Mission Could Seek Out Spock's Home Planet

An anonymous reader wrote with a link to the official Planet Quest site. Planet Quest has the goal of exploring the galaxy via sophisticated instrumentation for another habitable planet. NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab is working to plan out missions for the project, and researchers are now theorizing that the instruments may be able to explore the system of 40 Eridani. Hardcore Trek fans may know 40 Eridani as the star associated with the planet Vulcan. "The SIM PlanetQuest instrument will be so accurate, it could measure the thickness of a nickel at a distance from Earth to the moon. Using a set of mathematical models based on Newton's Laws, Tanner was able to conclude that SIM would be able to definitively determine whether there is an Earth-mass planet orbiting in the habitable zone around 40 Eridani A, and could also determine its orbit. This is quite an exciting prospect, since NASA's Terrestrial Planet Finder mission, planned for launch after SIM, would not only be able to take a rudimentary 'picture' of the planet, but also could search for signatures of life such as methane and ozone."

Re:Why do we have to have Spock?

[History's Coming To]

Absolutely, yup, you're right.

But....

....remember that to do stuff that we know is cool you have to convince the general public, who:
1: Are a bit dim at times (average IQ of 100 apparently! ;)
2: Are going to be paying for it either through taxes or by buying the products that have adverts plastered across the side of the spaceship.

You've got to get the money from somewhere, and "cool" gets money these days.
For the REAL future of space missions, see this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TN3JjUUdjWU [youtube.com] - a bunch of British TV presenters decide to make a rocket...out of a 3 wheeled car. And it ends up being the largest non-commercial European space launch ever...now that's cool.

Re:lol

[Anonymous Coward]

Tell that to your flip phone, the talking nav system in your car, your iPod, your flat-screen TV, all of that cool medical imaging equipment at the hospital that saved your various family member's lives and to the systems that helped to develop the heart pacemaker, for openers.

Star Trek helped DEFINE cool for you non geeks.

Without Star Trek, many of the scientists who developed those pieces of equipment never would have even gone INTO science and the vast majority of those cool gadgets YOU rely on to get laid with wouldn't even exist and you would have to rely on your complete lack of charm to try to be a success with women.

To paraphrase William Shatner: "Get A CLUE!"

Finally! An end to the controversy!

[GeekZilla]

Does this mean that we can finally line up all the Neanderthals who still think the moon landing is a hoax, let them look through the shiny new "telescope" and see the lunar landers still parked where they landed about 38 years ago?

Re:First Vulcan /. post

[coyote-san]

According to a recent pop quiz by my girlfriend, the type who named her cat 'Tiberius' for some bizarre reason, that's the proper response to "live long and prosper." They go in a pair.

Re:Pedant police strike again

[Lotana]

Just 16 metric tons and it is currently the largest we can do?!

What the hell happened to Energia's blueprints? That baby could place 100 metric tons [wikipedia.org] into LEO!