaty, the States Parties to the Treaty shall consider on a basis of equality any requests by other States Parties to the Treaty to be afforded an opportunity to observe the flight of space objects launched by those States.


The nature of such an opportunity for observation and the conditions under which it could be afforded shall be determined by agreement between the States concerned.


Article XI


In order to promote international co-operation in the peaceful exploration and use of outer space, States Parties to the Treaty conducting activities in outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, agree to inform the Secretary-General of the United Nations as well as the public and the international scientific community, to the greatest extent feasible and practicable, of the nature, conduct, locations and results of such activities. On receiving the said information, the Secretary-General of the United Nations should be prepared to disseminate it immediately and effectively.

Article XII


All stations, installations, equipment and space vehicles on the moon and other celestial bodies shall be open to representatives of other States Parties to the Treaty on a basis of reciprocity. Such representatives shall give reasonable advance notice of a projected visit, in order that appropriate consultations may be held and that maximum precautions may be taken to assure safety and to avoid interference with normal operations in the facility to be visited.

Article XIII


The provisions of this Treaty shall apply to the activities of States Parties to the Treaty in the exploration and use of outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, whether such activities are carried on by a single State Party to the Treaty or jointly with other States, including cases where they are carried on within the framework of international inter-governmental organizations.


Any practical questions arising in connexion with activities carried on by international inter-governmental organizations in the exploration and use of outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, shall be resolved by the States Parties to the Treaty either with the appropriate international organization or with one or more States members of that international organization, which are Parties to this Treaty.


Article XIV


1. This Treaty shall be open to all States for signature. Any State which does not sign this Treaty before its entry into force in accordance with paragraph 3 of this Article may accede to it at any time.
2. This Treaty shall be subject to ratification by signatory States. Instruments of ratification and instruments of accession shall be deposited with the Governments of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the United States of America, which are hereby designated the Depositary Governments.
3. This Treaty shall enter into force upon the deposit of instruments of ratification by five Governments including the Governments designated as Depositary Governments under this Treaty.
4. For States whose instruments of ratification or accession are deposited subsequent to the entry into force of this Treaty, it shall enter into force on the date of the deposit of their instruments of ratification or accession.
5. The Depositary Governments shall promptly inform all signatory and acceding States of the date of each signature, the date of deposit of each instrument of ratification of and accession to this Treaty, the date of its entry into force and other notices.
6. This Treaty shall be registered by the Depositary Governments pursuant to Article 102 of the Charter of the United Nations.


Article XV


Any State Party to the Treaty may propose amendments to this Treaty. Amendments shall enter into force for each State Party to the Treaty accepting the amendments upon their acceptance by a majority of the States Parties to the Treaty and thereafter for each remaining State Party to the Treaty on the date of acceptance by it.


Article XVI


Any State Party to the Treaty may give notice of its withdrawal from the Treaty one year after its entry into force by written notification to the Depositary Governments. Such withdrawal shall take effect one year from the date of receipt of this notification.

Article XVII


This Treaty, of which the Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish texts are equally authentic, shall be deposited in the archives of the Depositary Governments. Duly certified copies of this Treaty shall be transmitted by the Depositary Governments to the Governments of the signatory and acceding States.


IN WITNESS WHEREOF the undersigned, duly authorised, have signed this Treaty.
DONE in triplicate, at the cities of London, Moscow and Washington, the twenty-seventh day of January, one thousand nine hundred and sixty-seven.

Stephen J. Garber, NASA History Web Curator

***

Space entrepreneur Robert Bigelow (left) discusses layout plans of the company's lunar base with Eric Haakonstad, one of the Bigelow Aerospace lead engineers.

PS Update: Back to the Moon, This Time to Stay
 

Intelligent Life in the Universe?

While Drake's equation is a good basis for systematic investigations of signals from extraterrestrial intelligences, I care little about the admittedly scarce possibility that we ever receive positive news from our SETI searches. I care more about the fact that, if we consider the whole universe instead than restricting to our small galaxy, and if we omit to require that other civilizations exist at present (whatever this means over billion-light-year distance scales), the probability becomes a certainty.Tommaso Dorigo

I was over at Tommaso Dorigo's Blog, Quantum Diaries Survivor" reading his take on Extraterrestrials: A Dime A Dozen and the opening with Stephen Hawkings Lecture. I cut out the section of my interest as well to see what Dr. Hawking was talking about, besides reading Tommaso's take.

