What's out there? : . : Space : . : When will we know for sure?



: . : So, what is there to really know about space? We already understand it all, right? Maybe not, we'll see, now won't we? This article is as much on technology as it is on space, as in this society the two go hand in hand. Most of today's most overlooked technologies are direct results of the space program. Take juice from concentrate, or juice crystals; perhaps plastic for another; ever used velcro? The list goes on, but since I do not have the list in front of me, I don't know all that many. It's funny how it's only the companies that base their very essence on innovation actually end up doing it in a useful way.

: . : 3M (Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company) is a good example of this. Their main idea, as is seen on commercials is Innovation. All along the road, the things that shine are made by them, and on peoples clothing and sneakers. Over-head projection machines, post-its, the glue that holds airplanes together, cleaning fluids that clean ceramics (bathroom cleaners), better sponges, clear tape dispenser, modern tape in any form, micro-replication, scotchguard, wet-dry sandpaper, super-high tolerance heat insulation, dry copying, and much more is all from this company. Why? They see a need to make things better, and this is what sells. People want to see new things, and new ways of doing things, not just remakes of old things with new names.

: . : So it's society that drives invention, right? No, not really. There are things that have been invented that most people think that are only in Star Trek, today. Worm-hole teleportation (Einstein-Rosenbridge) has been practiced on small levels with light, anti-gravity using magnetics (they've floated an entire frog), theoretical technologies are already underway for gravity warp drives (faster than light travel isn't just an idea, it's a really good idea) and electro-static interstellar ram-scoops. For those of you who have no idea what this is, maybe I'll explain it to you someday, but for now it doesn't matter. What matters is, that if these were fully researched and exploited, the entire world and our system of values would change overnight, believe me. "So, if all these things are so great, then why don't we just do that?" you may ask. I'll tell you why.

: . : In this day and age, it doesn't matter if a technology will work or not, it's whether or not it will sell. If large corporations don't think that it will sell, and it is expensive, there will never be enough money for it to get off the ground. NASA has a way of making a glass-like substance called 'Aerogel', which is the most efficient insulator ever created, and as strong as steel, but much lighter than styrofoam. It is, in fact, the lightest solid ever discovered. When manufactured properly, in zero gravity, that is, it becomes completely transparent. If this was fully exploited, this could cut energy costs across the world by massive amounts, but no one sees it as a useful technology, and it's research and development is expensive, so it is overlooked.

: . : We have these wonderful ways of getting through space, but we don't use them. Is that really all that big a problem? I mean, do we really need to be out that far in the first place? Okay, no, we don't. If it really all that profitable? Yes, it is. There are huge profits to be made, just on the moon. The moon has no atmosphere, and no ecosystem to destroy. It is an unusually round ball of rock. Not just any rock, loads of iron, steel, and oxygen. That's right, oxygen. Most of the appearant rocks on the moons surface are made primarily of oxygen. This can be removed quite easily, and all the other gasses necessary for breathing are also easily drawn out of the rocks on the moons surface. It's just sitting there waiting to be used instead of our planet, with its precious eco-system. So why don't we? We've been there before, why didn't we just stay there to do that? That's a very valid question.

: . : Many people actually believe that the Americans never really went to the Moon. "Why, that's just preposterous!" you may say, and you have every right to say that. The fact still remains that some people came out, who were working on the project, and say that the whole thing was a hoax. They have a lot of arguments for it, but I will now highlight the three that I find most difficult to dismiss.

: . : The dirt on the moon. You saw the footprints in the sand, carved about one inch to a half an inch into the surface, and supposedly there forever. Now, what most people don't know is that almost every geologist that knew two clicks about the moon were quite sure that the lander would be touching down in very loosly packed dust at least several meters thick. Now why is this? Let's face it, the moon is small. About the same diameter of the USA. Because it has no atmosphere and no magnetic field, it gets hit with a lot of junk. Now, so did the earth, but the difference is, the earth has an eco-system based on water that washes everything flat after a few million years, the moon has nothing of the sort. So this dust created by millions of years of powerful impacts all over the planet should be just ever so gingerly laid for meter upon meter. Was it? Not at all. Even when the asto's jumped and fell, they didn't go any deeper than an inch or two (typical of an earth desert, oddly enough).

: . : If you have ever seen the video of the landing, and their little romp about, you probably saw the highly patriotic planting of the American flag, which had small steel wires running through it to hold it up, since there is no air or wind on the moon. Right? Well, if one looks closely at the flag in the background, while the astronauts are spouting one catch phrase after another (one giant leap was not the only one, they just went on and on with those kinds of statements), you will notice that the flag actually flaps from time to time. There is nothing that can explain this, absolutely nothing. The flag is simply blowing in the wind.

