is there's life in the space??????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[goldrake]

We are NOT alone:
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[sb126k]

How many is a few nexguy?

[lee barry]

My friend and fellow duster.....speed has been mentioned and is indeed a great problem to be solved....BUT...ALL THINGS HAVE A FREQUENCY is it not then possible to copy that...make that connection.....a string connection if you will. The next part would be to transmit matter along this string...it has been done with one atom....the results should be very similar to that of Star Trek....and remember, "anything the mind can concieve is possible"....................Good Luck,and a HI to everyone.[/b]

[mikeli]

I believe that we can find life only on earth. My position is more of a religious belief. As a Christian, I do believe that there is no conflict between science and religion. Scientific facts only strengthen or must fortify faith in an omnipotent God.

Think about this. If there is life outside our planet, we could have found it already. But where? Despite our high-tech telescopes and fantastic space exploration, humanity has never been to another earth.

[DustSabre]

I believe that we can find life only on earth. My position is more of a religious belief. As a Christian, I do believe that there is no conflict between science and religion. Scientific facts only strengthen or must fortify faith in an omnipotent God.

I'd definitely agree with that for the most part; however, having said that, I must also say that there's no real evidence to say conclusively that life does/does not exist elsewhere in the universe. However, whether or not life does exist elsewhere doesn't matter to me, since it really has little or no influence on us here on earth. (Goodness knows we have enough problems to worry about already!)

I would say that for the most part, I take the position that searching for life in space is a waste of time and money. So what if there is any? If it's something non-intelligent, it wouldn't do much for us other than give us another species to add to the list. If it's intelligent, then if they can't get to us, we certainly don't have the technology to get to them, and for the most part, we couldn't even communicate due to the distances involved. In other words, it should be intuitively obvious to anyone that it's pointless to try to spend money, money that could be better spent on other things that can return results, on something that nobody even knows the end result of. Sure, money is routinely spent on things that may or may not return results, but in this case, the question isn't much in doubt, at least at the present time: Searching for life in space has a dubious chance of success at best, and even if successful, wouldn't remarkably change anything. I'm honestly sorry if I've offended any SETI enthusiasts with these blunt statements, but it's my belief that it's the logical truth.

[mikeli]

I would say that for the most part, I take the position that searching for life in space is a waste of time and money.

Well said, DustSabre. And I can only hope you're one of the officials of NASA who can tell the President of the United States not to approve any budget increase for space exploration.

The U.S. has been spending billions of dollars for space exploration which, as you said, a waste of money.

Millions are dying of hunger in many countries in the world and the U.S. could have been a bit more generous to these starving countries if it helps solve widespread hunger rather than pounding on the space when there is nothing to find there but stars and dusts.

[Star Gezzer]

There will come a day when our earth will be destroyed or made unihabitable. Would it not be remise of the people on the earth to begin the search for a new home for our future generations. The size of the universe makes it a very high probablity that there is a ,if not many, habital planets out there. I say go for it. Hooray for tecnology.

[mikeli]

There is no place like our Earth. This is the only planet that can offer us bread and butter, ham and bacon, rice and fish.

If Earth becomes uninhabitable, I will still live here.

[Wolter]

I would say that for the most part, I take the position that searching for life in space is a waste of time and money.

Well said, DustSabre. And I can only hope you're one of the officials of NASA who can tell the President of the United States not to approve any budget increase for space exploration.

The U.S. has been spending billions of dollars for space exploration which, as you said, a waste of money.

Millions are dying of hunger in many countries in the world and the U.S. could have been a bit more generous to these starving countries if it helps solve widespread hunger rather than pounding on the space when there is nothing to find there but stars and dusts.

The funding for NASA's space exploration destined for searching for extraterestial live is next to nothing when compared to the funds detined for human exploration.

And Star Gezzer does have a valid point here. At this very moment the needs of the human population on earth exceeds the resources it can give us. Given the rapid economic growth in the asian part of the world their consumption levels will quickly rise to ours, tipping the scale further into the red.

We simply need more then Earth can give us, thus exploration of space is a neccesity for human kind to survive.

[Nikita]

Wow! What a challenge to answer!

There are so many different possible points here. We could go on and on regarding ethics, finances, religion, responsibilities.... But we need to be careful when discussing this. Until we have a clear answer to the situation: control and improve our conditions here or expansion to the stars, both sides are valid. Both have brought new technologies that have improved our lives. This project alone has brought us aerogel and the potential for it isn't completely known yet!

[DustSabre]

The U.S. has been spending billions of dollars for space exploration which, as you said, a waste of money.

