U.S. Ending Search for Earth-Like World?

Is the Obama administration planning to pull the plug on the Kepler Space Telescope in mid mission thereby ending the search for finding a new Earth-like world?

According to widespread rumor, word has leaked out that the Obama administration intends to terminate NASA’s planetary exploration program. The Mars Science Lab Curiosity, being readied on the pad, will be launched, as will the nearly completed small MAVEN orbiter scheduled for 2013, but that the now-orbiting Kepler Telescope will be turned off in midmission, stopping it before it can complete its goal of finding potential twin Earths.

Of course my question is: Why? What is your opinion?

LINK
www.dailygalaxy.com...

reply to post by 1questioner


why?
well i think most likely because we have already found many and cant tell much from them with current technology..
sad to hear tho.. even tho we know they are everywhere, with every one we find brings new posibility of finding detectable anomolys and stuff like transmitions

Maybe they found what they are looking for.

reply to post by ShortMemory


Well that isn't very scientific of them, is it?

reply to post by Skewed


Ha! You're probably right.

in case the inhabitants of Earth start screaming for help should we actually (publicly) discover one that's inhabited.
Aside from that there are two possible reasons - we've already found one which is inhabited, or it's like the good old Berlin Wall or Japanese Sakoku period. We're isolating ourselves and locking the doors. All the better to control the inmates.

Originally posted by 1questioner
reply to post by ShortMemory

 

Well that isn't very scientific of them, is it?

id listen to the second guy
they dont need to be scientific if they get e.t. to give them all new technology

reply to post by ShortMemory

The kepler project just started, so makes absolutely no sense to shut it down so soon.

This shows again how anti space exploration obama and his administration is.

Originally posted by Aestheteka
in case the inhabitants of Earth start screaming for help should we actually (publicly) discover one that's inhabited.
Aside from that there are two possible reasons - we've already found one which is inhabited, or it's like the good old Berlin Wall or Japanese Sakoku period. We're isolating ourselves and locking the doors. All the better to control the inmates.

There's truth to what you're saying, and I find that to be so sad. Mankind's entire history has been looking up at the stars and wondering if there was any other planet up there like ours and is anyone else out there. And now that we have the technology to actually answer those questions it seems like we intend to bury our head in the sand.

reply to post by juleol


This is the year of expensive space shut downs....
It really looks like we're battening down the hatches for something

Originally posted by juleol
reply to post by ShortMemory

 

The kepler project just started, so makes absolutely no sense to shut it down so soon.

This shows again how anti space exploration obama and his administration is.

honestly i think its probably most likely they have already found life
see my theory is that finding life would be a pinnacle issue to a nation like the u.s. because it could offer 1000000 years in evolution in one day if we could learn from them. and we all know how they love to get their hands on patents and such.
thats why i think if they havent found it, they wont stop untill they have.
imagine the technology

I think the why has something to do with the fact we're just too busy destroying the planet we got to go spending money and resources on frivolous things like scientific research or space exploration.

reply to post by 1questioner


Why bother looking for earth like planets light years away when we can't even get man back to the moon?

Sounds a little pointless to me..

reply to post by 1questioner


my guess its all about money..
and if they did find it,there s no way for us to get there,or maybe the risks involved are just too high..

Originally posted by 1ofmany
reply to post by 1questioner

 

my guess its all about money..
and if they did find it,there s no way for us to get there,or maybe the risks involved are just too high..

yeah but the logical idea would be to communicate from earth and get the blueprints on how to space travel

Personally I think it is a waste of resources (at this time). We can't go there (yet) to see if what we found is really a planet even or just a remote Kiper belt object in some other solar system. And even if we could afford a deep space current technology mission to go to the most likely candidate, it would take "millions" of years to get there.
Besides we already know they are all full of stuff which ever system you point a scope at:


I think we have enough to keep us busy here for a while.

If the only source is the dailygalaxy then I would take this with a pinch of salt.
I'd say the rumour lies squarly with the dailygalaxy to be honest.

Originally posted by backinblack
reply to post by 1questioner

 

Why bother looking for earth like planets light years away when we can't even get man back to the moon?

Sounds a little pointless to me..

Who says we can't go to the moon? Personally, I think it's a matter of choice. And, again, I have to ask: Why?

reply to post by ShortMemory


You understand what light years means right? 2-way communication is simply out of the question.

Our technology is such that we can't definitively detect life on bodies in our own solar system (even in vivo) let alone a thousand light years distant. I don't know how much financial infrastructure it takes to continue a mission once everything is in place, I would be inclined to guess less than 5% of the mission cost so cutting this mission so early IMO is a political boner.

I don't go off on wild fantasy speculations, money shoots down most conspiracy theories all by itself.

Originally posted by pazcat
If the only source is the dailygalaxy then I would take this with a pinch of salt.
I'd say the rumour lies squarly with the dailygalaxy to be honest.

Maybe you're right. I hope you are. Because if they do shut down the exploration for another Earth-like world then we might as well shutdown our entire space program and go back to living in the 14th Century.