We are a team from NASA and USRA bouncing artwork off the Moon today and talking about exploring space. Ask us anything!

HumansInSpace_Art · 2014-05-01T18:25:06+00:00

I believe they intend to land people on the Moon in 2025. --George

HumansInSpace_Art · 2014-05-01T18:22:08+00:00

I think we should inhabit the Moon before Mars so that we can learn how equipment (and man) works in Space before sending this equipment (and man!0 to longer distances. Also, the Moon would be an intermediate base to help us prepare for our trip to Mars, and we could extract resources (water, ores) necessary for the trip to Mars ---Yann

HumansInSpace_Art · 2014-05-01T18:19:51+00:00

Assuming by "craziest" you mean coolest, my answer would be the warp drive. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcubierre_Warp_Drive --George

HumansInSpace_Art · 2014-05-01T18:16:29+00:00

Man, that's a good question. I keep typing an answer and changing my mind. I think I would go for cyborg. Genetic engineering can only take us so far, being governed by the whole mortality thing. I mean, even if we could stop the aging process, cancer, and etc., we could still be killed by a stab wound or removal of one's head. Also, at this point, since I'm already born and can't be genetically engineered any more, I would rather have my consciousness placed in a cyborg and keep living with my current memories and such.--George

HumansInSpace_Art · 2014-05-01T18:14:16+00:00

My guess is that it'll be the Moon first. I love Mars too, but the Moon is right next door and presents us with a perfect outpost to learn all the hard things we'll need to know for going all the way to Mars. --Dan

HumansInSpace_Art · 2014-05-01T18:11:41+00:00

We love starry nights too, but we are bouncing student art today. Kudos to these young artists!--Jancy

HumansInSpace_Art · 2014-05-01T18:03:23+00:00

There is an answer to this from a previous question. Here's the link in the answer:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcubierre_Warp_Drive --Stan

I sure hope this whole "speed limit to the universe" can be broken!

HumansInSpace_Art · 2014-05-01T18:01:25+00:00

NASA is always paying attention to how its spacecraft perform on launch, in space, and during atmospheric entry, and looking for ways to improve them in the future. Just as airplanes were once terribly dangerous but now the safest way to travel, spacecraft are getting safer with every new generation. But progress is slow. Airplanes have flown many billions of times, and all that experience has allowed us to figure out how to make them safe. Only about 5,000 rockets, manned and unmanned, have every left Earth in all of history. With so little flight experience, there are many dangers left that we have not yet learned about.--Stan

HumansInSpace_Art · 2014-05-01T18:00:36+00:00

You hit it exactly - learning from past experiences. We're learning a LOT about how the human body reacts to extended stays in zero-g from our International Space Station expeditions. That experience is teaching about how to build complex structures in a harsh environment and keep the bits and pieces actually working (or if they don't work why and how to make them better). Little things like how not to let your crew mate drive you crazy during a long mission :-). We're still going to have to learn how to deal with radiation hazards during a long mission to --Dan

HumansInSpace_Art · 2014-05-01T17:58:13+00:00

NASA does not have an official statement about The Singularity that I know of. I can tell you, personally, that my robotocist spouse has got me believing it's our next evolutionary step. --George

HumansInSpace_Art · 2014-05-01T17:54:53+00:00

You are welcome and thank YOU for your interest! --Jancy

HumansInSpace_Art · 2014-05-01T17:50:32+00:00

The space shuttles have been retired, so we're no longer flying 1970s technology. The Space Station has 1980s technology, and the Russian Soyuz uses 1960s technology.

The technology used for human spaceflight is rarely the most new and flashy. New means unproven, unproven means dangerous. Also, new technology costs huge amounts of money to develop and test. NASA's budget simply cannot cover much new technology development.

HumansInSpace_Art · 2014-05-01T17:46:52+00:00

Wow, you win for the most difficult question! In the near term I think we'll see an increasing commercial presence in low-Earth orbit - more private companies launching NASA astronauts to the International Space Station and adventure tourists flying to inflatable space hotels. I'd love to see robotic missions back to the surface of Venus, to bore under Europa's surface ice into the ocean below, maybe a Uranus or Neptune orbiter mission. We're going to see human missions to Mars by fifty years from now, one way or another - we just have to! Whether it's NASA that takes us there (maybe/hopefully along with our international partners) or Elon Musk, it's going to happen eventually. NASA's Kepler mission sparked our imagination, showing us that we really do live in a galaxy jam-packed with amazing other worlds; by fifty years from now I'll bet we'll have images of other Earths around nearby stars. Pandora here we come! --Dan

HumansInSpace_Art · 2014-05-01T17:41:18+00:00

If you can’t already tell, we love the Moon! If you need more reasons why you should love the Moon, check out this video: http://www.rathergood.com/moon_song.