Qualitatively, I have come to realize,  given the framework for consideration of such possibilities,  these equations mean an inductive/deductive self evident constraint  how are we ever to consider the possibility( You have to give yourself permission to entertain).

I mean can we ever know the framework of that Extraterrestrial Intelligence given the parameters for our own belief structures? We do not even know what is possible "not having the framework" to properly question how this can be so?

So what I found in Dr.Hawkings lecture was the generalities of consensus across the industry of science and no new ways in which to possibly perceive the" right questions concerning the framework for possible new intelligences" that we would perceive as Extraterrestrials.

***

NASA's 50th Anniversary Lecture By Professor Stephen Hawking

...........DR. HAWKING: What will we find when we go into space? Is there alien life out there, or are we alone in the universe?

We believe that life arose spontaneously on the Earth. So it must be possible for life to appear on othersuitable planets, of which there seem to be a large number in the galaxy.

But we don't know how life first appeared. The probability of something as complicated as a DNA molecule being formed by random collisions of atoms in ocean is incredibly small. However, there might have been some simpler macro molecule which can build up the DNA or some other macro molecule capable of reproducing itself. Still, even if the probability of life appearing on a suitable planet is very small, since the universe is infinite, life would have appeared somewhere. If the probability is very low, the distance between two independent occurrences of life would be very large.

However, there is a possibility known as panspermia that life could spread from planet to planet or from stellar system to stellar system carried on meteors. We know that Earth has been hit by meteors that came from Mars, and others may have come from further afield. We have no evidence that any meteors carried life, but it remains a possibility.

An important feature of life spread by panspermia is that it would have the same basis which would be DNA for life in the neighborhood of the Earth.

On the other hand, an independent occurrence of life would be extremely unlikely to be DNA based. So watch out if you meet an alien. You could be infected with a disease against which you have no resistance.

One piece of observational evidence on the probability of life appearing is that we have fossils from 3.5 billion years ago. The Earth was formed 4.6 billion years ago and was probably too hot for about the first half billion years. So life appeared on Earth within half-a-billion years of it being possible, which is short compared to the 10-billion-year lifetime of an Earth-like planet.

This would suggest either panspermia or that the probability of life appearing independently is reasonably high. If it was very low, one would have expected it to take most of the 10 billion years available. If it is panspermia, any life in the solar system or in nearby stellar systems will also be DNA based.

While there may be primitive life in another region of the galaxy, there don't seem to be any advanced intelligent beings. We don't appear to have been visited by aliens. I am discounting reports of UFOs. Why would they appear only to cranks and weirdos?

[Laughter.]

DR. HAWKING: If there is a government conspiracy to suppress the reports and keep for itself the scientific knowledge the aliens bring, it seems to have been a singularly ineffective policy so far.

Furthermore, despite an extensive search by the SETI project, we haven't heard any alien television quiz shows. This probably indicates that there are no alien civilizations at our stage of development within the radius of a few hundred lightyears. Issuing an insurance policy against abduction by aliens seems a pretty safe bet.

Why haven't we heard from anyone out there? One view is expressed in this Calvin cartoon. The caption reads: "Sometimes I think that the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us."

More seriously, there could be three possible explanations of why we haven't heard from aliens. First, it may be that the probability of primitive life appearing on a suitable planet is very low.

Second, the probability of primitive life appearing may be reasonably high, but the probability of that life developing intelligence like ours may be very low. Just because evolution led to intelligence in our case, we shouldn't assume that intelligence is an inevitable consequence of Darwinian natural selection.

It is not clear that intelligence confers a long-term survival advantage. Bacteria and insects will survive quite happily even if our so-called intelligence leads us to destroy ourselves.

This is the third possibility. Life appears and in some cases develops into intelligent beings, but when it reaches a stage of sending radio signals, it will also have the technology to make nuclear bombs and other weapons of mass destruction. It will, therefore, be in danger of destroying itself before long.

Let's hope this is not the reason we have not heard from anyone. Personally, I favor the second possibility that primitive life is relatively common, but that intelligent life is very rare. Some would say it has yet to occur on Earth.

[Laughter.]

