Earth Or The Stars?

[Ai]

Currently scientists probably know more about our moon and the surrounding space then they do about our very own planet..

Are our country's governments looking in the wrong direction?

Should we find out everything about our own planet before we go intruding upon other planets?

Discuss.

[saycheese]

we do know more about our own planet than any other planet.

[Nihsnek]

Currently scientists probably know more about our moon and the surrounding space then they do about our very own planet..
Are our country's governments looking in the wrong direction?
Should we find out everything about our own planet before we go intruding upon other planets?
Discuss.

Uh...no. What don't we know about Earth? Besides exactly how dinosaurs were killed...I think you need to rephrase this topic.

[Ai]

...

Right...

Rephrase...

Since we don't know many things about our own planet and the way it works..examples being...The antartica..The depths of the oceans...The whole way our planets eco-system interacts with hte various other elements that make it's bio sphere up..

Sure we have theories and clues..But as of these days we do know more about the moon then we do about the way our own planet works since the moon is so much simpler..

If this is the case then why are we continually expanding into space and pouring taxpayers money into such events..We should be focusing on our own home first shouldn't we?

[Nihsnek]

...
Right...
Rephrase...
Since we don't know many things about our own planet and the way it works..examples being...The antartica..The depths of the oceans...The whole way our planets eco-system interacts with hte various other elements that make it's bio sphere up..
What? Antartica..what don't we know? Dephts of oceans are known..by the eco-system interacting with other elements I suppose you are talking about plant -> animal -> human cycle?

Sure we have theories and clues..But as of these days we do know more about the moon then we do about the way our own planet works since the moon is so much simpler..
If this is the case then why are we continually expanding into space and pouring taxpayers money into such events..We should be focusing on our own home first shouldn't we?

Oh man, I already see a lame attempt for bashing Bush.
Ok..the moon is so much simpler than our own planet. So what? Are you saying we should have never gone to the moon because it was too simple?
Wasting taxpayers money? NASA only gets pennies of taxes that you pay, if even that. I don't see what's wrong with being curious...

[Ai]

Oh man, I already see a lame attempt for bashing Bush.
Ok..the moon is so much simpler than our own planet. So what? Are you saying we should have never gone to the moon because it was too simply?
Wasting taxpayers money? NASA only gets pennies of taxes that you pay, if even that. I don't see what's wrong with being curious...

Rofl...As much as i love bashing that man this has nothign to do with him..I don't live in the Usa so i can't be complaining about them..:p..sorry..

Rather i'm meaning the worlds governments as a whole...Although the only major powers to go into space are currently China/Usa/Russia there are countless other countries that pour lots of money into this endevour..

Lets see...what don't we know about Antartica...Maybe you could enlighten me about hte sort of bio system and creatures that are surviving under the Km's of ice in the glacial ponds trapped beneath the ice...

As for the bio eco-system..sure we have a general grasp of it's complex nature but we are far from knowing everything there is to know about it..

If what you are saying is what you believe then you are simply shutting down any further research into our planet because you think we've discovered it all..this is excatly the attitude some took in the 19 hundreds when one patent maker exclaimed "Mankind has already invented everyhting there is to invent"...And that was before the computer and such..

As to our bio system this could also include diseases and virial threats....while we expand out into space we are almost certain to eventually find new threats to our biological makeup...So shouln't we figure out everything thats the matter with us now before taking too big a leap..?

[SoundWave]

True we should find out more about our own planet.. But by exploring other planets might also give us some clues about our own planet.

If this wasn't a matter of money no1 would complain, right?.. Then again almost everything is about money.

[saycheese]

Rofl...As much as i love bashing that man this has nothign to do with him..I don't live in the Usa so i can't be complaining about them..:p..sorry..
Rather i'm meaning the worlds governments as a whole...Although the only major powers to go into space are currently China/Usa/Russia there are countless other countries that pour lots of money into this endevour..
Lets see...what don't we know about Antartica...Maybe you could enlighten me about hte sort of bio system and creatures that are surviving under the Km's of ice in the glacial ponds trapped beneath the ice...
As for the bio eco-system..sure we have a general grasp of it's complex nature but we are far from knowing everything there is to know about it..
If what you are saying is what you believe then you are simply shutting down any further research into our planet because you think we've discovered it all..this is excatly the attitude some took in the 19 hundreds when one patent maker exclaimed "Mankind has already invented everyhting there is to invent"...And that was before the computer and such..
As to our bio system this could also include diseases and virial threats....while we expand out into space we are almost certain to eventually find new threats to our biological makeup...So shouln't we figure out everything thats the matter with us now before taking too big a leap..?

dude, everything u say DO exist. but because of popularity issues, not everyone is aware of it. we are researching into all of the areas, we are still discovering new things in the deep oceans and such. but for everything there is a priority, and politics. the general conception of "outa sight, outa mind" is the case, and most people are more concerned abt a tax cuts, new policies etc which will affect them. another issue is that, you only need a certain number of resources to have sumthing working(ie, deep sea exploratin), and where extra funds is not cost efficent, to get a second team, which will only accerlate things by 5-10% while costing double the budget.

edit: although not always the case, its sometimes easier to discover a new area when u have the basics of it. such as when colombus discovered america, it became much easier for explorers then to explore the whole of america, than to go to north or south poles.

[Delta]

It all depends on your perspective, while we're stuck here on earth we sort of have all of our eggs in one basket as far as the human race is concerned, so moving out into our solar system, and eventually our galaxy and universe (dont ask me how, i'm studying to be an engineer and just thinking about the equipment we would need and the distances involved gives me a headache) would be benefical to our survial as a species. On the other hand we still have tons of questions about our own planet, our ecosystems and even ourselves (still trying to fully figure out that sleep thing). Personally I think it's a good idea to balance the two, if we focus totally on launching expensive rockets into space we might miss a discovery here on earth to make a material with the tensile strength to build a space elevator, making getting things into space much cheaper. On the other hand if we ignore outerspace we might miss much needed opertunities for economic growth and expansion.

[SolBeowulf19]

I would rather say we look at other planets now that we've looked at our own for so long. While we're still here there is a chance the planet may be close to being un-usable, or may be so in the near future, if life cannot be sustained then how are we to live. We can still look at the earth, but I'd rather look toward the stars, and if we do wind up somewhere else we need to learn and not repeat mistakes of the past so we don't have to do it again....for a while anyways.

[chiking1]

I highly doubt that we know more about other planets than earth, because right now, we cannot even land a human on Mars, and we haven't been on the moon that many times...
Also, people DO know about Antarctica and the ocean, things that we don't know about are the abyss, the mantel/core (lava below us)... and i think that that's more than what we know about the moon or mars.

[Fect]

We do not realize everything about our own planet for a few reasons, but mostly because of its ability to sustain life. You have to look at other planets, which have no known life on them, and just by soil composition analysis, we understand what another planet is like.

Look at the oceans - moved by the moon. The ebbing is caused by the intrincusies (spelling?) of the earth's relation to its nearest friend, the moon. Most other planets have no connections. Only Pluto and Neptune have any other "sharing bond" as they switch positions in the solar system every millenia.

However, this is not a bad thing that we know so little - realizing that we can do so little to change this fact is not a bad thing. It may even be a good thing (to not colonize), because we will not be walking viruses with shoes any longer. We won't sully the soil for fear of destroying the earth, and having no other option to turn to. Wouldn't it be magnificent to be able to see the coral reefs be gazed on by those who come after us?