Scientists make startling discovery

[Worldie]

A shame, it would have opened the way to new theoryes and possibilities.

Oh well, back to the "You will never leave Earth" mentality.

[Era]

"Born too late to explore the Earth, born too early to explore the universe."

... :'(

[Skye1013]

Born just right to explore the Mists of Pandaria >.>

[Era]

I'm sorry, I just can't be enthusiastic about MoP... I'll probably buy and play it, but I don't have that "OMG NEW EXPANSION!!" feeling. Then again, still early I guess. Might get me over with some fancy CGI trailers.

[Skye1013]

Really you could input any RPG world that you enjoy exploring. I just went for MoP since it's coming Soon™ and hasn't been explored.

[Brekkie]

"Born too late to explore the Earth, born too early to explore the universe."

... :'(

You'd be surprised how many amazing places on Earth are still totally unexplored and un-excavated.
I used to feel the same way, lamenting how the age of great discoveries on Earth was over. We've barely brushed the surface of our history, however. There is so much out there left to find and understand.

[Shoju]

"Born too late to explore the Earth, born too early to explore the universe."

... :'(

You'd be surprised how many amazing places on Earth are still totally unexplored and un-excavated.
I used to feel the same way, lamenting how the age of great discoveries on Earth was over. We've barely brushed the surface of our history, however. There is so much out there left to find and understand.

I would love to be able to explore deep sea. My friends are all SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE /drool

And I'm looking at the ocean, and just drooling at the opportunity to take a manned submersible into the arctic ocean, under the ice, or into the Marianas Trench, or into the deep near antartica.

We know so little of the deep recesses of the ocean. That, would be my dream.

[Hrobertgar]

In some ways, the deep ocean is a bigger obstacle that at least low earth orbit.

The crushing pressures primarily but also the cold and lack of light. Surface to orbit = 1 atmosphere, surface to deep ocean = 900ish atmospheres! (1 atm ~ 10m of water rought rule of thumb, bottom of Marianas trench ~ 5-6 miles ~ 9km. Water is fairly incompressible but at the bottom of a deep ocean, it may be even more than 900.)

[Shoju]

In some ways, the deep ocean is a bigger obstacle that at least low earth orbit.

The crushing pressures primarily but also the cold and lack of light. Surface to orbit = 1 atmosphere, surface to deep ocean = 900ish atmospheres! (1 atm ~ 10m of water rought rule of thumb, bottom of Marianas trench ~ 5-6 miles ~ 9km. Water is fairly incompressible but at the bottom of a deep ocean, it may be even more than 900.)

Yeah, I was watching a special on unmanned submersibles in the trench one night, and I just... man... it would be crazy to be able to get down there. Problem is, to build a vessel for men to reach that depth, you're probably talking something the size of a WWII area sub, built for a crew of 5 or so, and that still doesn't even account for being able to "experience" the trench in a viewing manner without the pressure destroying your viewpoints.

Comparably speaking, Space is far easier than Deep Sea. the Vacuum of Space certainly doesn't present the same obstacles as the pressure of deep sea exploration.

[Treck]

Made me think of:
"Well, it's a spaceship... so I'd say anywhere between zero and one."

[KysenMurrin]

Funnily enough, there was an article just the other day on the BBC about current efforts to revisit the Mariana Trench.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17041435

[Klaudandus]

Who says you can't do both?

[Era]

That movie was good! ^^

And yes, true, there's still a lot left to explore here on Earth - However, I just can't help but feel that some of the "magic" is gone. I too love the thoughts of exploring deep sea, unfortunately a small part of my mind tells me that Rapture just ain't down there.

[Mozen]

You know, I wonder when we will really be able to explore space. Perhaps it'll come at a time when someone realizes that our current view of space is all wrong, who sets out and finds proof of a new way to look at space, and that fuels a whole generation of new technologies for space travel, etc.

Okay, I apologize. I was watching Star Trek: Voyager this past weekend...

[Fivelives]

I wonder how things would be different today if instead of "By the end of the decade, we will go to the moon", Kennedy had said "By the end of the decade, we'll go to the bottom of the sea".

I rather imagine it would be flip-flopped, and we'd be lost trying to resolve the issues of exploration in vacuum, but on the other hand, our jetsetters would be booking rooms at the Marianas Trench Resort & Casino. Logistics of supplying an undersea city would definitely be easier than supplying a moon base... well, unless you're a Bond villain, that is. They don't seem to have problems with that.

Mozen, I don't think our "view" of space is all wrong. I'm pretty sure we can actually see most of what goes on up there. I do think our understanding of it will change, especially once we can send out more voyager-style missions with better, more modern technology. This is one of the reasons I'm kinda sad about NASA. Opening up the space race to the consumer market (and the accompanying competition between interested parties) is all well and good, but I can't see that they'd have the drive or motivation to just go out and explore. They'd probably hit the space station phase and call it a day.

Edit to add: On-topic, I can't help but wonder if there really WAS an error; especially one so basic as that. Perhaps they just reacted to the public outcry (or the time travelers visited them!) and decided to recant their original findings.

/tinfoilhat