DR. HAWKING: Can we exist for a long time away from the Earth? Our experience with the ISS, the International Space Station, shows that it is possible for human beings to survive for many months away from Planet Earth. However, the zero gravity aboard it causes a number of undesirable physiological changes and weakening of the bones, as well as creating practical problems with liquids, et cetera.

One would, therefore, want any long-term base for human beings to be on a planet or moon. By digging into the surface, one would get thermal insulation and protection from meteors and cosmic rays. The planet or moon could also serve as a source of the raw materials that would be needed if the extraterrestrial community was to be self-sustaining independently of Earth.

What are the possible sites of a human colony in the solar system? The most obvious is the Moon. It is close by and relatively easy to reach. We have already landed on it and driven across it in a buggy.

On the other hand, the Moon is small and without atmosphere or a magnetic field to deflect the solar radiation particles, like on Earth. There is no liquid water, but there may be ice in the craters at the north and south poles. A colony on the Moon could use this as a source of oxygen with power provided by nuclear energy or solar panels. The Moon could be a base for travel to the rest of the solar system.

Mars is the obvious next target. It is half as far, again, as the Earth from the Sun and so receives half the warmth. It once had a magnetic field, but it decayed 4 billion years ago, leaving Mars without protection from solar radiation. It stripped Mars of most of its atmosphere, leaving it with only 1 percent of the pressure of the Earth's atmosphere.

However, the pressure must have been higher in the past because we see what appear to be runoff channels and dried-up lakes. Liquid water cannot exist on Mars now.

It would vaporize in the near-vacuum. This suggests that Mars had a warm wet period during which life might have appeared either spontaneously or through panspermia. There is no sign of life on Mars now, but if we found evidence that life had once existed, it would indicate that the probability of life developing on a suitable planet was fairly high.

NASA has sent a large number of spacecraft to Mars, starting with Mariner 4 in 1964. It has surveyed the planet with a number of orbiters, the latest being the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. These orbiters have revealed deep gullies and the highest mountains in the solar system.

NASA has also landed a number of probes on the surface of Mars, most recently the two Mars Rovers. These have sent back pictures of a dry desert landscape. However, there is a large quantity of water in the form of ice in the polar regions. A colony on Mars could use this as a source of oxygen.

There has been volcanic activity on Mars. This would have brought minerals and metals to the surface which a colony could use.

The Moon and Mars are the most suitable sites for space colonies in the solar system. Mercury and Venus are too hot, while Jupiter and Saturn are gas giants with no solid surface.

The moons of Mars are very small and have no advantages over Mars itself.

Some of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn might be possible. In particular, Titan, a moon of Saturn, is larger and more massive than other moons and has a dense atmosphere.

The Cassini-Huygens Mission of NASA and ESA has landed a probe on Titan which has sent back pictures of the surface. However, it is very cold, being so far from the sun, and I wouldn't fancy living next to a lake of liquid methane.

What about beyond the solar system? Our observations indicate that a significant fraction of stars have planets around them. So far, we can detect only giant planets like Jupiter and Saturn, but it is reasonable to assume that they will be accompanied by smaller Earth-like planets. Some of these will lay in the [inaudible] zone where the distance from the stars is the right range for liquid water to exist on their surface.

There are around a thousand stars within 30 lightyears of Earth. If 1 percent of each had Earth-size planets in the [inaudible] zone, we would have 10 candidate new worlds. We can revisit it with current technology, but we should make interstellar a long-term aim. By long term, I mean over the next 200 to 500 years. The human race has existed as a separate species for about 2 million years.

Civilization began about 10,000 years ago, and the rate of development has been steadily increasing.

If the human race is to continue for another million years, we will have to boldly go where no one has gone before.

***

This same perspective about which I have involved myself with the issues of gravity has been at the forefront of my journey with regards to understanding gravity, and what we have come to know of it on Earth, is that it is not as it is in heaven?:)

Thoughts have this forming effect too, and in the world of Physical constants, how are such thoughts to be measured? "Particulate expressions" in such reductionist modes which lead to a inductive/deductive self evidential state of a ever forming Higg's field?? What thought has traversed the room, to arrive on the other side of the room with consensus?

Not as if, we can defy it's hold on us, while taking plane flights to experience this sensation of dropping fast to earth and leaving ourselves suspended for a time. That it is a consensus borne in mind that such an idea is limited to the framework for which all ideas about it are limited too.

