Is "space Exploration" A Pipe-Dream?

[Khandro]

The NASA and Florida State University study revealed its findings on Thursday. They state that so far three Apollo astronauts, including Neil Armstrong, the first person to walk on the moon, have died from cardiovascular disease, apparently as a result of the extreme cosmic radiation they were exposed to during their missions.
It appears that not only is leaving the Earth's magnetic shield highly dangerous, there is also the massive problem of finding sufficient energy to launch rockets without the Earth's dwindling fossil fuel.

[Khandro]

The Incas were not hostile and yet they were wiped out by diseases and aggression brought by the Spaniards, that can work in both directions.

[Zacs-Master]

Khandro, you've already qualified that aspect in your statement 'throughout history whenever one civilisation came into contact with another, it has always been a disaster for one, or both.'

[Old_Geezer]

And there is the issue, the implied assumption that any contact will be disastrous (read hostile).

If we have spread out enough first and unintended issues, such as disease, have a chance to be isolated and solved first, before the whole lot of us get hit with it.

[Old_Geezer]

...any unintended issues...

[Zacs-Master]

'the implied assumption that any contact will be disastrous (read hostile).'

who implied that?

[mikey4444]

Unless there really are little green men living on Mars, or anywhere else come to that, the only lifeforms that we are likely to come across will be microbial
in form.

And it wouldn't be the first time that earthlings have been laid low by microbes will it ?

[Zacs-Master]

Really mikey....what leads you to believe they'll only be microbial?

[mikey4444]

Zacs....Because if there were intelligent life forms in outer space, than its my considered opinion that we would have found evidence of them before now. And we haven't.

I used to be a keen sci-fi reader, and still am, but I learnt a long time ago that the second part of that moniker was the really important one, not the first.

[Zacs-Master]

Mikey, there's the possibility that we've been overlooked (a postulation made by S Hawking). It may be (and recent findings tend to support this) that Space is just too big and interstellar travel is simply impossible or at least very very difficult.
As an SF fan you'll no doubt be familiar with the Fermi Paradox.

[mikey4444]

Zacs...there may be intelligent life forms in other solar systems and or galaxies.

But because of the impossibility of interstellar flight, we are not likely ever to find out, unless "they" have found a way around travelling at many times the speed of light !

[beso]

mikey //But because of the impossibility of interstellar flight, we are not likely ever to find out, unless "they" have found a way around travelling at many times the speed of light !//

Only if you assume that the several decades we humans get is the expected lifetime of the aliens. A life form that lived a few thousand years could conceivably reach here from another star system especially when relativistic effects of high velocity travel are considered.

[dannyk13]

Space exploration itself isn't a pipe dream, but the hope of finding another life force probably is.

[mikey4444]

Sorry guys but I will have to leave at that, as I was due back on the planet earth an hour ago.

[Old_Geezer]

The statement I quoted implies it.

[naomi24]

Khandro, your reply at 12:55 didn’t answer my question. Would it stir you if life, or signs of life, were found?

[naomi24]

beso // A life form that lived a few thousand years could conceivably reach here from another star system especially when relativistic effects of high velocity travel are considered.//

… or perhaps the potential utilisation of gravitational waves?

Mikey, //…unless "they" have found a way around travelling…//

I think some of them have, and I think the evidence for that is right here on earth. Never say never!

[Zacs-Master]

Nanu Nanu.

[Zacs-Master]

Me at 13:56 -It may be (and recent findings tend to support this) that Space is just too big and interstellar travel is simply impossible or at least very very difficult.

Mikey a few mins later - But because of the impossibility of interstellar flight, we are not likely ever to find out, unless "they" have found a way around travelling at many times the speed of light !

(Scratches head).

[Khandro]

naomi; New forms of life are being discovered every day;
http://www.livescience.com/topics/newfound-species
No, I wouldn't really wet my pants if something was found somewhere else in the universe. What concerns me most, is how we are destroying the life we have here on earth now, and at an alarming rate, (including ourselves!).

[mikey4444]

Zacs....and its a Nanu, Nanu from me as well !

Or perhaps "Live Long and Prosper" !