[vc_row][vc_column][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text]Mankind has officially landed on a rock 510 million miles from earth.
Rosetta’s Philae probe has successfully landed on the surface of Comet 67P. What an incredible accomplishment for humanity, one that cannot be underestimated. But there’s so much more potential for discovery than the official word on what the scientists hope to achieve with the mission.
Here is a concise and well-written synopsis of the mission as a whole:
Scientists are looking at this as an opportunity to study our past.
“Rosetta is trying to answer the very big questions about the history of our Solar System. What were the conditions like at its infancy and how did it evolve? What role did comets play in this evolution? How do comets work?” – Matt Taylor, ESA Rosetta project scientist.
What excites me, though, is the opportunity this presents for our future.
1) A CONVENTIONAL METHOD FOR DEEP SPACE TRAVEL.
Until we develop warp speed capabilities from Star Trek, a wormhole magically appears near Earth, like in Interstellar, or if we’re really geeking out, we figure out how to use the Spice to fold space from Dune, we’re going to need a much faster method for reaching deep space.
I love that scientists today are conceptualizing what’s beyond our solar system, even our galaxy, in the pursuit of the discovery of the building blocks of life on earth. I believe the key to the ultimate survival of the human race lies elsewhere. My hope is that it isn’t a case where our planet has become uninhabitable and we are forced to abandon or celestial home. Rather, I see us as having an ideal future, where we learn how to master and preserve our existing natural resources, but the discovery of additional resources can evolve our potential beyond what we currently experience.
Discovering water on another planet would mean our ability to potentially colonize, which extends our reach even further. But how do we get there?
How about we hitch a ride on a comet?
By plotting the trajectories of these rapidly moving bodies, we can land and launch our probes from one to the next, and let their gravitational inertia move us through space at incredible speeds without expelling conventional fuels. Find one moving fast enough, and we have a very capable conventional method for transporting our devices, and potentially ourselves, into the far reaches of space.
2) COMETS CAN BE OUR INTERGALACTIC WATCHDOGS.
My impression, as a completely unqualified civilian, is that while even now we have probes that have crossed beyond the borders of our galaxy, the annoying hurdle is the time it takes for data to travel back to earth. But comets traveling throughout the galaxy with very specific orbits, as I see it, could be utilized as transmitters that can speed up the transfer of data. Right now, we have to wait for a satellite to beam its signals back to us through space, but what if this data can move from transmitter to transmitter, speeding up the arrival of information to earth?
What if these transmitters themselves act as our eyes and ears out there, and utilize each other to bring data back to earth in a much faster and more efficient way?
To me, it’s kind of like what Google has done with its Google Maps and Street View technologies. On earth, a Google vehicle drives along our streets and roads taking 360 degree panoramic shots to give us fully realized exploration at our fingertips. Comets can become our Google vehicles, allowing us to map, track, and collect information in the far reaches of space.
Our odds at finding life on other worlds will have just increased dramatically. And the potential for scientific discoveries is limitless.
3) A ROAD MAP TO INTELLIGENT LIFE ON ANOTHER PLANET.
It seems our first evidence of life on another planet would more than likely be in the form of microbes or bacteria, the building blocks of life, but hardly intelligent beings like us.
Think about what we have just done, though. The ESA states that the Philae lander will be in operation until March 2015, after which “conditions inside the lander are expected for it to be too hot for it to continue operating.” When the lander ceases to function, it will essentially become a preserved derelict, an artifact, and evidence of the existence of the human race, on a celestial body traveling throughout the galaxy. What if another intelligent species out there finds Philae while conducting their own deep space exploration? We could be the first signs of intelligent life to another species out there.
For us, the reverse is equally as compelling. If we have the capability of landing our devices on comets that cover incredible distances, presumably, other evolved species would have the capability of doing the same. What if Rosetta, orbiting Comet 67P at close range, were to discover another electronic device, alien in nature? Even if the technology itself were to no longer be working, imagine this discovery – not only life somewhere out there, but intelligent life. We may find this without an actual alien landing on earth on a spaceship saying, “Hello!”
Even more exciting, if we look at the path Rosetta went through to arrive at Comet 67P, its 6.7 billion kilometer journey throughout the solar system, and our scientific ability to map this course so precisely to find this comet millions of miles from us, should we discover this evidence of alien intelligence, isn’t it logical to assume we could plot its own trajectory in reverse? We could literally have a road map pointing us to the exact location where intelligent life away from the earth exists.
To many, the Rosetta mission may be perceived as a pointless exercise simply to satisfy scientific curiosity, but having no affect on the average human being living on earth.
To me, this is another giant leap forward for mankind.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]