topic Re: A final message from Earth? in The Round Table

A final message from Earth?

cee-dee — Sat, 31 Oct 2015 09:46:18 GMT

Some people want to add a "final" message to the Voyager spacecraft but what do you think?

http://news.sky.com/story/1579065/greetings-aliens-a-final-message-from-earth

Who do they think might "find" the spacecraft? Surely any recovery would have to be done in space? If the craft headed in to any "occupied" Planet, wouldn't that Planet have to have an atmosphere of some sort which would cause the craft to burn up as it entered?

As the craft are travelling at nearly 40,000 miles per hour, how do "they" expect them to survive any "planetfall" leaving enough of the craft intact so that "someone" can read the data on/in it? Seems a daft idea to me.

Re: A final message from Earth?

******lynda****** — Sat, 31 Oct 2015 09:55:13 GMT

never been quite sure why we want to communicate with aliens or let them know we are here. Can only end in tears 😩. An assumption that life elsewhere would be able to understand a message? I think they watched too much Star Trek...we come in peace, shoot to kill 😂

Re: A final message from Earth?

astrologica — Sat, 31 Oct 2015 13:08:36 GMT

Maybe the final message should be...'HELP'! Our wonderful little planet is in a bit of a mess..and it's all our fault.

Re: A final message from Earth?

astrologica — Sat, 31 Oct 2015 13:11:12 GMT

Maybe the final message should be 'HELP'! Our wonderful little planet is in a bit of a mess...and it's all our fault.

Re: A final message from Earth?

astrologica — Sat, 31 Oct 2015 13:12:05 GMT

Oops! I've done it again.....I don't know how that happens!

Re: A final message from Earth?

bankhaunter — Sat, 31 Oct 2015 13:13:28 GMT

I don't think it's really expected to end up on some far distant planet, the chances of it doing so are literally astronomically small.

The message is just for the very faint chance that intelligent life may discover it travelling through space at some time in the future, long after it's actual mission has finished.

Re: A final message from Earth?

cee-dee — Sat, 31 Oct 2015 13:51:34 GMT

So that means the expectation is that some "advanced" form of life would have the ability to capture either of the craft at 40,000 miles per hour, that is, if they don't hit something first?

Re: A final message from Earth?

bankhaunter — Sat, 31 Oct 2015 14:11:04 GMT

One would assume the intelligent life would have at least reached the standard of technology that we have today in order to capture Voyager 2.

A hundred years ago it would have been unlikely we would have even been able to detect such an object, since then a lander has been placed on a comet travelling at 55,000 kph.

Re: A final message from Earth?

cee-dee — Sat, 31 Oct 2015 14:28:20 GMT

Yes, it sort of landed but "bounced", hardly captured it?

A form of life capable of seeing, capturing and retrieving a Voyager craft would have to be a bit more "advanced" than we are today so wouldn't they view the craft as "a bit primitive"?

Imagine us 50 years ago viewing a craft such as Voyager? If it was heading straight for us, what would we have done? Anything? If it was just going to fly-by, again, what would we make of it?

An asteroid (now considered a dead comet) is passing the Earth about 5pm today. It's about half a mile wide and was only spotted 3 weeks ago so what chance would there be of us spotting a spacecraft the size of Voyager today never mind 50 years ago?

Any form of life capable of capturing a Voyager would have to be way more advanced than we are.

Re: A final message from Earth?

bankhaunter — Sat, 31 Oct 2015 15:15:37 GMT

Considering the distance involved and the ten years it took to meet the comet, I think a rough landing can be forgiven.

How much interest Voyager might be to another civilisation could depend where their interests or curiosity lay, imagine our reaction if we came across an very old ship of unrecognised design drifting around somewhere at sea.

In reality of course the chances of it going anywhere near to another civilisation even in the next thousand years, is extremely remote.

Our solar system is a crowded place in comparison with outside it and, at least as far as we know, only Earth has life.

Re: A final message from Earth?

cee-dee — Sat, 31 Oct 2015 18:25:49 GMT

It was quite an achievement all things considered but we've a long way to go before we could detect an object the size of Voyager and recover it from space at 40,000 miles an hour. The asteroid is travelling at double that speed, around 80,000 MPH.

There's a very long way to go before Star Trek becomes reality. They have managed to create a sort of tractor beam but it's only capabe of moving things the size of a pea.

Voyager would, I suppose generate the sort of interest to other civilisations we have in archaeological finds?

Re: A final message from Earth?

bankhaunter — Sat, 31 Oct 2015 18:45:13 GMT

Or a lot of amusement.

Re: A final message from Earth?

cee-dee — Sat, 31 Oct 2015 18:46:48 GMT

Would "an advanced civilisation" have any sense of humour?

Re: A final message from Earth?

suzieseaside — Sat, 31 Oct 2015 19:02:56 GMT

I would hope so. Life would be boring without it.

If they came here they would need it in spades.

Re: A final message from Earth?

bankhaunter — Sat, 31 Oct 2015 19:10:17 GMT

I don't see why not, wouldn't humour be an evolutionary trait in any social animal?

Re: A final message from Earth?

cee-dee — Sat, 31 Oct 2015 19:19:35 GMT

Hmmmm, I'm not so sure of that. Their heads (that is if they had heads) would be so full of "sophisticated information" (software?) they might have no time or room for humour?

Re: A final message from Earth?

suzieseaside — Sat, 31 Oct 2015 19:24:39 GMT

I would think so.

There are studies that find a correlation between sense of humour, social competence and intelligence.

Re: A final message from Earth?

fallen-archie — Sat, 31 Oct 2015 19:29:38 GMT

The fine line (often crossed) between high inteligence and madness will need to be sorted or none of us will be laughing.

Re: A final message from Earth?

cee-dee — Sat, 31 Oct 2015 19:30:14 GMT

Hmmmmm, studies eh? How accurate would you say they were?

Re: A final message from Earth?

******lynda****** — Sat, 31 Oct 2015 19:48:45 GMT

As to another life form 'capturing' Voyager...they may be enormous compared to us and it could be like catching a tennis ball....or not.