The net result is that the meager N=2.1 becomes over 20 trillions! This means that there are presently 20 trillion civilizations around. 20 trillions. Okay, we might have dropped or added one factor of a hundred too many here or there, but the number is still enormous, no escape!

Is that not a sobering thought ? To me, that is both awesome and saddening. As far as awe is concerned, of course there is no need to explain it. But there is sadness too: for imagine the incredible, unfathomable number of things that we will never be able to know, constrained in our tiny planet, during our insignificant lives. Masterpieces, inventions, acts of bravery, adventures. But also wars, atrocities, catastrophes. The history of the universe will never be written - but it would be quite a read, I am sure.Tommaso Dorigo

So as with the idea of Intelligences in the universe, I place gravity along side of it, as in the context of formulating the right questions. In Tommaso's blog the entry is the deciphering in context of the Drake Equation yet not bound by it in belief. This does not make Tommaso irresponsible to me in shirking the basis of that determination by using the equation.

So of course along the way in my endeavors with those who I have conversed, or left trail bytes for consideration, is the idea that the world as we see it is not always as it seems and that by consensus, the framework is establish is one which limits our views according too.

A "synopsis of the events" can lead us too, and as has been extrapolated according to the world of science. The thoughts that are left to me have been the idea of how scientists can ever introduce new formulations outside of that structure consensus without first taking a new baby step(how so?). They have had to all come to agreement on the latest version of that consensus.

Then there are, the Physical Constants. It is as if in relation to the formulation to a mathematical consistency as a correlative function of the Drake equation in the process of.

This does not mean we sanction irresponsibility to the quest of discovering new worlds of thought, be it in context of Extraterrestrial Intelligences, or even about gravity and the quantum world in which it shall work.

I still visit those scientists who have placed "Outreach" even amidst the data and scientific endeavors they are pursuing. I look for the glimmer of hope that such baby steps are borne out of such minds.

Having defined all the parameters of your science what would be the next question that would lead you to new insights? What new science beyond the experiments that you are working on?

Hubble Reveals Potential Titanium Oxide Deposits at Aristarchus and Schroter's Valley Rille

Credit: NASA, ESA, and J. Garvin (NASA/GSFC)Aristarchus Crater in False Color

This color composite focuses on the 26-mile-diameter (42-kilometer-diameter) Aristarchus impact crater, and employs ultraviolet- to visible-color-ratio information to accentuate differences that are potentially diagnostic of ilmenite- (i.e, titanium oxide) bearing materials as well as pyroclastic glasses. The symphony of color within the Aristarchus crater clearly shows a diversity of materials — anorthosite, basalt, and olivine. The images were acquired Aug. 21, 2005. The processing was accomplished by the Hubble Space Telescope Lunar Exploration Team at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Northwestern University, and the Space Telescope Science Institute. False-color images were constructed using the red channel as 502/250 nanometers; the green as 502 nanometers; and the blue as 250/658 nanometers. North is at the top in the image.

Credit: NASA, ESA and J. Garvin (NASA/GSFC)

This view of the lunar impact crater Aristarchus and adjacent features (Herodotus crater, Schroter's Valley rille) illustrates the ultraviolet and visible wavelength characteristics of this geologically diverse region of the Moon. The two inset images illustrate one preliminary approach for isolating differences due to such effects as composition, soil maturity, mixing, and impact ejecta emplacement. The color composite in the lower right focuses on the 26-mile-diameter (42-kilometer-diameter) Aristarchus impact crater, and employs ultraviolet- to visible-color-ratio information to accentuate differences that are potentially diagnostic of ilmenite- (i.e, titanium oxide) bearing materials as well as pyroclastic glasses.

The same is the case for the image of a section of Schroter's Valley (rille) in the upper right. Bluer units in these spectral-ratio images suggest enrichment in opaque phases in a relative sense. The magenta color indicates dark mantle material which scientists believe contains titanium-bearing pyroclastic material.

The symphony of color within the Aristarchus crater clearly shows a diversity of materials — anorthosite, basalt, and olivine. The impact crater actually cut through a mare highlands boundary with superposed pyroclastics - a unique geologic setting on the Moon! The distinctive tongue of material extending out of the crater's southeastern rim is thought to be very olivine-rich material, based on Earth-based spectra and Clementine visible and infrared imaging data.

