Men on the Moon

It’s something I’ve dreamed of my whole life. It’s something I may yet see in my life, and it’s something for which I would sell anything, give anything to see. The passion with which these men speak of the moon, the look in their eyes as they remember the experience of landing, walking on, and — in the end — successfully leaving the moon behind is something I empathize with, even if I can’t know the whole truth of it.

Although there had been deaths before, and there have been deaths since, Challenger was the first one I remember, and so holds a special place in my space-lovin’ heart.

Actually, on reading, it’s a Windows app, too, so all of you can use it

I’m not usually a fan of the pointless graphical doodads, but this one is pretty nice; It displays a live-updating view of the earth as your desktop, with accurate sun- and moon-light mappings, and (given an internet connection) up-to-date cloud cover.

Pretty slick.

I don’t know how long I’ll be using my copy, but since I got it for free (and legally, too!) it might last for a bit.

I couldn’t help but think; I’d give anything to see the earth from space. That’s my fondest dream, my deepest single desire. That being said, I don’t know that it’s comparable to the beauty of a strip of light that stretches a significant fraction of the length of a continent, a monument to both excess and achievement that changes the dark face of the world in a way that I would be able to see, even from the vantage I crave.

The earth from space would be beauty, but it would be a mindless, undirected beauty. The cityscape, the glowing spray of seeds spread across the coast beneath my plane, is a beauty that springs from the minds and hands of men, and more than any natural thing it puts poetry in my heart.

(Note: No actual poetry was produced in the writing of this post. Count yourselves fortunate.)

This isn’t a new thing to many of my readers, most of whom swing more to the left than I do, with commesurate (Matt, want to confirm my spelling on that?) views on environmental issues. It’s not really new to me, either, although I lack the knee-jerk anti-corporate reaction to massive oil companies.

What I do have is a strong distaste for short-sightedness and waste.

The latter is the the easiest make that hardest to address. Waste is hard to define simply because we don’t have an absolute scale against which to measure it. Is fossil fuel use really being wasteful? In and of itself, that is? I’ll acknowledge that there are uses to which it is put that are, but not that it’s a waste in toto. How about the idea of a space elevator? Is that a waste?

The former is clearer. Little research is done into alternate energy sources, relative to the amount that goes into squeezing yet more oil from the ground. And, really, what’s their motivations? It’s clear that there’s more money to be made selling oil than there is to be made spending it on research into ways to make oil obsolete. That’s the shortsightedness I was talking about.

All one can really hope is that high oil prices and the increased cost to consumers drive the adoption of alternatives to oil.

Proof that governments aren’t needed to make it in to space.

Proof that dedication can give men wings.

Proof that even I might see the edge of our atmosphere before the end of my life.

Words, really, fail me. This is a good thing, a very good thing.

Although at present the site is still slashdotted into submission, preventing me from actually viewing the images, I wanted to make sure that you all saw them.

A return soon, I hope.

May this bring in an era of private and public flight to the stars for the average joe.

To me, at least, this is probably one of the best news events of the last year or more. One small step for Man…

(See MeFi for more)

Update

As of this writing, the SpaceShipOne has landed safely. Next stop, re-use and re-launch.

It’s a big one, folks. This is a big, big event.

Even more than a return to the moon, this project is one of my fondest imaginings. The idea that we might be able to make space travel work for even people like me? How could someone not appreciate that?

Of course, in this wonderful world we inhabit, there’s weaknesses to this too; for eample the terrorist threat, which is briefly addressed in this article. Even leaving aside the present-day terrorist threats, this in and of itself could spawn a new kind of fear in the luddites that lead these sorts of things.

I guess we’ll see how it pans out — which is, more often than not, how i sign off on news items like this. I’ll admit, for all of my hopes for a better future, I too am a cynic here. It’s worth noting, though, that the comic i link to above has one of the more evenhanded visions of the (near) future i’ve seen in a while.

h6. Update:

Dave Barry also said a funny thing or two on the subject.

Choice Quote:

_Now is a bad time to do it_

Now is always a bad time to do it.
Do it anyway.

I can only sit by and hope…

Make no mistake, the amount of death and suffering, mismanagement, untruth, and warfare worldwide has not passed unnoticed. And the steady erosion of individual freedoms and societal liberties has been bothering me from day one.

But there were some things this year that touched me especially.

First and foremost, on a small scale, i passed my first year of my CS program with great marks, earned my first post-secondary scholarship, and began the second year of said studies.

Second, Char and i moved. Although there are still outstanding issues both with the new house, which are being resolved, and with the old house, which are… annoying, the move has been such a good thing. Our new landlord is great, and we look forward to staying here a good, long time.

Third, and now moving to a larger scale, the third part of the Lord of the Rings came out, and i was just… awed. It was so beautiful, so perfect. Who would have thought that a story of that scope and ambition could have been brought to the screen so well and so fully, leaving my imagination stimulated, not stifled by it.

