Mars probe 'was doomed' say MPs

**zelda12** · 06-14-2005, 13:18

There's also self preservation involved. Humanity is already on the knife edge of the evolutionary chopping block. From what I can tell we have 3 definite problems that will occur sooner or later.

1) The Polar Ice Caps melting-this is very bad and its already started happening. What’s even scarier is that once the North Pole starts melting it will unlock a LOT of frozen methane, something like a trillion tonnes of the stuff or something similarly insane. Once that melts we are seriously screwed.

2) An Ice age, we are already in one just at one of its low points, it could snap back at any moment and given are reckless approach to the environment its getting more and more likely.

3) Yellowstone Park...not a nice thing, really, really bad thing in fact. Nuclear winter bad.

Now these things here wouldn't kill all of us, but casualty rates for any of them would rise into the billions, possibly as much as 75% of the human population would die as farmlands either become ocean, ice sheet or the huge dust clouds from the Volcano block out the sun and make growing things virtually impossible, we would all quite literally starve to death. And then we would likely regress a hundred years or so, possibly more.

Then there’s the big killer, Space. Space is not very nice, its frankly evil. Asteroids can wipe out almost all life in an instant and chance are we wouldn't even see it coming.

The only way the Human species is going to survive for certain is to spread our seed across the entire Galaxy. It may take time but we need to start now, we need to be pouring money into space travel. Not wasting it on Guns.

**The_Doctor** · 06-14-2005, 13:33

The only way the Human species is going to survive for certain is to spread our seed across the entire Galaxy. It may take time but we need to start now, we need to be pouring money into space travel. Not wasting it on Guns.

I agree with you 100%.

Think what we might find out there; aliens for example (seriously, they might exist).

They do exist, I cannot imagine a universe where Earth is the only planet with life. There billions of stars and planets in is galaxy, and there is millions of other galaxies with billions of stars and planets. For not to be any other life is mad.

**The_Doctor** · 06-14-2005, 13:41

There is a lot of stars in the universe:

http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/as...rs/970115.html
http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/07/22/stars.survey/

70 sextillion= 70,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

**Viking** · 06-15-2005, 17:42

Originally Posted by Martinus

They do exist, I cannot imagine a universe where Earth is the only planet with life. There billions of stars and planets in is galaxy, and there is millions of other galaxies with billions of stars and planets. For not to be any other life is mad.

They don`t have to, but there`s a huge chance that there does. What`s weird though, is that the SETI Experiment hasn`t found anything yet.

**The_Doctor** · 06-15-2005, 18:48

They don`t have to, but there`s a huge chance that there does. What`s weird though, is that the SETI Experiment hasn`t found anything yet.

70 sextillion stars.

**Taffy_is_a_Taff** · 06-15-2005, 19:01

someone said something about colonising space instead of wasting money on guns: one thing to come out of war is technological advances. Look at who was behind the first space rockets...

As for the barrage thing: when I was little my school had a trip to London for a few days in 1992, we went to the House of Commons where they were debating some barrage or other. I don't know what the specifics were of the Conservatives torpedoing the idea in the 80s but in the 90s it was definitely being discussed (heh, I was quite literally there).

Like ShadesWolf said: why doesn't the government pass laws for solar panels on houses. Also, instead of blaming the Conservatives for things why don't Labour get their act together and build the bloody barrages instead of wasting money on windfarms.

**Viking** · 06-16-2005, 18:55

Originally Posted by Martinus

70 sextillion stars.

But not planets, and aliens live on planets.

**zelda12** · 06-16-2005, 19:29

Most stars have at least one planetoid, depends on how big the sun is. But 70 sextillion stars even if only 1 in every trillion has a habitable planet leaves us with a hell of a lot of planets where life could develop.

**Viking** · 06-16-2005, 19:45

I know where you`re going, but the chance for that an intelligent liveform has evolved on another planet is small.

First you got the number of planets, then the number of rocky planets, then the number of habitable planets, then the number of habitable planets where life evolved, then the number of habitable planets where complicated liveforms evolved and finally the number of habitable planets where intelligent life evolved.

And so far none rocky planet has been found circling another star, though they undoubtly exist.