For those who do not know what these are, they are relatively new, a history telescope is one that looks back in time. Now, for all you astronomers out there, yes, all telescopes do this. But what if you pointed one at the earth? Depending on how far away you are from the planet, you will see something back in time.

The lecture today was about a recent experiment into this concept. The light from the Earth takes time to get to Jupiter, about three hours. A team of researchers operating in the jupiter system pointed a telescope back to earth. They then broad casted the signal on a few vNet’s. Since the vNet signals are faster than light, the transmitted signal was actually three hours old compared to the time it was being viewed on earth. They broad casted the visual signal as well as the vNet feed and the researchers. It was a little bit disturbing.

The power of space based telescopes has increased quite a lot in the past few centuries. You can see vivid detail from Jupiter with the new Orion space telescope model. Not to mention what you can see from other systems.

Ok, so, what good is three hours? Not much. Sure it’s a novelty thing. Yes, you can be on vSpace and watch something on earth from three hours ago. Neat. But three hours isn’t enough for historical observations. It is good, however, for the future uses.

There are two primary projects currently going on, big science projects as they used to be called, the kind that can only be funded by governments, that can make use of this new concept. The first, there are plans at work to build a super Orion telescope. Something so big it’s nearly the size of a military carrier. Once built, the plan is to point it towards some distant location and let it speed away. They are going to build it in the Minerva Asteroid shipyards and shoot it off. Now, it won’t get anywhere anytime soon. But, it will get there. Eventually it will reach a point that is many light years from earth, allowing historians to turn it around and view the history of our planet. Neat isn’t it? Personally though, I don’t think this will ever happen. Some big science projects promise a lot but are just too big or would take too long to see any benefits. I think this is one.

The other method is far more interesting. It involves the new gravity drives that are going to be tested in the coming years. These things promise everything. Imagine going to another star system in minutes. Incredible. If they ever get this to work, something to do with shrinking space in front and growing it behind, they’ll slap one on an Orion telescope ship, send it 300 years out and turn it around. That’s when things will get interesting.

How it all works? Beats the hell out of me. I don’t understand gravity drives or how they can see anything from 300 light years away. But, I guess I have to start learning. This new discipline, Historical Astronomy, is gaining some steam. The physicists swear this new gravity engine will work and unlock the galaxy to exploration. And we have plenty of earth like planets to play with out there. Of course, there isn’t a telescope built yet to view that far away. The super Orion, they still are debating a name for this class of ship, is only on the drawing board. But when it’s built we may be able to see clouds on a distant planet. That alone is fascinating. The future will be very interesting for certain!