alaska

...and then figuring out a way to stock it with enough fuel and supplies to make that 7 year trip. Oh, and if there's time, a way to get back.

There it is! Thanks Engineer101.

That site isn't coming up for me... Did you enter it http://map.google.com ? I tried it that way, threw a www at the front and still nothing. I even searched for it on google and didn't find it. Could you paste the exact address for me one more time?

Good thing my life is not like a TV show...If it was I would have gotten "cancelled" at age 4 because less than 3 million people wanted to watch me! ;)

Lieutenant sloany, you have mail!

Even though Gmail isn't public yet, anyone who wants an invite can get one here. http://isnoop.net/gmailomatic.php Better hurry though, they only have 217,000 left! ;)

Yep, got a ton of 'em. I also noticed that the isnoop gmail spooler, which normally has 2-3 invites has about 27,000 of them now. I think they are going full public.

Another cool feature of the Firefox browser is DictionarySearch. Highlight a word, right click, and it brings up the definition! It's nice for when you need to spell check just one word quickly. I left out Microsoft too Elderbear.

How do you surf and what "board" do you use and why?

Those who speak most of progress measure it by quantity and not by quality. George Santayana We've heard that a million monkeys at a million keyboards could produce the complete works of Shakespeare; now, thanks to the Internet, we know that is not true. Robert Wilensky And one that I find fitting for myself sometimes... I don't necessarily agree with everything I say. Marshall McLuhan

Very good point Lt. Commander daffydk, and well made too. Take a bow. B)

It seems like the Kyoto Accord and the fact that America will not sign it are a hot topic on that site Elderbear. It's a little inflamitory to condemn the US for its lack of participation in the Kyoto Accord because America is "egregiously standing in the way". The primary reason that the US isn't involved is because China is not a signitory. And since China is largely fueled by Coal burning plants that are comparable with technology from the industrial revolution, there is little point in the US signing the accords. With that mentioned, and before the debate ensues let me state that my own position is totally for the pusuit of cleaner energy technologies. I look forward to 2006 when the US will begin a mainsteam switch to desulphurized diesel fuel (such as used in Europe). I think that gasoline as a fuel is highly antiquated and the fact that it's basically what this country runs on is idiotic. Electricity and electric / turbo-diesel hybrids are IMO what should be used for every day automobile travel (provided that the area they are used in is able to make its electricity cleanly of course). Case in point, my work truck has a 454 in it which makes about 250 HP and 450 Ft/pounds of torque. And in doing so gets about 10MPG. My friends truck however (modified of course) has a 12 Valve Cummins diesel engine which make 400 HP and 800 torque (dynoed at the R wheels.) And he still pulls 18 MPG out of it. That's practically 4 times better performance for the gallon! If we could make the switch away from gasoline, that in and of itself would make a huge differance in the amount of greenhouse gases produced in this country.

we spend more money on toilet paper than on space :-) lol Not quite. Sales for toilet paper world wide reached more than 3.5 billion dollars in 1995. (Only stats I could find) B)

Elessar said: In 69 the VERY BEST engineers coming out of college went to NASA for top dollar, today they can't pay #### compared to Boeing or McDonnel Douglass. If the public interest was focused on space travel and not Video games NASA would HAVE the budget. But when software engineers make a lot more working for EAgames and Nintendo, it's no wonder we're still on this planet. Hell, it's a wonder some people leave the living room....

Without the knowledge and experiance learned from the moon landing, there would be nothing to work on the trip to Mars with. Even a long journey has to begin with a small step. C'mon, be reasonable... Note to self: Remember rule 4 of the Global Posting Rules.

I hear you there Elderbear. What with the social security and prescription medication problems we have now, do you really think that space travel will get enough funding to make much in the way of advances? Remember who does the majority of voting!

VonHelton said: 2. NASA becomes a military based institution, exploring the idea of the Universe's military applications. NASA was created to be NON military. That's why it was formed/seperated from the Air Force. If plans are made to "colonize" the moon, I think that should be a joint effort between countries, and not done for strategic military reasons! I totally agree with you on the fact that a non-govermental body should be formed to push space travel though. Space should be like the oceans - International "waters" as the case may be. Now along other lines, does somebody have any information about lunar satelite propositions? I've never read anything about them if so, but Elessar talked about extensive mapping, and wouldn't that be the way to go? Not just a probe mission but an actual lunar satelite! What better way to map the moon.

I don't think that the US will spend the money to put another man on the moon, until another country tries to do it first. I just don't think the political drive is there right now. And as to colonies, I don't see that happening anytime soon either, probably not in my lifetime. (Sorry to all the dreamers for being so cynical) But that's off topic. Do you think the US will put a MAN on the moon by 2020??

True. In 2002 the US market for pizza was right at about 30 Billion. While NASA's total budget was less than half of that at $14,902,000,000.

Quoted from www.nasa.gov "Just one year after President George W. Bush set a "new course for America's space program," the Vision for Space Exploration is already coming into focus. The Vision announced on Jan. 14, 2004, offers a "building block" strategy of human and robotic missions, beginning with returning the Space Shuttle to flight and completing the International Space Station. It calls for humans to return to the moon by 2020 and eventually explore Mars and beyond. With the support of Congress, NASA employees and contractors across the nation are already at work turning these ambitious goals into reality." So who thinks that this project will come to fruition and who thinks it's doomed to fail?

Alrighty then! The next probe we launch can carry a pressurized cylinder of chili and use psheldrake1's ass as a propulsion system!

Don't be sorry. It's nice to see that you guys are so on the ball when it comes to science! Captain zgamesforu, they also used xenon because it's a lot easier to maintain as a gas in low temp than Cesium or Mercury. Also it's a lot cleaner to deal with that the byproducts of the other materials.

Well that was fun for all of about 10 minutes. ;) I thought that by p[osting at six in the morning my time people would still be drinkin' coffee... Congrats to the two smarties that solves my puzzle in under 15 minutes of it being posted. Yes it is an Ion engine, and yes it is off the DS1 probe.

This should be fun for a day or so. Here's an image for you. Now you have to guess whether this is real, or somthing from sci-fi!

Right now a high powered Ion engine is capable of about 0.04 pounds of thrust. That's comparable to about the force exerted on your desk by a piece of paper. The key to these engines isn't the power it creates, but the amount of time that it can operate. A conventional rocket fires for a few seconds and then coasts from then on. An Ion engine, though lower power, can thrust for anywhere from minutes to days at a time.