Three incidents occurred today that shook rust free. I saw a hard-core crusty old dude at the gym, Neil Armstrong made a rare public appearance, and China launched a mission that is to include a space walk.As someone born after the Apollo Moon landings I find it lame that no significant exploration has happened since then. Even though we now congratulate ourselves on global awareness it is a mediocre fact that only 30 people have ever seen the Earth from a distance sufficient to view it as a blue globe. Of those 30 astronauts (Apollo 8 to 17) only 12 walked on the Moon and of them only eight now survive. They are all aged over 75 years!
Grand-dad's generation flew to the Moon and I stumble around thinking a sleek music player, the latest add-on, and espresso coffee is “progress”!
One of the eight Moon veterans is Neil Armstrong, aged 78, a certifiable hard-core old dude. Armstrong appeared for the 50th anniversary of NASA and there he said,
“Our highest and most important hope is that the human race will improve its intelligence, its character, and its wisdom.”
Perhaps China is adhering to Armstrong's vision in their own way. This year China staged an Olympic Games. Today, a month later, China has launched a three-man mission that will include spacewalks, which are thought to be part of a larger plan to land on the Moon. Not so astounding if you recall the US went from spacewalking to moonwalking in four years – back in the sixties. China seems to have the expertise and intent to look up and out.
The monstrous credit crunch and minutiae of media technology both encourage people to be introspective, cautious and fearful. However, the future does not belong to the fearful, the slothful, and downward looking. It belongs to those that wrestle with the difficult tasks of improving intelligence, character, and wisdom. Hopefully New Zealand is a part of that future.
Great 1st post!
ReplyDeleteI love technology, astronomy, cosmology and engineering. Naturally I love all the details surrounding space travel.
ReplyDeleteHowever I do have a significant problem with the Apollo Programme and Nasa and equivalent programmes world wide. They are funded by tax payers and as wonderful as space programmes are they are not a legitimate function of Government. Also the emphasis on manned space exploration is ridiculous due to it's incredible expense and risk and lack of benefit over robotic exploration.
You make out that there hasn't been any exploration since Apollo, however that couldn't be further from the truth. We've sent probes beyond the outer reaches of the solar system, past the termination shock and into deep space. Explored every planet and learnt copious amounts about the Universe.
Having said that the new burgeoning private space industry is really exciting! If anyone will be able to get you to Mars and back by just and economic means within a generation or two it'll be private industry.
Robots are cool and have provided knowledge but they have't incubated any return business. 1970s Voyager and Pioneer and contemporary Phoenix aren't coming back with gold and silk.
ReplyDeleteAlso, unlike astronauts, robots don't have epiphanies or religious conversions.
What has happened recently in the private sector flights anyway? In particular what is Branson's Virgin Galactic up to?
The private SpaceShipOne flew 17 flights getting beyond 100km three times in 2004. Then it retired. 2008, almost 2009, and I'm still waiting for a mk2 and mk3 to better this 1960s standard.
The USAF X-15, like SpaceShipOne, was also dropped from a carrier plane. The three X-15s flew almost 200 flights and got over 100km altitude, the first one up there in 1963.
You got astronaut's wings for any flight over 50miles (80km).
Like SpaceShipOne they had, what's that stuff?
While mocking the "doco" on the Building 7 9/11 conspiracy I note that Bond and Bond ads are making use of the Moon-Landing-Hoax in their current advertising.
ReplyDelete"Our savings are real unlike some things" and the graphic is two cartoon astronauts on a movie stage acting out a landing.
Naturally Bond and Bond do this in jest but the casual dismissal of it all is related to what I was bleating about. Specifically, its human exploration that fires the imagination and tempers resolve not probes.
Instead we reclimb Everest, recross the icecaps, sail/fly/ride alone/in pairs around/over/under yet again, and strive to add more finely crafted novelty.
Apart from Apollo you'd be hard pressed to find in human history 500,000 people working over a decade on a single project that didn't primarily aim to defeat someone else.
Now its an advertising gimmick.