Exploring the Solar System Going to Mars is on the minds of many scientists and engineers. Yes, we want to go back to the moon first, but even then, some believe we should skip going back there for now and concentrate on the Mars trip. From everything I have read, one of these proponents is Elon Musk. He seems to be chomping at the bit to get to Mars and I can understand this because many people including me believe there is plenty of evidence on that planet to prove at least at one time intelligent life lived there and maybe still does. To actually find this proof would change everything. It could mean life is common throughout the universe. Imagine if we found more than one planet or moon just in our solar system which had ruins or some other evidence intelligent life had been there. This is why I have been saying for years we should concentrate on putting all our assets into searching our solar system for life and forget for now trying to check out places we have no way of reaching or will have in the foreseeable future. At least we can have an opportunity to get to different planets and moons in the solar system by robotic means and in the future by human exploration. We should not discount the fact just because a moon or planet is far different from earth, that life couldn’t have adapted there. We have found life at very low temperatures at the poles and very high temperatures near ocean steam vents which just proves life can exist in some very harsh conditions. It can even live in space for a time. This should have taught us a lesson which is, it could exist anywhere, and not in just so-called Goldilocks zones. Maybe those zones might be able to support human life, but who is to say life like ours is the only life out there? When scientists talk about finding alien life, they totally disregard the fact we very well may have been and still are being by visited by aliens flying UFOs. Perhaps more of an effort should be made to try and contact these machines and see what happens. It may very well turn out aliens have been here all the time and when we started to shoot at them, they decided to stop all plans for contact figuring we were not ready and still have not gotten over that. On the other hand, perhaps some in the highest positions of government have been in contact with them as stated by various whistleblowers. There has been a thought by some, artificial intelligence could be in charge of very advanced civilizations because they survived their makers. How their makers vanished is another story. Some believe if we reach a certain point, our advanced A.I.s will destroy us because they would consider us dangerous and stupid. Others think eventually all civilizations die and if an advanced civilization with Artificial Intelligence died, the A.I.s would be left. The civilizations could have died for many reasons which would not have affected robots controlled by Artificial Intelligence. Perhaps the A.I.s were left because the civilization died out from natural disasters, sickness or the lack to procreate. At that point perhaps A.I.s could have learned how to repair themselves and even build more A.I.s. That would make things interesting because maybe somewhere in time we would meet the A.I.s and treat them like sentient beings. We have barely scratched the exploration surface when we talk about the solar system because there are so many bodies in it worthy of exploration. My view is they all are worthy if we never went to them. There may be some incredible surprises waiting for us in our own solar system. If we could get past the tremendous gravity of the gas giant planets what would we find? Might we find there had been or is some sort of life on one or more of them and we never knew about it because of the gas ball covering the core? If one was to count the planets in the solar system, the moons, planetoids or dwarf planets, asteroids and meteors, who knows what we might find? Wouldn’t it be something if we were teeming with life? I am not only talking about intelligent life, but any life, even plant life. We could find new types of life like intelligent plants or insects. Nothing is off the table because we are starting from zero. Zero meaning we know nothing about what alien life might look like. What might be the best way to do this exploration if it gets to the point humans are exploring? A series of space stations has been proposed where there might be a couple of space stations between each planet allowing for flights to be able to lay over and take a rest before going to the next station. As speeds increase these stations will become obsolete or perhaps, we would find some other uses for them. I am sure there could also be bases built on some of the moons circling planets. I have always felt some day we will be able to send out a ship which is so fast it will blast past the Voyager Space Probe which is heading out of the solar system. Another point will be we might be able to construct tougher computer chips and electronic devices with much better sources of power which also will help protect humans on long flights because they will be less suspectable to radiation. Radiation is one of the big problems with space travel and that is why some scientists say we are only fooling ourselves when we talk about manned flights to Mars and further. On the other hand, scientists have been working on creating plasma shields to shield humans from radiation. There are a couple of ways we could get out into space in a real way. One is if we have any alien technology and have figured out how to reverse engineer it. The second is if we perfect engines which will let us travel at least almost at the speed of light or faster. Sure, this will create problems in other areas but we as humans have been pretty good at solving problems. We did figure out how to fly, float and drive and I am sure we will figure out how to prevent humans from being fried by radiation. Once this is conquered it will open the door to nearby space travel. This is the first step in human space exploration.
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