Thanks for your feedback. When it comes to my relentless study of the truth, my approach mirrors that of my favorite t.v. homicide detective, the humble 'Lieutenant Columbo.' I gather the facts over time and break them down using creative thinking and common sense. I give you food for thought and challange you with the facts. I put things in terms everyone can understand...whether you're in junior high school or you're a graduate student.

My sources include various magazine articles, books, DVD programs, and satilite shows on the cosmos, as well as getting to know the Creator and his purpose for mankind, which is in my book the most vital part. I dismiss those who claim to be experts on something if they are ignorant to the fact that there is a Designer to all that we see, regardless of his/her level of education.

I've been a subscriber to 'Astronomy Magazine' and 'Discover' for many years now. I've also read several books on the cosmos, including the works by World Class ambassador of peace and hope Mr. Herbert W. Armstrongs 'The Incredible Human Potential' and 'The Mystery of the Ages' which discuss humanities purpose for having rulership over the Earth and our ULTIMATE POTENTIAL that when realized, is stranger than fiction and more amazing than we could imagine. Humanity is intimately connected with the cosmos! Just how is discussed in detail in his books. For those interested in reading his amazing books, you can order both books free of charge. All it will cost you is a 6-8 week wait for shipping. Here is a link to the his websites request literature page:    http://www.pcog.org/Default.asp?siteMapId=LiteratureLibrary

As for programming, I have DirectTV and have made tapes of various programming on The Science Channel and Discovery Channel and have Louie Giglios 'Indescribeable' DVD lecture, which in my opinion is better than anything I've seen on satilite. I highly recommend it to any of my fellow members. Heres a link to a site where it can be ordered: http://www.google.com/gwt/n?u=http%3A%2F%2Finternational.ourchurchbookstore.com.au%2FshowProduct.aspx%3Fid%3D329368&_gwt_pg=1&hl=en&q=robert+giglio+indescribable&source=m&uipref=3

* It is known by the 'experts' in astronomy : You leave LEO, you die!

I remember hearing it on a program I saw a few years back on one of the sat channels. I don't remember thr program off-hand, but it has been imprinted in my brain all these years. And then I didn't know what I know now and is no doubt in my mind absolutely true.

* Sending astronauts into deep space is like putting ants in a tin can with bottle rockets and sending them into a vast, uncharted ocean. It's a matter of fact that there are dangers in space that are truly mind-boggling and unimaginable from a human perspective!

Chalk this up to creative thinking and common sense! Everyone can understand that analogy. Humans truly are the 'ants' of the universe! I'm 5'7 1/2" tall and weigh 150lbs. According to solarviews.com : Our Sun is 98% of the total mass of our solar system. 109 Earths would be required to fit across the Suns disk and its interior could hold more than 1.3 million Earths.

Most people have no idea of the vast distances between the stars that you can seemingly connect like dots from you backyard or the size and power of the celestial objects being watched and photographed. Take Eta Carina for example. According to hubblesite.org in an article titled 'Doomed Star Eta Carina', the star is 8000 light years from Earth. (1light year is 5.88 trillion miles. That's 5.88 trillion * 8,000 miles away) features 10 billion miles across can be distinguished. Just 150 years ago, the star unleashed as much visible light as a supernova explosion. It's estimated to be 100 times more massive than our Sun.

Now, lets talk about the dangers that lurk outside of LEO. Travel inside our solar system doesn't protect us from the dangers of interstellar space like our atmosphere does. According to 'Space.coms Top 10 Star Mysteries' under 'Steallar Corpes', Magnatars are dense neutron stars that are billions of times stronger than any magnet on Earth. In March of '79, nine spacecraft observed a release equaling the amount of energy the Sun lets off in 1000 years. At the same site, still in the 'Top 10' is 'Superstars.' Here they discuss NASA 2005 finding of a gamma ray bursts that emit as much light as 100,000 trillion suns. And finally, MSNBC.coms December 17, 2007 article in the 'Space' section which states the following : "For the first time astronomers have witnessed a super-massive black hole blasting its galactic neighbor with a deadly beam of energy. It could obliterate the atmosphere of planets...."

Can you even begin to imagine the scale of the things that served as an example? I cant!

-Mr. Jackson

Thanks, Mr. Jackson, for getting back to me with some of the sources you use. 

I agree that there are dangers inherent in space travel.  Some of the ones you mention, however, would be just as deadly even if we never left the Earth's surface.  A gamma ray burst pointed in our direction would burn through our natural defenses like a blow-torch through toilet paper.  The article you mentioned about the black hole blasting its neighboring galaxy with radiation describes effects on a galactic scale, again our magnetosphere would provide scant protection.  There are no neutron stars, or magnetars near our solar system so those would not threaten our intrepid voyagers.  In fact, our planet is not protected from any of the dangers you mention.  Our thin, fragile zone of protection is a barrier to the radiation emmited from our sun, to the occasional coronal mass ejection (this is the greatest danger to manned space flight), and from small bits of rock and debris.  That's about it. 

We proved that we can survive a trip beyond low-Earth-orbit with the Apollo program.  More distant travel within our solarsystem would be a challenge to our technology, to our resourcefulness, to the physical and emotional stamina of the travelers themselves, and to multinational cooperation, but it is feasible.

I can not dismiss the legitimate work of people who have beliefs that differ from my own, just as I would not want them to dismiss my knowledge and experience simply because I have a faith and a philosophy different from theirs.  But those are disscussions better suited to other forums.

Again, thanks for the reply to my reply.

Terry D. 

Hi Terry -

To reiterate my point about the dangers to astronauts travelling in deep space, here are a few facts I found online. Technology is truly amazing now-a-days! I was able to use my cell phones web browser to research the things I've read and seen on various programs over the years. That sure beats going thru years worth of magazine articles and hours worth of video tape/dvds.

