Do You Think We Are Alone In The Milky Way?

[sanctus]

It would be pointless to make a one way trip to Alpha Centauri if no one is home.  Even if such an achievement was possible then we still run afoul of some principal issues:

1. Is there intelligent life?
2. Does that life communicate by means of the electromagnetic spectrum?
3. Is that intelligent life monitoring our area of space?
4. Would that intelligent life recognize our signals as communication or confuse it with natural phenomena?

If the technology was available and there was an unlimited amount of money to spend on such a folly, who would volunteer for such a mission?  We have enough trouble sending interplanetary missions to our neighbors

Light-sails are not for transporting humans. Or anything at all.

To your issues:

1) Does it matter? I do not agree that it is pointless, both the creation of such light-sails or the images sent back or the technology needed for sending a signal etc are all yielding potentially huge leaps in science.

2) Again does it matter? Again, finding other life is a big thing in itself, if we have to find new ways of comunication so be it

3) Maybe yes, maybe no.

4) Maybe not but again does it matter, we would still know we are not alone.

[Vmedvil2]

Light-sails are not for transporting humans. Or anything at all.

To your issues:

1) Does it matter? I do not agree that it is pointless, both the creation of such light-sails or the images sent back or the technology needed for sending a signal etc are all yielding potentially huge leaps in science.

2) Again does it matter? Again, finding other life is a big thing in itself, if we have to find new ways of comunication so be it

3) Maybe yes, maybe no.

4) Maybe not but again does it matter, we would still know we are not alone.

 

I think it is a wonderful idea sanctus to send probes to all the stars in the sky, probes aren't that expensive and can be run by A.I. why would you not send a probe to all the stars within 100 ly just to get a better understanding of what our galactic neighborhood is like and explore for life along with to see what other exoplanets are like. To see the other Stars Exoplanets should be reason enough maybe we will find a planet that is earth like.

Edited April 8, 2019 by VictorMedvil

[fahrquad]

We have already sent probes to the stars.  Pioneer 10 and 11 and Voyager 1 and 2 supposedly are in interstellar space heading for 4 different stars...eventually.  No warp drives available when they were launched.  <_<

 

https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/1621/where-are-pioneer-10-11-and-the-voyagers-ultimately-headed

 

ADD:  They will be dead long before they arrive.  As a matter of fact, I think Voyager 2 is the only one still transmitting.

Edited April 8, 2019 by fahrquad

[fahrquad]

I think it is a wonderful idea sanctus to send probes to all the stars in the sky, probes aren't that expensive and can be run by A.I. why would you not send a probe to all the stars within 100 ly just to get a better understanding of what our galactic neighborhood is like and explore for life along with to see what other exoplanets are like. To see the other Stars Exoplanets should be reason enough maybe we will find a planet that is earth like.

 

A short answer, no power supply.  A nuclear power source will eventually decay, solar panels can't run on starlight, and we don't make extension cords that long.

[Vmedvil2]

We have already sent probe to the stars.  Pioneer 10 and 11 and Voyager 1 and 2 supposedly are in interstellar space heading for 4 different stars...eventually.  No warp drives available when they were launched.  <_<

 

https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/1621/where-are-pioneer-10-11-and-the-voyagers-ultimately-headed

 

I demand Jump Drives immediately If I had built them they would have used a Wormhole.

[fahrquad]

I demand Jump Drives immediately If I had built them they would have used a Wormhole.

 

No conveniently located wormholes have been found yet in our neck of the woods.  Sorry.  :Little:

[Vmedvil2]

No conveniently located wormholes have been found yet in our neck of the woods.  Sorry.  :Little:

 

Thats it Fahrquad, I am building Warp Gates.

Edited April 8, 2019 by VictorMedvil

[fahrquad]

Did you mean Whorf or Gates?    Yeah, Star Truck was on earlier.  Futurama is on now.

 

Warp Gates seem to be a popular subject in the gaming world.

 

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=Warp+Gates

Edited April 8, 2019 by fahrquad

[Dubbelosix]

Most likely not 100% true anymore, with light_sails and if Aplha Centauri has life,  a one way trip is expected to take 20 years. So if there was life there, one could comunicate with them with one msg every 20 years :-)

 

Just was at a lecture from Avi Loeb (google him), that is where I got this info from. And check this https://breakthroughinitiatives.org/initiative/3

 

A very good point. There are a few other local ones as well, which could span up to a single lifetime to reach.

 

Related to it, if we have been visited by an alien race, as some jokingly have mentioned, then it is likely they come from Alpha Centuri due to its close proximity. I predicted we would one day find a planet there that could host life. I was ridiculed at that time because there were no such planets that had been detected.

 

A few years later, they did find a planet, locked in the habitable zone. So who knows?

[Vmedvil2]

It seems it is already happening, Link = https://www.space.com/habitable-alien-planets-catalog-nasa-tess-spacecraft.html and https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7374

 

 

Edited April 12, 2019 by VictorMedvil

[sanctus]

A short answer, no power supply.  A nuclear power source will eventually decay, solar panels can't run on starlight, and we don't make extension cords that long.

You did not read the link I posted... https://breakthroughinitiatives.org/initiative/3

Look for starshot.

 

The craft needs no power on board, it is a light-sail powered by a laser from earth. So yes, a 1-way trip but which can send info back.

 

[fahrquad]

A very good point. There are a few other local ones as well, which could span up to a single lifetime to reach.

 

Related to it, if we have been visited by an alien race, as some jokingly have mentioned, then it is likely they come from Alpha Centuri due to its close proximity. I predicted we would one day find a planet there that could host life. I was ridiculed at that time because there were no such planets that had been detected.

 

A few years later, they did find a planet, locked in the habitable zone. So who knows?

 

Actually, I think you are referring to Proxima B orbiting Proxima Centauri which is a red dwarf loosely associated with the binary pair of Alpha Centauri.

 

https://www.space.com/18090-alpha-centauri-nearest-star-system.html

Edited April 10, 2019 by fahrquad

[Josmellon]

 

[bearnard55]

On 3/1/2019 at 7:09 PM, alfa015 said:

So.. recent estimations for the Drake Equation (Maccone, 2012) suggest that there could be around 4,600 civilizations in our galaxy that are able to release detectable signals.

 

I find this number a little bit excessive, so I plugged some of the values of our Solar System into the equation and I obtained a smaller yet more realistic result, in my opinion: 50 civilizations.

 

Just in case someone is interested, I made a video showing the values I used: youtu.be/j2AIWIcn7Ig

 

Do you think 50 is a more realistic number?

I assume that we are not alone in the Milky way but we don`t have any evidence that prove it for 100%. If you have any facts that do it, please share.