And fourth, if i had to choose one news item that truly was significant to me, there was this:

Let us not forget that the men and women that take to the stars do so at incredible risk to themselves. And let us not fail the ones who die reaching by declining to stand upon their shoulders and reach higher.

PS…

It’s worth checking this out, too - some nice art, commentary, and event synopses: Darryl Cagle’s Editorial Cartoon Year-in-review

I disagree with China in so many things, from both political and ethical positions. But, i cannot help but feel immense respect for them as they take this important step into their own future.

I hope that Lt. Col. Yang Liwei lands safely at the end of his flight and that they continue to pursue this course. If they do, it will hopefully act as a goad, driving the space program in the US forward.

Perhaps now, in the same spirit that drove them during the cold war, the US will finally start putting money into space again. I can dream, can’t i?

The whole Columbia thing is still a bit depressing. I’ve been roaming about in a bit of a fog, which isn’t a good thing, given that i have a midterm on Friday. A fairly hard one, as well.

The general feeling i’m getting from this newest shuttle disaster is one of apathy and indifference, which makes me quite sad. I wish that people around me were more aware of the importance of exploration and extending our reach beyond our grasp. That is, after all, what makes us special.

Oh well.

In other news, midterms are coming up, so soon i’ll be actually stressing.. Woohoo!

All you readers out there… Are any of you still commenting? Reading? Posting?…?

What more can I say?

The crew of the Columbia are Americans Col. Rick Husband, USAF, commander; Comdr. William McCool, USN, pilot; Lt. Col. Michael Anderson, USAF, payload commander; Capt. David Brown, USN, mission specialist; Dr. Laurel Clark, Comdr, USN, mission specialist; and Kaplana Chawla, mission specialist; and Israeli Col. Ilan Ramon, IAF, mission specialist.

We pray for one last landing
On the globe that gave us birth;
Let us rest our eyes on friendly skies
And the cool, green hills of Earth.
Robert A. Heinlein, The Green Hills of Earth

Update:

It has turned up in my readings of commentary on this event that a CBC Newsworld interviewer took this event as an opportunity to whip the “American Arrogance” horse again (from The Ghost of a Flea):

CBC Newsworld just interviewed writer Robert Sawyer for his reflections on the shuttle program and potential causes of the disaster. The Newsworld interviewer asked Sawyer whether the cause was “arrogance” on the part of the U.S. government. (Sawyer said no.) This is one of the most odious questions I can imagine. It took minutes for the CBC to twist a tragedy into a politically motivated theatre of hate. Talk about manufacturing consent.

I don’t know how to respond to this… CBC is supposedly the Canadian perspective. But that’s just beyond the pale. I am going to reserve further comment until i see the interview, or read a transcript thereof, for myself, but…

Words fail me.

But they didn’t fail Jeff Fecke (Blog of the Moderate Left):

Well, if this is arrogance — exploring space for science, pushing the envelope of the human experience, doing what our species has always done — then I support it. If it is arrogant to want to learn, we are arrogant. If it is arrogant to want to explore, we are arrogant. If it is arrogant to risk our lives for the possibility of a better future for all mankind, we are arrogant. Mankind is arrogant. We believe foolish things—that we may one day cure cancer, that we may one day develop new forms of energy, that we may one day walk on Mars. We believe these foolish things, and we dedicate ourselves to achieving them. How ridiculous. How arrogant. And people die for these things. And people are injured for life. The astronauts of Apollo 1, and the Challenger, and now, sadly, the Columbia have died for the arrogant belief that we can be more than we are, that we can walk on the moon, that we can touch the stars. This arrogance is not American in nature. It is human. It is human arrogance that led us from the veldt of Africa to the ice-bound wastelands of Europe, across the Bering Strait into the Americas, across oceans to Australia and Oceana. It is human arrogance that leads thousands of people to live in the frigid environment of Antarctica, that leads explorers to dive miles under the oceans in bathyscapes. This arrogance is our species’ birthright. It is what defines us. If we were not arrogant, we never would have flown. We never would have domesicated the horse. We would have died in the caves, unwilling to strive to be more than we are. So call us arrogant for building the space shuttle. Call the men and woman who gave their lives today arrogant for believing they could fly to space and return to tell about it. But don’t call us wrong. For this arrogance defines humanity. And I would rather our species be arrogant than afraid.

I wish there was a way to show people that staying stuck on this planet is no way to have a future. We, as a species, are best served by planning for a time when Earth can no longer support us. And the critical first steps must be taken early, since we cannot predict when our time may run out, nor can we predict how long we’ll need to learn to make our ways in the greater universe. Mankind was building ships for generations before it became safe to travel between continents - centuries, even. So what makes anyone think that space travel will be any different?

This has to start now.

…but i fear it won’t.