Don't look for it happening under President Clinton or Obama. They'll give all that money to social programs and entitlement spending, first. I've long believed that 'bad ideology' can kill a civilization dead, Islamic extremism being the most handy example to pull out. But then I look at our culture, and I see no drive to 'get out there' at all. Malthusian disasters can be prevented by development of technologies, the expansion of populations into fresh territory, and the discovery of new resources. Everything we need as a species is out there, waiting for us. But right now it doesn't look like we're going to go and get it. And if we don't, this party will eventually come to a screechin' halt. The Earth is a finite resource.
Oh Jesus fucking Christ. It ain't gonna happen under any administration in this election year, so cut the partisan bullshit. Fuck, the only reason Bush did anything regarding the space program was so that years after his presidency somebody might remember him for something other than the war.
And a frozen type Earth is still very encouraging! Our own Earth has gone through a period of being frozen (before it was a dry burning desert) before it finally became what it is now...and still continues to change. Anyway, how far away are these planets? Here's my point: If a planet is 10,000,000 light years away, you're actually seeing the planet as it was 10,000,000 years ago. So if you see it frozen (if we could see that well that far) it might actually be teeming with life by now, assuming the planet goes throught cycles like ours.
If it's as far out in the outer solar system as the kuiper belt, it's only about 8-12 light hours away and I guarantee you it's frozen solid.
aye 10 million light years is 4 times further than the closest galaxy to the milky way. I doubt we will ever be looking at planets that are in other galaxies
So my great-great-great-...-great-grandchildren need to invest in a business that blows away any gas giants in the "Goldilocks Zone" and moves these frozen-Earth-clones into stable orbits there? Is that what you're telling me?
So summarize please: about how far are the planets/suns we could possible see and study with clarity?
The ones in our galaxy (the milky way), its about 100,000 light years in diameter and about 1,000 thick. But only really those ones in our local neighbourhood (about 50,000 light years) are accessable for study, that will change over the next few decades though
If more than half the stars in the MW have planets, that's not hundreds, its at least 50 billion. Possibly up to 250 billion. And that's only taking the veeeery conservitave estimate of one planet per star. More likely is solar systems with 5 - 10 planets and a multitude of other moons etc. orbiting those planets. The total number of planets in the MW is probably more than 1 trillion.
If you have that sort of tech you would probably be better leaving a gas giant there and orbiting Earth like planets around it.