North is at the top in these images.

These images were acquired Aug. 21, 2005. The processing was accomplished by the Hubble Space Telescope Lunar Exploration Team at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Northwestern University, and the Space Telescope Science Institute. False-color images were constructed using the red channel as 502/250 nanometers; the green as 502 nanometers; and the blue as 250/658 nanometers.

(Clementine, USGS slide 11)

Clementine color ratio composite image of Aristarchus Crater on the Moon. This 42 km diameter crater is located on the corner of the Aristarchus plateau, at 24 N, 47 W. Ejecta from the plateau is visible as the blue material at the upper left (northwest), while material excavated from the Oceanus Procellarum area is the reddish color to the lower right (southeast). The colors in this image can be used to ascertain compositional properties of the materials making up the deep strata of these two regions.

***

APOLLO

The points of reference for the earth-moon measurement are the earth-based telescope—in this case, the 3.5 meter telescope at Apache Point, and in particular, the intersection of the telescope mount axes—and the small, suitcase-sized retroreflector array placed on the lunar surface by Apollo astronauts (pictured is the Apollo 11 reflector at Tranquility Base). A total of four lunar retroreflectors are functional: three Apollo reflectors from Apollo 11, 14, and 15 (three times bigger than 11 & 14), and one French-built, Soviet landed (unmanned) unit from the Luna 21 mission. A significant part of the challenge of lunar range modeling is converting this point-to-point measurement into a distance between the center-of-mass of the earth and the center-of-mass of the moon. It is only after this reduction that one can consider the interesting part of the problem: the dynamics of the earth-moon-sun system. For more general information on the technique, see this description of how the technique works and why we're performing this experiment.

Location of the reflector landing sites

APOLLO Laser First Light

Another picture from July 24, 2005. Larry Carey is seen standing on the catwalk performing aircraft spotting duties. Bruce Gillespie is the other spotter, hidden by the pine tree. On some viewing screens, the green beam may be barely visible leaving the dome. The beam is about as visible as the Milky Way. Part of Ursa Minor is at right, and Draco at upper left. Photo by Gretchen van Doren.

A picture from the August 2005 run by Gretchen van Doren, showing the laser beam making its way to the (over-exposed) moon. No, the moon is not exploding under the influence of our 2.3 Watt laser! The edge-brightening of the beam can be seen, as the telescope secondary mirror robs the beam of light in its center. Orion is seen at right.

A picture from the June 2006 run showing the back of the telescope, the APOLLO laser enclosure (left), the beam heading moon-ward, and the moon intself. The moon is actually a crescent, but so terrifically overexposed (16 seconds) that it looks rather round.

***

Question 4 : What is the structure of Mercury's core?


Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

More recently, Earth-based radar observations of Mercury have also determined that at least a portion of the large metal core is still liquid to this day! Having at least a partially molten core means that a very small but detectable variation in the spin-rate of Mercury has a larger amplitude because of decoupling between the solid mantle and liquid core. Knowing that the core has not completely solidified, even as Mercury has cooled over billions of years since its formation, places important constraints on the thermal history, evolution, and core composition of the planet.

Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

This MESSENGER image was taken from a distance of about 18,000 kilometers (11,000 miles) from the surface of Mercury, at 20:03 UTC, about 58 minutes after the closest approach point of the flyby. The region shown is about 500 kilometers (300 miles) across, and craters as small as 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) can be seen in this image.

The Gravity Field

Apollo Moon Measure

Reference was made by Sean Carroll while he is up in Toronto lecturing.

Georgi Dvali


NYU’S Dvali Says Change in Laws of Gravity, Not ‘Dark Energy,’ Source of Cosmic Acceleration

"This is the crucial difference between the dark energy and modified gravity hypothesis, since, by the former, no observable deviation is predicted at short distances," Dvali says. "Virtual gravitons exploit every possible route between the objects, and the leakage opens up a huge number of multidimensional detours, which bring about a change in the law of gravity."

Dvali adds that the impact of modified gravity is able to be tested by experiments other than the large distance cosmological observations. One example is the Lunar Laser Ranging experiment that monitors the lunar orbit with an extraordinary precision by shooting the lasers to the moon and detecting the reflected beam. The beam is reflected by retro-reflecting mirrors originally placed on the lunar surface by the astronauts of the Apollo 11 mission.