I mentioned how our atmosphere protects us from all kinds of space weather. Part of that protection includes the Van Allen Radiation Belts that surrounds the Earth for several hundred miles outside of LEO. There is no doubt limits to what it can protect us from, like high energy being blasted from a massive black hole or a close, large star going supernova. Those points were made as examples of the dangers lurking in space and the power and scale of the celestial objects we see and photograph. But with all due respect, our invisible atmosphere is much more complex than you have come to realize. Here's my case in point:

 On Space.com, I found an article which talks about the December 2005 magnatar explosion which ionized Earths atmosphere. This is truly amazing, because it was overshadowed by Hurricane Katrina amongst others that struck the mainland U.S. in record breaking fashon in 2005 and also in part due to the lingering wake of the massive tsumani that rocked the world in December of 2004.

A huge explosion halfway across the galaxy packet so much power, it briefly altered Earths upper atmosphere. No known eruption beyond our solar system has ever appeared as bright upon arrival. According to NASA, the event equaled the brightness of the full Moons reflected visible light. It was not visible to the naked eye. The blast originated about 50,000 light years away  It was 100 times more powerful than any similar eruption witnessed. Upon arrival, the gamma rays hit the ionosphere and briefly expanded it. Scientists were surprised that a magnatar explosion so far away could alter it.

If an unexpected event happened during a deep space mission, the problem is that the ship could not get out of the way fast enough. I grew up watching 'Star Trek' (the movies, shows, and even playing video games) and 'Star Wars' and of course the most fun was watching the ships pull off manuvers in space during battle similar to those of a high-tek fighter plane and zoom to light speed or faster in just a few seconds without  the crew even strapping in. In reality, they would be  'sitting ducks' because the limits of physics wouldn't allow it, and we'd be flying at a 'snails pace' compared to the other things out there. In an online article dated 09-25-07 on Sky and Telescopes website on Comet 17P Holmes, it discusses how the comet brightened exponentially...OVERNIGHT! Keep in mind that the article is updated regularly:

On Novermber 21st the dimming head of comet Holmes was just a bit larger than the Moon. Overnight, it brightened nearly a million times. For no apparent reason, it eruped from a very dim magnitude 17 to a magnitude 2.5. Its starlike nucleus had expanded to a perfectly round disk.. 

With that sudden outburst, it became the biggest object in the solar system...even bigger than our 1.3 milliion Earth-mass Sun! That really puts the vastness of our solar system into perspective. We're lucky that we are not in its 'line of fire' and that it hasn't affected life on Earth in a disasterous way. Can you imagine something like that happening to astronauts in deep space with nowhere to run and without warning?

-Mr. Jackson 

IntrepidDJ:

But with all due respect, our invisible atmosphere is much more complex than you have come to realize. Here's my case in point:

Be careful when you make assumptions about what others 'realize'.

 On Space.com, I found an article which talks about the December 2005 magnatar explosion which ionized Earths atmosphere. This is truly amazing, because it was overshadowed by Hurricane Katrina amongst others that struck the mainland U.S. in record breaking fashon in 2005 and also in part due to the lingering wake of the massive tsumani that rocked the world in December of 2004.

A huge explosion halfway across the galaxy packet so much power, it briefly altered Earths upper atmosphere. No known eruption beyond our solar system has ever appeared as bright upon arrival. According to NASA, the event equaled the brightness of the full Moons reflected visible light. It was not visible to the naked eye. The blast originated about 50,000 light years away  It was 100 times more powerful than any similar eruption witnessed. Upon arrival, the gamma rays hit the ionosphere and briefly expanded it. Scientists were surprised that a magnatar explosion so far away could alter it.

And yet the folks aboard the ISS were unaffected.  The ISS orbits at the very fringe of the 'F' layer (the outermost layer) of the ionosphere.  While the magnetar explosion you reference here was an unusually energetic event, it would have posed no threat to travelers in the solar system.

If an unexpected event happened during a deep space mission, the problem is that the ship could not get out of the way fast enough. I grew up watching 'Star Trek' (the movies, shows, and even playing video games) and 'Star Wars' and of course the most fun was watching the ships pull off manuvers in space during battle similar to those of a high-tek fighter plane and zoom to light speed or faster in just a few seconds without  the crew even strapping in. In reality, they would be  'sitting ducks' because the limits of physics wouldn't allow it, and we'd be flying at a 'snails pace' compared to the other things out there. In an online article dated 09-25-07 on Sky and Telescopes website on Comet 17P Holmes, it discusses how the comet brightened exponentially...OVERNIGHT! Keep in mind that the article is updated regularly:

On Novermber 21st the dimming head of comet Holmes was just a bit larger than the Moon. Overnight, it brightened nearly a million times. For no apparent reason, it eruped from a very dim magnitude 17 to a magnitude 2.5. Its starlike nucleus had expanded to a perfectly round disk.. 

With that sudden outburst, it became the biggest object in the solar system...even bigger than our 1.3 milliion Earth-mass Sun! That really puts the vastness of our solar system into perspective. We're lucky that we are not in its 'line of fire' and that it hasn't affected life on Earth in a disasterous way. Can you imagine something like that happening to astronauts in deep space with nowhere to run and without warning?

-Mr. Jackson 

The 17P/Holmes eruption was a sudden expansion of dust and gas, as tenuous as a case of bad breath and just about as dangerous.  It was not some explosion of lethal radiation.  Your home provides some protection for you from the chance of being hit by a micro-metor that makes its way through the atmosphere.  Does that mean you do not go outside because the remote potential exists to get hit by one?  I have not done the math, but I would bet that the chance of being struck by a falling meteor here on Earth is greater than the potential of being zapped by a GRB somewhere between the Earth and Mars.