As astronomers get closer to finding potential signatures of life on faraway planets, a new mathematical description shows how to understand life’s spread — and to determine if it’s jumping from star to star. “Life could spread from host star to host star in a pattern similar to the outbreak of an epidemic,” study co-author Avi Loeb of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) said in a statement.
Why haven’t we found alien neighbors? One theory says advanced species don’t colonize outer space, but make virtual worlds and colonize inner space instead.
Long time ago I was wondering why not to use drones (*) (named for that concrete application Extreme Access Flyers) to explore the space, to reach new planets, asteroids … it would be exciting … rovers are limited in action, so what if we make it airborne? Once in space, why not to send a drone or a swarm of them from the main spaceship to explore a new planet? They could interact, share capabilities, morph, etc.
While the economy looks more or less promising for civil and military, there is still a long path to walk …
“Teal Group’s 2015 market study estimates that UAV production will soar from current worldwide UAV production of $4 billion annually to $14 billion, totaling $93 billion in the next ten years. Military UAV research spending would add another $30 billion over the decade.”
Read more at http://www.suasnews.com/2015/08/37903/teal-group-predicts-worldwide-uav-production-will-total-93-billion-in-its-2015-uav-market-profile-and-forecast/
Now NASA pursues the aim of using drones to overcome the problems of rovers …
Read more at http://www.engadget.com/2015/07/31/space-drones-mars-moon-asteroid/
http://www.nasa.gov/feature/extreme-access-flyer-to-take-planetary-exploration-airborne/
(*) Using the word drone as it is more commonly used in society.
Ad Astra!
Count on it, one way or another.
Strange bursts of radio waves detected over the last 15 years have a pattern that can’t be explained by any known natural phenomenon.
It’s generally assumed that we will eventually find signs of life in the galaxy. But rarely do we consider searching for advanced civilizations that have destroyed themselves. Here’s how we could do it—and what the search for dead aliens could tell us about our own future.
Typically, astrobiologists and SETI enthusiasts are in the business of searching for signs of active extraterrestrial civilizations. Proposed signatures that could be detected by astronomical instruments on Earth include radio and optical signals, megascale engineering objects (such as Dyson Spheres) radiating in the far infrared, artificial illumination, and abnormal levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide suggestive of a post-industrial age civilization.
But a new study by a research team from Cornell University’s Carl Sagan Institute suggests we should also look for signs of alien civilizations that have destroyed themselves. It would be a grim task, but the ability to detect extinct civilizations would not only tell us something about the prospect of intelligent life in the galaxy, it might also tell us something about our own fate as well.
How does science fiction become science fact? Often the link between art and science can be hard to pin down. It can be unclear if science fiction is actually influencing science or merely observing it, giving the public sneak peaks into the implications of scientist’s work.
But some work of science fiction create direct links to the future. As a young man in Russia, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky read a translation of Jules Verne’s ‘From the Earth to the Moon.” And although Verne’s plan to get to the moon wouldn’t have worked, the novel had just enough science mixed in with its romance to make the central idea seem plausible. Tsiolkovsky became obsessed with the idea of spaceflight, and his life’s work created the foundations of modern rocketry.
One hundred years after Verne wrote his novel, a group of individuals who had been inspired by Verne’s fantasy as children launched a voyage to the moon.
Ten of the alien worlds that represent our best hope for alien life beyond the solar system, according to the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo.
Construction is well underway on what will become the world’s largest radio telescope. Once complete, the half-kilometer-wide dish will explore the origins of the Universe and scour the skies for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence.
Looking for aliens is really, really cool. But more cool would be finding them. And this obviously leads to the question, what if we catch E.T. watching “Guardians of the Galaxy” in a dark corner of our galaxy? What if we’re not alone? The philosophical consequences are worth intense contemplation.
Green Bank Telescope (credit: Geremia/Wikimedia Commons) Russian billionaire Yuri Milner, Stephen Hawking, Martin Rees, Frank Drake and others announced at The Royal Society today $100 million funding for Breakthrough Listen — the “most powerful, comprehensive, and intensive scientific search ever undertaken for signs of intelligent life beyond Earth.”
