Science and Space: Exploring New Frontiers

This time we're looking outward... toward the vast, vast majority of all there is. And after decades of doldrums, it seems we truly are regaining some momentum in space exploration.  Have any of you been keeping track on a scorecard? We are a people who are doing all these wondrous things, exploring our solar system with pennies out of each citizen's pocket... and so many other signs of progress down here on Earth.We are doing all this, and so much more!  We are a mighty folk. A folk of legend who will be subject of songs, in times to come. Problem-solvers who will go ahead and save the world, despite them. And go on to the stars.

We are ready for the dawn of a new era, one of private space ventures. And, fortunately, the politicians seem perfectly ready to welcome non-state activity.  Instead of raising obstacles, the present administration seems bent on clearing a path. We may, at last be ready to embark on the equivalent of the the great age of barnstorming aircraft development, that our grandparents saw in the 1920s, when risk - and even some loss - was considered part and parcel of courage and exploration. When the new frontier was legitimate territory for tinkerers (albeit, today they would be billionaire tinkerers).

Earlier we discussed the drawbacks of the bludgeon-like initial attempts at ocean fertilization, that have created crude plankton blooms by dumping iron powder into currents.  We also saw that care must be taken to make sure that (as when arid land is irrigated) the new zones of fecundity must be "well-drained" like the Grand Banks and Chile, and unlike the Mediterranean, the Black Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, where "fecundity" can translate into  a poisoned morass of algae and jellyfish.  My conclusion: if you want to emulate the main life-process that removes CO2 from the air, do it by lifting submerged nutrients to higher, sun-lit realms, exactly as Nature does it.  Several methods have been proposed and I showed a couple of them way back in in EARTH (1989).

Science: What are we discovering about ourselves and our world? Space: How we inhabit our solar system, our galaxy, our universe. SETI: Are we alone? Inventions: What new tools are the world's greatest toolmakers devising?

Are we alone in the universe? How to explain the Great Silence? Is there intelligent life on other planets? A collection of articles on SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence and the Drake Equation.

The notion of gun-propelled launch goes back to Jules Verne. Such Mass Drivers have been envisioned in numerous Sci Fi tales, including Earthlight, by Arthur C. Clarke, Robert A. Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, and Heart of the Comet by Benford & Brin. We've also seen them portrayed in Buck Rogers, Babylon 5 and Halo. Now, two researchers propose that a space-capable mass driver may be feasible. Startram would act as an electromagnetic catapult, using maglev technology, to accelerate and launch spacecraft into orbit, without using rockets or propellant. James Powell and George Maise take a highly optimistic view, claiming that a system capable of launching payload into orbit for less than $40/kg could be built using existing technology—if we were to gather substantial international support.

For years I've followed advances that investigate reinforcement processes in the human brain, especially those involving dopamine and other messenger chemicals that are active in mediating pleasure response. One might call this topic chemically-mediated states of arousal that self-reinforce patterns of behavior. Certainly, knowing that life's wholesome pleasures are chemically reinforced doesn't make love any less sincere, a sunset less beautiful, or even faith in God any less sincere.

How do we recapture our enthusiasm for space? Neil deGrasse Tyson examines America’s ailing aerospace industry and NASA’s shrinking vision -- and asks what it would take for America to remain the leading power in space: “In fact we may be entering a new age of geopolitics, in which economic strength wields greater power than military strength. If that’s the case, we shouldn’t need reminders that innovations in science and technology drive tomorrow’s economies. That’s been true since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. And so healthy investment in space exploration—something we saw 50 years ago, and something many other countries have just figured out—is like a new force of nature operating on a nation’s economic prosperity. As nothing else does, the frontier of space exploration, which draws upon a dozen fields of science and engineering, attracts the ambitions of those who are still in the educational pipeline. It is they who become the scientists and technologists. It is they who invent tomorrow.”

Some fascinating news about how seriously some of our leaders in politics and industry are starting to take Our Future In Space.

Shall we begin “bootstrapping” our space technologies toward the goal of a Solar System Civilization? The idea is no longer science fiction alone. “Right now, the mass we use in space all comes from the Earth. We need to break that paradigm so that the mass we use in space comes from space,” said one NASA official – quoted on a page at the site of the White House. 

Why don’t more of today’s youth care about outer space?

The easy answer would be to seize upon a simple nostrum -- about each era rejecting the obsessions of the one before it. But then, in that case, why is the very opposite true about popular music? Back in the hippie era, music divided the generations! But today? Well, my kids adore classic 60s and 70s Rock. In a surf shop or bike store, all I have to do is mention a few of the concerts that I snuck into, long ago, and the brash young fellers are at my feet, saying “tell us more, gramps!”

SciFi author David Brin led an amazing roundtable of space entrepreneurs, experts and NASA scientists to rough out some of the ambitious new goals that could drive the next Barnstorming Era in space, ranging from mining asteroids to exploring for...

Physics might be considered the most fundamental of all sciences, for all other sciences derive from basic principles of forces, motion, electromagnetism and... thermodynamics. And yet, physical laws are mathematical  models of the world. But mathematics itself is abstract, deriving from constructs of philosophy...

Scientist and science fiction writer David Brin carries Intelligent Design creationism to its logical conclusion by showing the numerous “other alternatives” to Darwinian evolution that creationists don’t want you to know about, such as Guided Evolution, Intelligent Design of Intelligent Deisgners, Evolution of Intelligent Designers, Cycles of Creation, Panspermia...

Among the many battlefronts in culture war, few have raised a specter of worry among scientists more than the great big imbroglio over Human-generated Global Climate Change (HGCC)... also called Anthopogenic Global Warming (AGW). Especially in America, positions are staked and fiercely held, by parties who claim they are evidence-based, while their opponents are either conspirators or the gullible "koolaid-drinking" tools of a propaganda machine. An especially vexing aspect of this polarization is the near perfect correlation of one side in this controversy with a pre-established position along the left-right political axis. Even worse is an undercurrent of spite for expert opinion, as a basis for guiding public policy.

Whatever your level of involvement, you can have the satisfaction of participating in humanity's greatest endeavor. In an era when political factions and media empires are waging relentless "war on science" this trend toward active participation -- or providing some financial support -- is the surest way to help support an active, vigorous, future hungry and scientific civilization.

Expanding our horizons in space: asteroid mining, lunar bases, and planetary exploration are some of the frontiers we face in the coming years. Where is NASA headed and what is the role of private enterprise? Will we return to the moon, or move on to explore and mine the resources of asteroids? A collection of articles and videos exploring our near and distant future in space.

In that spirit I will focus on the trait of neoteny -- or the retention of childlike characteristics in mature members of a species. This process appears so amplified in humanity that we have been called the neotenous clan of apes. Humans much more closely resemble chimp or gorilla infants than adults of either species, e.g., in the smooth, vertical dome of the forehead and the relative ease of bipedality displayed by very young apes.

A return to ambitious technologies of space: Japanese company Obayashi has announced plans to construct a space elevator capable of shuttling passengers 36,000 km above the earth by 2050.