Scientific American Calls For World Government

[John F Kennedy III]

And another piece of the puzzle falls into place...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/...-of-habitable-planets-found-in-Milky-Way.html

New 'life in space' hope after billions of 'habitable planets' found in Milky Way
Billions of potentially habitable planets may exist within our galaxy, the Milky Way, raising new prospects that life could exist near Earth, a study has found.



Damn, just when I thought I was getting a handle on exo-solar systems they go dump another few billion possibilities in my lap.

I've got lot's of reading to catch up on, I'm out-of-date!

Very VERY nice Now let's get to one of these planets already

 

[WilliamC]

Very VERY nice Now let's get to one of these planets already

The place to start is Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa.

Almost 20,000 feet tall, located a mere 3o south of the equator, it's summit is above ~1/2 the atmosphere, it is the ideal geographical location to build an electromagnetic rail gun.

Until we get serious about lowering the cost per kilogram of payload space is going to stay out of reach, and to my limited understanding the least expensive, short term solution that we have the technology to construct now with no new breakthroughs needed in materials science or propulsion systems or power systems is to build a rail gun to launch non-human payloads into space.

I think Borneo also has some high altitude elevations near the equator, and of course Ecuador as well.

The wonders we humans could accomplish if we didn't waste our time and wealth on wars is beyond most folks imagination, and the fact that we are wasting our time and wealth on wars is of course tremendously evil in and of itself.

I mean, at least in my morality, which isn't worth much according to some what that it's based on my reason and empathy and not some external agent, but there you go.

Of course those religious folks who are of a distinctive eschatological flavor (i.e. those who believe in some sort of preordained apocalyptic religious end to human history) mostly disagree that ending wars and using those resources for peaceful purposes is a good thing, but they're being exposed by politicians like Ron Paul

 

[John F Kennedy III]

The place to start is Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa.

Almost 20,000 feet tall, located a mere 3o south of the equator, it's summit is above ~1/2 the atmosphere, it is the ideal geographical location to build an electromagnetic rail gun.

Until we get serious about lowering the cost per kilogram of payload space is going to stay out of reach, and to my limited understanding the least expensive, short term solution that we have the technology to construct now with no new breakthroughs needed in materials science or propulsion systems or power systems is to build a rail gun to launch non-human payloads into space.

I think Borneo also has some high altitude elevations near the equator, and of course Ecuador as well.

The wonders we humans could accomplish if we didn't waste our time and wealth on wars is beyond most folks imagination, and the fact that we are wasting our time and wealth on wars is of course tremendously evil in and of itself.

I mean, at least in my morality, which isn't worth much according to some what that it's based on my reason and empathy and not some external agent, but there you go.

Of course those religious folks who are of a distinctive eschatological flavor (i.e. those who believe in some sort of preordained apocalyptic religious end to human history) mostly disagree that ending wars and using those resources for peaceful purposes is a good thing, but they're being exposed by politicians like Ron Paul

We could just use technology that has already been here on Earth

Edit: But yeah, we need to get started on SOMETHING. If what you suggest is really the best possible current route, then let's start it right now.

 

[John F Kennedy III]

New Milky Way photo captures 1 billion stars

Space.com
March 29, 2012

More than a billion stars blaze bright in a new photo of our Milky Way galaxy snapped by an international team of astronomers.

The new picture, which was released today (March 28), combines infrared images of the Milky Way taken during sky surveys by two different instruments, the UK Infrared Telescope in Hawaii and the VISTA telescope in Chile. The photo is part of a 10-year project that is gathering mountains of data to help guide future research, scientists said.

“This incredible image gives us a new perspective of our galaxy, and illustrates the far-reaching discoveries we can make from large sky surveys,” Nick Cross, of the University of Edinburgh, said in a statement. “Having data processed, archived and published by dedicated teams leaves other scientists free to concentrate on using the data, and is a very cost-effective way to do astronomy.”