The Night Sky in 80 Million Pixels

[Telarus]

http://www.sergebrunier.com/gallerie/pleinciel/index-eng.html

Short explanation here: http://science.slashdot.org/story/09/09/29/0049214/The-Night-Sky-In-800-Million-Pixels

(with mirrors listed in the comments, because of the slashdot effect)

[Template]

fuck me that's great.

And we should not explore space again why?

Because you're stuck with us!
      /          /            /

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

fuck me that's great.

And we should not explore space again why?

... because it's incredibly resource-intensive and we are on the brink of global economic and environmental disaster?

Sorta like, say, you're late on your mortgage payment so you decide to take everything you have and put it into buying a really rad Ferrarri. 'Cause that's way cooler than having a place to live.

[Bruno]

fuck me that's great.

And we should not explore space again why?

Because we can learn more while spending less by using telescopes instead of rockets, especially if those rockets have people in them.

[Captain Utopia]

It's actually not that expensive when compared to other functions of Government: http://www.asi.org/adb/m/02/07/apollo-cost.html

But then I also think finding places to inhabit other than earth is a requirement as the entire planet currently suffers from a tragedy of the commons which we are too stupid to address. When Mars has a cleaner atmosphere than Earth then Moonsat Five is going to start importing Martian-grown coffee, etc. Right now there is no economic incentive not to pollute beyond a token "we're now 2% greener than we were last year!" effort.

[Template]

Space travel is costly.  It probably will be until something happens to the civilization (favorable or disfavorable, but a real turning-point).

Gotta keep at it to find efficient solutions.  It has indirect benefits, but you have to actually have industrious, illustrious engineers and hackers and MGT working on it.  Not only do new manufacturing ideas and manufactured goods emanate from the research, but new concepts, such as us all residing on the same, finite planet:


Telescopes tell us about the stars.  Exploration tells us about ourselves.

[Kai]

There are greater issues at hand. There won't be any sudden diaspora, and I definitely do not want to live on a planet where humans are at their carrying capacity. Hate humans enough as it is.

The next revolution isn't space, its happening right now. It's the bio-revolution. Ever heard of RNAi? PCR?  Genome databasing? Gene hybridization in vivo? DNA barcoding? We're this close to understanding tumorigenesis, metastasis, apoptosis and all the rest involved in cancer pathways, we're this close to eliminating malaria through gut-modified transgenic mosquitos. We can insert genes, knockdown genes, test and create our own proteins. The limit is only our imagination and the slow but continuous emergence of tools and techniques. As the price of sequencing/labeling/etc equipment comes down, as the price of hard drive storage space decreases, you'll find more and more biohackers doing DIY replication, sequencing, and all sorts of amazing things. Think about what amateur astronomy did for astronomy in general; thats the sort of effect that biohacking will have on biology.

There's nothing efficient about pushing through the atmosphere and overcoming a gravitational force as strong as this planet though. It requires a massive amount of energy, no matter which way you cut it.

Not that I'm ripping on space exploration, just manned exploration of space. Keep sending up probes, robotics and telescopes; thats what keeps me interested.

[Template]

There are greater issues at hand. There won't be any sudden diaspora, and I definitely do not want to live on a planet where humans are at their carrying capacity. Hate humans enough as it is.

The next revolution isn't space, its happening right now. It's the bio-revolution. Ever heard of RNAi? PCR?  Genome databasing? Gene hybridization in vivo? DNA barcoding? We're this close to understanding tumorigenesis, metastasis, apoptosis and all the rest involved in cancer pathways, we're this close to eliminating malaria through gut-modified transgenic mosquitos. We can insert genes, knockdown genes, test and create our own proteins. The limit is only our imagination and the slow but continuous emergence of tools and techniques. As the price of sequencing/labeling/etc equipment comes down, as the price of hard drive storage space decreases, you'll find more and more biohackers doing DIY replication, sequencing, and all sorts of amazing things. Think about what amateur astronomy did for astronomy in general; thats the sort of effect that biohacking will have on biology.

There's nothing efficient about pushing through the atmosphere and overcoming a gravitational force as strong as this planet though. It requires a massive amount of energy, no matter which way you cut it.

Not that I'm ripping on space exploration, just manned exploration of space. Keep sending up probes, robotics and telescopes; thats what keeps me interested.

There's an "out there" feeling to it.  As in, "What do you mean I can't go out there???"

I will support your "biology" wholeheartedly if it will get me flawless catgirls for free or cheap.

jk, I know biology's important.

[Kai]

Yeah, what do you mean I can't go out in sub zero temperatures in only a tshirt, shorts and sandles? What do you mean I can't stand on the edge of this cliff and lean out it at a 45 degree angle?

I mean, you can, but it sounds like some redneck inbred stupidity.

[Rumckle]

But we could be doing all those awesome biology experiments, IN SPACE!!