It is important to understand that with this operation running for 35 years the benefits of using existing experimental opportunites are worth considering. I am of course referring to Georgi Dvali's proposition above.

Better than a stopwatch...In essence, we measure the time it takes for the pulse of light to travel to the moon and back. This can take anywhere from 2.34 to 2.71 seconds, depending on how far away the moon is at the time (the earth-moon distance ranges from 351,000 km to 406,000 km). We can time the round trip to few-picosecond precision, or a few trillionths of a second.


Einstein's Equivalence Principle, upon which General Relativity rests, claims that all forms of mass-energy experience the same acceleration in response to an external gravitational force. This is to say that the inertial mass and gravitational mass are equivalent for any form of mass and/or energy. This is very difficult to verify for gravitational energy itself, because laboratory masses have no appreciable gravitational binding energy. One needs bodies as large as the earth to have any measurable self-energy content. Even then, the self-energy contribution to Earth's total mass-energy is less than one part-per-billion

The benefits of seeing and using time clocks, as a measure of perspective has a solid base and the ocnsiderations of GR has lead our views into a world much different then wha we seeon the surface of life. I make reference here to other ways in which we see these relations.

Gravity and Light in the Fifth Dimension perhaps?

Links which extend our perceptions are always greatly appreciated Chris W.

Towards a new test of general relativity?

23 March 2006

Scientists funded by the European Space Agency have measured the gravitational equivalent of a magnetic field for the first time in a laboratory. Under certain special conditions the effect is much larger than expected from general relativity and could help physicists to make a significant step towards the long-sought-after quantum theory of gravity.

See:

A Sphere that is not so Round

What! Superficiality has extra dimensions to it?

Time-Variable Gravity Measurements

UV Fixed Point

Genesis Spacecraft uses Tubes as Freeways

The Use of Language, over Geometric Design?

One must realize that to further develope scenarios for the mind had to consider, created conversation. To use this to formulate new steps and expansion of thought. One needs to create the situation?

So what if, Plato in this case, is not real, and "the dialogues," using this figurative object, was used to create the dialogues? Can he have ever produced further thoughts for us to consider in dramas, without a bouncing board?

So is the situation real below?

Kansas Board Holds Evolution Hearings By JOHN HANNA

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - As a State Board of Education subcommittee heard more testimony Friday on how evolution should be taught in Kansas classrooms, one member acknowledged that she hadn't read all of an evolution-friendly draft of science standards proposed by educators.

Kathy Martin of Clay Center made the comment while attempting to reassure a witness who said he hadn't read the entire proposal, just parts of it. Russell Carlson, a biochemistry and molecular biology professor at the University of Georgia, said he had reviewed an alternate proposal from intelligent design advocates.

Islamic Creationism In Turkey

Sometime in the mid 1980s, the Turkish Minister of Education, Mr. Vehbi Dinçerler [. . .] placed a call to ICR. [. . .] he wanted to eliminate the secular-based, evolution-only teaching dominant in their schools and replace it with a curriculum teaching the two models[.] As a result, several ICR books which dealt with the scientific (not Biblical) evidence for creation were translated into Turkish and distributed to all Turkey's public school teachers.

You have to wonder too, about thedistrust of and motivations seen in the Templeton foundation and the list of scientific personalities that contribute or those thinking of contributing?

This mistrust is seen by some as instigating such concerns as revealled in the issues above? Motivating society with fasle idealizations? I do not quite understand this. This is not a position I take, but was one of observance that I witnessed and relay here.

The whole issue around the Sokal Affair:

The essay you have just seen is completely meaningless and was randomly generated by the Postmodernism Generator. To generate another essay, follow this link. If you like this particular essay and would like to return to it, follow this link for a bookmarkable page

.

Is it intentional, or are people easily fooled?

Is there a greater design behind and leading people into falsehoods? Is this what everyone fears could happen to them?



It's strange, but this post of yours sets up a complex scenario. About shadows and light? :)

That the tenable position would be, "the earth they stand on," some how intrudes on the surface of the moon, and from behind the earth, the sun.

A classic Plato story? :)

But lets say your post is about something else?

Not just the plain ideals of observance.