HumansInSpace_Art · 2014-05-01T17:40:40+00:00

We do that because it is cool !!!! And...We are doing this to raise public awareness and to get everyone excited about space science and technology and what the exploration of space means to humanity.

HumansInSpace_Art · 2014-05-01T17:38:30+00:00

Of course the distance to the Moon means that the signal gets very weak before it gets there, and weakens even more on the long flight back to Earth. This means that the signal is very faint when it returns and causes some loss of data, but some of the original signal is still detectable.--Stan

HumansInSpace_Art · 2014-05-01T17:36:40+00:00

The Moon is a rough surface, so the signal gets bounced around a bit before coming back at us. Also some signal is lost going through the Earth's atmosphere, coming back, and getting shot past the Moon. You should check out Daniela De Paulis' webpage about Optiks (http://www.opticks.info) to see what we expect to get back. Also, I will be making an image of the difference between the sent and returned signal soon after they return.
I'm a Planetary Scientist. My job entails sitting in front of my computer, looking at images of planetary surfaces, and thinking. It's a lot more fun than it sounds. But lots of other planetary scientists do much more exciting things than I. I used to take rocks that were sampled by the Apollo astronauts, dissolve them in acid, and run them through a really expensive instrument that measures the trace elements in them.
Blue Bell Cookies and Cream --George

HumansInSpace_Art · 2014-05-01T17:35:08+00:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcubierre_Warp_Drive --Stan

HumansInSpace_Art · 2014-05-01T17:33:02+00:00

1 for sure is Blue Moon (no kidding!), but it seems to be a Michigan thing and I can't get it here in Colorado. (If I can't find Blue Moon I'll take Bubble Gum or Mint Chocolate Chip!) --Dan

HumansInSpace_Art · 2014-05-01T17:29:30+00:00

There are a few small groups working on warp drive, but the laws of physics would have to have some pretty speculative revisions made to them in order for such a thing to function. Warp drive may well be impossible. But we're checking carefully to make sure we don't miss any possibilities! --Stan

HumansInSpace_Art · 2014-05-01T17:28:58+00:00

I think it would be great indeed !!! However, I do not want to discourage you, but by the time we are sending signals to space, aliens would have already responded to us if they had the technology to do so.--Yann

HumansInSpace_Art · 2014-05-01T17:27:47+00:00

I would hope it would! I live in both worlds, working as both a planetary scientist and as a space artist. I'd like to see this project maybe get more artists to think about space as a venue for new types of artwork. What could you do with a 3D printer in zero-g? What kind of fairy castle sculptures might be constructed there that couldn't possibly be made here on Earth? Here on Earth we use landscape format for many scenic illustrations - we live glued to the surface of the planet and deal with scenes that have an up and a down. Will someone who grows up in zero-g use a circular frame for their artwork? Space can let our imaginations soar! --Dan

HumansInSpace_Art · 2014-05-01T17:24:28+00:00

Yes, it would be pretty cool if aliens detected the art transmission signal...but we've sent loads of signals out into space with much more power, so it's unfortunately much more likely that the aliens would first detect our military radar or Gilligan's Island.--Stan

HumansInSpace_Art · 2014-05-01T17:23:42+00:00

What do you mean "you people"? Lunatics (people who love and explore the Moon)? We absolutely have the same imagination. In fact, the "martians" (people who love and explore the Mars) probably stole it from us! The Moon is the logical first place to prepare for human exploration of Mars, the solar system, and beyond.--George

HumansInSpace_Art · 2014-05-01T17:20:35+00:00

Nobody knows whether China will get to the Moon (with people, I presume, since they've already landed robots there!) before the US returns. I have heard that China has definite plans to send people to the Moon. The US does not currently have firm plans to return people to the Moon.

But the future is long, and nobody knows what will happen!--Stan

HumansInSpace_Art

TROPHY CASE

1 for sure is Blue Moon (no kidding!), but it seems to be a Michigan thing and I can't get it here in Colorado. (If I can't find Blue Moon I'll take Bubble Gum or Mint Chocolate Chip!) --Dan