Given the difficulties just in getting an orbiting space station up and running, a moon base is probably far, far off in the future. But a recent discovery that there is ice on the moon has kept the dream alive, that man will someday colonize Earth's satellite, if only as a launching pad for interplanetary travel. Of course, if oil were discovered under the Sea of Tranquility, things would be very different. But that doesn't mean the programming has changed much. The No. 1 show in the United Kingdom today is still the long-running soap opera Coronation Street .
Astronauts journey to the outer planets in hibernation to preserve resources.
Researchers are also studying the effects of melatonin on hibernation. Applications of these genetic or hormonal treatments may also include the preservation of donated organs. Oh yeah, it could also kill people. But we're still a ways off. Lynn Andrea Stein, a professor of computer science at Massachussetts' Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, points out that today's computers can tackle all kinds of specialized tasks.