: . : Now you're saying, "Wait, wait, what about the gravity?" Now that's easily solved by some invisible wire (easily hidden with old videos like that, especially ones that would have been tailored to look as though they were being sent through space) and slowing down a prerecorded landing in the Arizona desert. What isn't so easily solved are the massive amounts of radiation in outer space. Direct contact with sunlight, without an atmosphere, can fry the skin off of your face after just a few minutes, giving you blistering sun-brun in seconds. The radiation surrounding the earth is so intense that sometimes it ionizes the atmosphere (that's like lighting air on fire), which we call the northern lights or arora borealis. This radiation is commonly strong enough to melt the metal electronics of satellites inside the magnetosphere of the earth (all satellites are inside of this, and it is the principle protecter from large amounts of radiation), but the ship that went to the moon, travelling out of the magnetosphere had no little or no radiation shielding, and the outer hull was no thicker than 3 pieces of tin-foil in places.

: . : Why would someone cover all of this up? It's expensive. USA was trying desperately to beat the Russians to the moon as a matter of asserting their superiority after they were bested by them when Russia sent up Sputnik. Why haven't we gone back again to claim our rewards for having braved the moon? No one can explain it. "I always knew that I would live to see the first man walk on the Moon. I never imagined that I would live to see the last." -Jerry Pournell

: . : Now, the government says that all of these ideas were just pokey made up by science fiction writers. And obviously these men, with their wierding ways cannot be truted. Or can they? Did you know that the US government, every so many years, rounds up all of the best Sci-Fi writers in the country, and puts them in a secure, luxurious compound for a few days straight, and pays them to dream up all of the possible problems and advancements of the world based around the US in the future (anywhere between 2 years, to 52 years into the future). They are given sensitive government documents so that they can realize the full scope of world events, and oddly enough, they are usually right. Well, now who doesn't trust the word of the science fiction writer?

: . : Life not of this world. It has always been a dream and a preoccupation of the mind from time to time for all people for hundreds years. Is there life far out there? Well, that's kinda what the last article was about. This one will stab at it in a different manner. How far to you have to go to find life on another planet? The next star? The next galaxy? How about right next door? Right next door? Hunh?

: . : Well, since primitive life on this funky little planet devoped where there was A) Warmth and B) Water, then it should happen elsewhere were these things are found, right? It's true. At one point in time, long before earth hayday (between 543 and 490 million years ago, refer to the cambrain explosion), a great deal of the surface of Mars was covered with water. Not as much as is presently on the earth, but it was there. Now it's all frozen. Was there life? We don't know, all we've found were parasites, but that is still life. Extra-terrestrial life. But that's not there anymore because Mars' ecosystem can no longer support life. At least we're pretty sure of that. Do we really know for sure? No.

: . : Okay, so let's just say that there isn't any life on Mars anymore, so what does it matter if there used to be? We're talking about the now. Alright then. Right now there may be life on two other unexplored spheres in the solar system. Europa and Callisto. Europa is covered in a thick shell of ice that is constantly moving and breaking. Why? The ice underneath is not ice, it's water. Water warm enough to not freeze for up to 20Km deep. Water with enough to heat reserve to keep off the frightening cold of outer-space. Water with a good possibility of life. Callisto has a good sized outer crust with what is probably liquid water underneath for 15Km deep. Okay, now you're asking, why have I never heard of these planets, and/or where is all the heat to melt the water coming from? Two with one stone, my friend.

: . : They both orbit Jupiter. Who said they were planets? Someday they may be considered this, but as of now they are just moons. Jupiter, if you do not know, is the largest Planet in the solar system, and has by far (and I mean very far) the strongest gravitational and magnetic fields in the system. These powerful fields, coupled with the swarm of other moons and their gravity, inflict immense tidal pressures on the moons of Jupiter. These pressures keep the cores of the planets moving and churning. If you move that much melted rock, it gets hot and hotter. This is why they stay so hot and soft on the inside, while remaining cold and crispy on the outside. Now, is there life under there? We don't know, but there very well could be. Maybe not intelligent life, but something the likes of which we have never imagined.

: . : What I have told you is only a portion of these things, just enough to get you thinking. There is so much going on that we don't understand, or know about. This may not be exactly what I believe, but it is information that I know is out there. Make your own decisions, I can't make them for you. It's up for you to decide for yourself what all of this means.