Might one believe beyond the scope of our scientific valuations? To see, that it might have some other answer to why life is the way it is. What is it's motivator? It's energy?



A higher perspective on what we know about earth is summed up in an overview of the globe. Are not the intricacies of earth's design, much more complex, then it's mere shadow causing presence?

The expansitory thinking beyond straight euclidean thinking, is much more versatile? Reveals geometrical design much more intricate then just two dimensional observances?

Thought and observance, is now telling us to think beyond the hard fact realities? You can still be a scientist and believe in God. :)

A tesserack or hypercube is a four dimensional analogue of a cube. See the figure on the left for a 2-D representation of this 4-D object. More information about these can be seen and found. Many people have difficulty believing such can exist which is why such books as Flatland (Abbott, 1884), Sphereland (Burgers, 1983), and Flatterland (Stewart, 2001) were written.

I tried to show leading indicators in this trial, further expanding it's boundry into todays world. No less than, "climate exchanges on Kyoto," and scientist to scientist, "battle for supremacy of ideology?" Intelligent design?

More abstract, the inclinations of the quote selected provided a opportunity. About what few people will ever understand? Are the roads leading to complex scenarios about the particle world.



The way Arthur Miller quote might have sufficed might be to say, "that we need to think differently about reductionistic processes."

These are all governed by geometrical consistancies although we rely on experimental process. The progression to topological forms, as abstract processes. These are relevant to our "dynamical way of thinking." If lead to fifth dimensional scenarios, you are beyond the limitations of our solid world, becasue it arose from some place else first?

The "Calorimetric view," addresses this. We create the scenario of particle collisions and measure, particle production.

None of you would know this, but the inherent "opera of image," leads you to ask, "what is a tesserack?" Non?

The last two picture gaves views from a fifth dimensional element, where gravity and light have been joined. Dali's painting, and relation to the wonder of God's son. Are these related to these higher geometrical figures and wonder about God?

We are not simple machines. As well, the computer screen is a work and play on fifth dimensional imagery. Some might assume a atheist approach to life and settle on proofs, and a s a scientist this is expected logic to validation.

Yet there is still room for thinking that within the spaces of thought, the inherent suttleness of God might pervade all things? That such thoughts could lead us to higher pinnacles above the solid world, and what is present around us now?

Why should we allocate such spiritual thinking to classes of religions like Islam and the Turkey scenario? You hurt the quest for theoretcial endeavors by limitations of ideology? When the world requires innovative thinking, "to push the boundaries of our envelope."

Without leading to these realization of the electromagnetic principles, Gauss and Maxwell relations, might we ever understand the simple visionistic world of the magnetic field?

Clementine Project Information

Clementine was a joint project between the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization and NASA. The objective of the mission was to test sensors and spacecraft components under extended exposure to the space environment and to make scientific observations of the Moon and the near-Earth asteroid 1620 Geographos. The observations included imaging at various wavelengths including ultraviolet and infrared, laser ranging altimetry, and charged particle measurements. These observations were originally for the purposes of assessing the surface mineralogy of the Moon and Geographos, obtaining lunar altimetry from 60N to 60S latitude, and determining the size, shape, rotational characteristics, surface properties, and cratering statistics of Geographos.

Look at Clementine and the moon. The way they measured gravity there( the satellite lag)? The geological perspective gained from mapping the moon? The frames of reference are thus quite dynamical when you use this perspective to gain new insights developed from the work of Einstein.

Green Cheese?

The Clementine gravity experiment used measurements of perturbations in the motion of the spacecraft to infer the lunar gravity field

The complexity of measuring events in the cosmos, was to see information contained in what exists around us now. Using various locations they are trying to ascertain simultaneous correspondances in the signals from these cosmological locations, as a well as use the distance between these earth based locations.

Gravity for instance, varies with Time

Gravity is "flavor blind," so when a microscopic blackhole evaporates it produces all the Standard Model particles with equal probability. Once one accounts for spin and color, it turns out that particles produced when a blackhole decays are about 72 percent quarks and Gluons, 18 percent leptons, and the rest are bosons. Such a distinctive shower of particles would be hard to miss. So there is the possibility that the Pierre Auger Observatory will detect blackholes.

