From: LARRY KLAES (ljk4_at_msn.com)
Date: Fri Dec 16 2005 - 07:44:07 PST
>From: "daviddarling123" <drdavid.darling_at_virgin.net>
>Reply-To: DarlingsSpace-owner_at_yahoogroups.com
>To: DarlingsSpace_at_yahoogroups.com
>Subject: [DarlingsSpace] David Darling's Newsletter #34
>Date: Fri, 16 Dec 2005 13:35:14 -0000
>
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>DAVID DARLING'S NEWSLETTER
>
>--------------------------------------------------
>
>Issue #34
>December 16, 2005
>e-mail: daviddarling_at_daviddarling.info
>website: http://www.daviddarling.info
>
>--------------------------------------------------
>
>Meanderings
>
>As promised in my last newsletter, I've set up a new forum where we
>can all share thoughts, ideas, news items, and personal experiences
>on subjects ranging from life in the universe to weird and wonderful
>phenomena here on Earth. Topics will include all aspects of science
>and scientific speculation, science fiction, the unexplained, and
>philosophy. Let me warmly invite you to get involved by contributing
>to one of our existing discussion threads or starting one of your
>own. In June, when my new book - Gravity's Arc - is published, I'll
>be awarding a signed copy to whomever I think has been the star
>contributor. See you at the forum:
>
>http://www.daviddarling.info/forums/phpBB2/index.php
>
>One of the more interesting things I was asked to do over the last
>month was reply to an article, by a one-time SETI enthusiast, which
>argues for a far more cautious view about the likelihood of
>extraterrestrial civilizations. The request came from Ken Frazier,
>editor of the Skeptical Inquirer, and went out to both myself and
>Jill Tarter of the SETI Institute. Both our comments/rebuttals are
>to be published along with the article, by Dr. Peter Schenkel (the
>author of three books on extraterrestrial intelligence) in a
>forthcoming issue of the SI.
>
>It's an interesting question, which I'll be posting on my forum
>immediately after sending out this newsletter: In more than four
>decades of searching for ETI, since Frank Drake's seminal efforts to
>listen for radio messages coming from Epsilon Eridani and Tau Ceti
>in 1960, we've heard nothing (unless you include the Wow! Signal and
>a few other unexplained blips). Why not? Does it mean no one's out
>there after all? Should we abandon SETI and get used to the fact
>that we're alone in the Galaxy?
>
>I think not. About all we can say is that there aren't very large
>numbers of inhabited planets in our cosmic neighborhood routinely
>sending out fairly powerful radio or laser signals in our direction.
>But even Star Trek isn't that optimistic about the ease with which
>we'll make first contact!
>
>Let me give you my personal take on what's going on. I think there
>is other intelligence in the Galaxy and I don't think it's
>particularly rare. I'd guess there are many thousands of planets
>among the hundreds of billions of star systems in the Milky Way that
>harbor intelligent life at or beyond the level found here on Earth.
>Why then haven't we detected them? For several reasons. First, I
>strongly suspect that we're only capable of "hearing" the messages
>being sent by ETI that fall within the same quite narrow
>technological window as ourselves. We're bound to be among the most
>primitive of technological species in space - we've only had powered
>flight for a century! If a species is more than, say, 500 years more
>advanced than us, they'll have moved, I believe, to a new level of
>communication that is as inconceivable and as undetectable to us as
>satellite communications are to a native in the rain forest. Second,
>a race that is older and far more advanced than us will not be
>interested in making contact with us, any more than we're
>interesting in learning to speak to a fish. They may wish to study
>us from a biological and anthropological standpoint, but that's
>about it. Third, I'd be very surprised if "superior" beings don't
>follow some kind of Prime Directive that prevents them from
>destroying other cultures by interfering in their affairs. You only
>have to look at what's happened here on Earth, numerous times, when
>more technically advanced people have made contact, benignly or
>otherwise, with races that are a few centuries behind in terms of
>technology. First encounters with native Americas, the Incas, the
>Aborigines, the list goes on.
>
>For more of my thoughts on this, you might like to check out the
>page of my on-line encyclopedia on the Drake Equation:
>
>http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/D/DrakeEq.html
>
>Most of all, I'd love to get your opinions on how common you think
>intelligence is in the Galaxy and on your reasons why we haven't yet
>heard from them. Put your two-cents' worth on the forum and let's
>have a good chat about it!
>
>
>In the News
>
>It's amazing how much happens in a month. Since the last newsletter
>went out, Japan's Hayabusa probe has completed it's rendezvous with
>an asteroid (though whether it will ever get back home is another
>story), Cassini has returned pictures of vast volcanic plumes on
>Saturn's moon Enceladus, Mars Express has detected huge reserves of
>ice beneath the surface of Mars, a completely new species of mammal
>has been found in the forests of Borneo, one of the spiral arms of
>our Galaxy has been shown to be twice as close to the Sun as
>previously thought, and Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic has
>announced the first 100 people who've signed up to fly as space
>tourists aboard the company's sub-orbital spacecraft in 2008-09.
>
>Would you pay $200,000 for a three-and-a-half flight to the edge of
>space? Apparently, there are a lot of people willing to do just
>that, including a woman in her nineties (who learned to skydive at
>the age of 85!) and one future passenger who's only 16. For more
>details, see this New Scientist article:
>
>http://www.newscientistspace.com/article/dn8457-virgin-galactic-
>announces-its-first-100-space-tourists.html
>
>and Virgin Galactic's homepage:
>
>http://www.virgingalactic.com/en/
>
>It's also been announced that Virgin Galactic trips
>aboard "SpaceShipTwo" -- the eight-seater successor to Burt Rutan's
>X-prize-winning Spaceship One -- will take off from a new spaceport
>to be build in New Mexico, a stone's-throw away from Roswell, scene
>of the most famous alleged alien encounter in the annals of ufology.
>The so-called Southwest Regional Spaceport is also slated to be the
>venue for the annual X-prize Cup, an annual event showcasing the
>fledgling commercial spaceflight industry. This Cup will be awarded
>to the winner of the Rocket Racing League:
>
>http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/R/Rocket_Racing_League.html
>
>which will pit intrepid rocketeers against each other on a three-
>dimensional trackway just 5,000 feet above the ground. It'll be the
>real-life equivalent of the pod race in Star Wars' "The Phantom
>Menace! Thrilling stuff indeed. This really could be the future of
>manned space flight -- entrepreneurial, exciting, fast-paced,
>competitive. I think it's an extraordinary prospect.
>
>I was talking about SETI earlier. A big reason why SETI researchers
>are optimistic about their ongoing quest is the progress that's
>being made in astrobiology. It seems that hardly a month goes by
>without further evidence that the conditions needed for life-as-we-
>know-it to emerge are plentiful out there. Mars looks more promising
>all the time as a current abode of life, especially in the light of
>the intriguing methane in its atmosphere. Titan and Europa are also
>good bets for advanced biochemistry, if not biology itself. And now
>we can add Enceladus to that exobiological shortlist. Any world that
>can spout plumes of water vapor high above its surface has at least
>two of the ingredients needed to kick start life - an internal
>energy source and water - on tap. Add the possibilities for life in
>our own solar system to the discovery, to date, of more than 150
>planets going around other stars, and you can understand why seekers
>of extraterrestrial life and intelligence can hardly wait for the
>more detailed studies that are to come over the next couple of
>decades.
>
>Well, that's it for now. I hope to chat with you on the forum on
>these and many other mouth-watering topics. And, from my family to
>you and yours, have a wonderful holiday season!
>
>All the best,
>David Darling
>
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