Well, I didn't exactly say that space exploration was a waste of money. There's lots to be gained out there in terms of useful knowledge that can benefit us here on earth, that's for sure, such as a better understanding our own Sun, etc. Also, watching hazerdous asteroids is another thing. A small asteroid might not look like much, but it could flatten a city or cause a tsunami, or otherwise wreak locally-serious damage. Also, resources from space might be useful if we begin having shortages here on Earth. However, it's my position that using our resources specifically to look for life in space is not worth the trouble. We have enough problems here on Earth with the life that we do know about!

(Besides, what if you did find an intelligent lifeform? It might wind up looking like this: A SETI enthusiast finds an unmistakably intelligent signal and jumps up and down yelling, "Yes! We did it! there's life out there! They radioed that they're coming to visit later today!" 4 hours later, two Imperial star destroyers jump out of hyperspace over the planet Earth, mentioning that Lord Vader himself has come to take over administration of the newly-acquired star system.)

[Nikita]

DustSabre,

Good points! You have presented your opinions well!
SETI is only looking for intelligent life. Some of the space exploration is looking for any kinds of life. The understanding of how some life survives, where we did not expect it, could help us to improve life here. Is it necessary to spend money and resources that way? Well, we are looking for stardust because we want to know and understand, what is more valuable? We could spend hours debating this and ending up nowhere. In the end, I can only hope that if we do find intelligent life, or if they find us, I can say I am proud of who we are.

[woods123]

There's something called the "Drake Equation" that operationally defines the odds of finding intelligent extraterrestrial life and it goes something like this:

N = RfpneflfifcL

In this equation, N designates the number of civilizations in our galaxy that are detectable. Here are the other variable designations:

* R = the rate at which new stars are formed
* fp =the percentage of stars that lead to the formation of planets
* ne = the number of Earth-like planets or planets that are otherwise hospitable to SOME kind of life.
* fl = the percentage of said planets that actually have life
* fi = the percentage said planets that have intelligent life
* fc = the percentage aid planets that are home to intelligent life that is capable of interstellar communication
* L = how long such intelligent life is capable of being detected

[ogbele]

Hallo all!
(i hope you understand my English, because i am self-learned, when i bought my first PC in 1986 i started to learn English to understand what i am doing!)
I believe that there is life in the outer space...when i was 9 years old, i was drawing alien spacecrafts attacking the Earth and we (humans) where defending our planet! (my parents thought i was crazy i still have these drawings!) When i was 14 years old, I was saying some times loud: "Aliens if you exist come and take me with you to learn more about everything", but none ever came to me or communicate with me
But you know something? Every little thing humans discovered, they did it by themselves! None ever helped us! and that's the point of living...We have to earn everything and do not expect "everything" found us!
Just think how many more conclusions and discoveries we would have made if all humans in the hole planet Earth achieve to live and work in a harmony like the harmony of the outer space has...then we will be able to explore the universe in long distances, to live many many years and who knows maybe for ever or make friends in the outer space! Even if "bad" aliens found us we will be more prepared! If they live only for killing and destroying other kinds of life and work only for that purpose then... Earth we've got a problem!!
I am sure that today we would be some steps ahead if all these boarders we have put in our lives and on this planet where erased in the name of Humanity!
We are still more monkeys than humans on this planet...our animal instincts are guiding us...we have to guide them first to the right direction...we have to upgrade our mind!
My little monkey brain says all that
Have fun always!

[Ronald C. Spencer]

I have no doubt that there is life out there throughout the Universe. The mathematical calculations alone suggests there must be. The best chance of life in our Solar System may be found on Europa, one of the 4 Galilean Moons orbiting Jupiter . There are plans to land a robotic probe on the surface because we believe there is a vast ocean underneath it's surface. It will drill a hole down through the icy surface and insert a mini submarine with lights and a camera to see if something might be swimming down there. If there is life there it most likely with be microscopic in nature. We discovered over 400 star systems with Planets that orbit them. There might be intelligent extraterrestrial life forms. In the Milky Way alone there are about 50 billion G-2 stars similar to our Sun and that's just in our Galaxy alone. There has been one Earth-like planet orbiting in one system that is larger than Jupiter is in our Solar System. Another star system has an Earth-like planet smaller than ours, most planets discovered are Gas Planets similar to Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune in our family of Planets. Probably in 20 years we will located thousands of stars which have a family of planets orbiting them. This is just in our Galaxy and there are billions of Galaxies with hundreds of billions of stars like our Galaxy. Unfortunately these systems are far beyond our reach. If there are Intelligent life forms out there they may be friendly and maybe not and that is why we must research with caution. We must continue to learn as much as we can about this glorious and vast Universe. The study of Planetary Sciences is fascinating. There are new discoveries almost on a daily basis. Earth is all we have now so let's take of her or humanity will seal it's own doom at a faster pace.

Dr. Ronald C. Spencer
Emeritus Member: The American Astronomical Society
Member: The Division for Planetary Sciences of the AAS
Member: The American Association of Variable Star Observer's
Member: The Astronomical Society of the Pacific
Member: The Planetary Society