Page 262, Out of this World, by Stephen Webb

In a complex world of uncertainty this is hard to do, so you look for the ways to see how the cosmic rays create the situations for particle production. So you look for the origins of any number system that began, and how it was used to explain the natural world.

An Excursion into the Dimensions of Numbered Systems

An example here would be using Pascal's triangle. If you "blanket" using resonances pertaining to all number deveopements, then we might understand the harmonies created? Topological movements?

In a euclidean world, the developing geometries will lead somewhere, but how did you every arrive from topological states to euclidean frames of reference? You had to understand the physics process.

So from space to earth, the earth, a final physical state. But you understand that it existed in other states as well? That's where you learn to use the physics.

Seeing Beyond the Mass and Density?

Fig.1: Generally Grouping Order increases the density of objects within a frame of reference, resulting in a more pronounced single object.

To see beyond what we have taken for granted it is important that you understand how we got to the way we are. Above the diagram helps you too orientate these views in accordance with established sciences.

A lot of thought have been going through my mind about what is currently being manifested all around us in terms of all the wavelengths that we are inundating to our environment. Television, cell phones, electric grid lines and all the sorts and I am wondering if, we have basically interrupted, the process in nature that is natural, and supplemented it with human kinds fabrications?

Lets just focus on matter distinctions then for now and how such inundations above might have found some comparative views in what nature decided to do for us. In how it density variations would have aligned themselves over the planet during it's formation?

The distribution of mass over the Earth is non-uniform. GRACE will determine this uneven mass distribution by measuring changes in Earth’s gravity field.The term mass refers to the amount of a substance in a given space, and is directly correlated to the density of that substance. For example, a container filled with a more dense material, like granite, has more mass than that same container filled with water. Because mass and density are directly related, there is also a direct relationship between density and gravity. An increase in density results in an increase in mass, and an increase in mass results in an increase in the gravitational force exerted by an object. Density fluctuations on the surface of the Earth and in the underlying mantle are thus reflected invariations in the gravity field.As the twin GRACE satellites orbit the Earth together, these gravity field variations cause infinitesimal changes in the distance between the two. These changes will be measured with unprecedented accuracy by the instruments aboard GRACE leading to a more precise rendering of the gravitational field than has ever been possible to date.

In looking up the word "in variation" you won't have much luck, but in context of the sentence, it forces you to look back towards the center, from the surface. I think this is right?

Quite early in the developing aspects of my research, I was drawn to statement of the above in regards to mass/density, which could have represented to me the vibration inherent, as sound, in how we would determine this mass? Was it unreasonable to look at what nature had bestowed upon us and wonder, that if such sounding processes within the mantle would have allowed us to determine where the structural integrity of the planet would have sufficed in taking accountability of proper building perspectives.

Clementine color ratio composite image of Aristarchus Crater on the Moon. This 42 km diameter crater is located on the corner of the Aristarchus plateau, at 24 N, 47 W. Ejecta from the plateau is visible as the blue material at the upper left (northwest), while material excavated from the Oceanus Procellarum area is the reddish color to the lower right (southeast). The colors in this image can be used to ascertain compositional properties of the materials making up the deep strata of these two regions. (Clementine, USGS slide 11)

Preparing the mind for information about gravitational fields were extremely important to me because if gravity discernment in terms of the planets density fluctuations were evident from mass/ density consideration, then how would we be certain that such information emitted from events, which shake the space time fabric would not have sounded for us a response distinctive about it's particle identification. Was there some layering aspect designed within gravitational consideration that would have said the density of the material would have been found, a center first must be of iron?

As one of the fields which obey the general inverse square law, the gravity field can be put in the form shown above, showing that the acceleration of gravity, g, is an expression of the intensity of the gravity field.

So in the ideal centricity of elements such gravitational consideration would have aligned the material in a appropriate expression from the densest of matter distinctions to the very light, would have made it seem, that such resonances based in sound would say, that because it is dense here at the iron core, the sound value would be very distinctive from the vibrational freedom at the surface?

Density measure(comparative to other things) of sound, would be nice. Which leads me to the ideals of Webber and his aluminum bars.

Radar echos from Titan's surface



This recording was produced by converting into audible sounds some of the radar echoes received by Huygens during the last few kilometres of its descent onto Titan. As the probe approaches the ground, both the pitch and intensity increase. Scientists will use intensity of the echoes to speculate about the nature of the surface.