The vast majority of fuel usage is simply getting out of orbit. I imagine this would be musch more useful for vehicles that are simply motoring around the solar system, but not dropping to the planet, or even going into LEO.

> I guessed that you where guessing, does that cancel each other out now?

Parsing error on line 1.

Because it is the best we have to go on right now. We can speculate all we want, but we have no model for how non-carbon based life forms would work. We barely have the technical capability to *possibly* detect the byproduct of life as we know it on another planet. To try to detect something we have no clue how it operates is impossible. So while you are technically correct that we don't know that carbon is the only basis for life, practically we need to make that assumption. For now.

Thank you for that well deserved admonishment.

We have Drake's equation which may be fundamentally sound, but the variables are truly guesswork. Now we are going to add another guesswork variable. Guesswork squared?

Kiss off.

In 9 years of /.-ing, I have rarely seen a post that really cuts to the issue the way this does. I modded it up with my 'real' account, and made a shadow for this. Nemyst is dead on; and other services, especially iTunes, should read carefully. Amazon demonstrated they are lightweights, and the original article shows they don't really give a shit about their customers. Their customers have an obligation to return in kind.