Space…the final frontier
“To boldly go where no man has gone before”
“In a galaxy far far away”
Let’s face it, if it wasn’t for Star Wars episodes 1,2, 3, and 7; most reading this wouldn’t understand that second reference, probably don’t get the first one, and are more likely to understand “To infinity and beyond”. I get it, we all get it. Millennials read and write blogs and no one wants to listen to this old man profess. A generation whose idea of space exploration is more focused on Wall-E and what happens when we destroy the Earth and have to flee. No, that isn’t a global warming pitch, but someday it will happen. Anyway, I already digressed… My concern is reviving a generation’s interest in space.
The Space Race began in the after WWII when missile based nuclear arms led to technological advancement. The goal for global domination quickly focused on who can get away from the globe further faster and longer. July 28, 1955, the United States said they were going to launch a satellite; four days later the Soviet Union said they would too. For those who haven’t used the Google machine on that phrase yet, the Soviet Union was the former conglomerate of all those countries still in turmoil; Russia, Georgia, Ukraine, etc. Again, digression.
The Russians beat the US in 1957 by orbiting Sputnik 1 and had the first human in space in 1961. “Oh no you didn’t”, replied the US by landing Apollo 11 on the moon. Two heroes named Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin (Buzz — getting the Toy Story connections now?) took “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” and walked on the surface of the moon. The United States won…’Murica, hell yeah. Now that we won, we could broker deals, space peace deals to use space peacefully. Then we spent 50 years (and still going) of blasting satellite after satellite into space. Tons of space junk orbiting the planet.
Fast forward to January 1986, I was in an orthodontist chair getting my braces tightened and an assistant ran in exclaiming, “It just blew up, it just blew up”. After realizing that she was not speaking about a piece of office equipment, we were glued to the TV for the breaking news that the Space Shuttle Challenger had exploded 73 seconds after takeoff. This set back our space program and my orthodontist’s visits. A shuttle on its 10th mission had violently exploded killing seven crew members including a civilian school teacher. Was this nation willing to lose astronauts and civilians in such as violent televised manner in the name of space exploration? The Space shuttle program was suspended for 6 years before the next launch.
Another two decade fast forward. China announced recently that they plan on landing on the moon and returning in 2017, but in 2020, they will land a ship on the dark side of the moon.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/21/asia/china-moon-exploration-dark-side/index.html
Prior to this announcement, the only thing I knew about the dark side of the moon was:
And, the voice I heard repeatedly, “There is no dark-side of the moon really. Matter of fact it’s all dark”.
As China flies to the dark side, American private industry, namely SpaceX, is attempting to revolutionize space flight. SpaceX was created by a PayPal creator and the Tesla CEO. The company based out of California is trying a unique approach to mastering space travel. Stick the landing!! They have managed to land on solid ground, then failed violently to land on a floating platform,
The floating platform enables landing further away from populations and to move the platform under the ship as it lands. Most recently, SpaceX was able to have the engines hover; an important step in landing softly.
I bring up these two stories to summarize a few different points. Is the new space race on? China vs US? And will it be private industry or government?
Recently, Old Navy received backlash and community complaints for selling this shirt:
The complaint was “What’s wrong with artists? The world needs artists”. Old Navy’s response was to duck, cover and retreat. My response is “What’s wrong with astronauts? The world needs those also”. Don’t discourage the sciences.
To answer the above questions about who, when, and where is the direction of space travel going in, I turn to a wise philosopher:
“Whenever anybody says there’s anything we can’t do, I mean after all, there’s an American flag on the moon” -Brad Paisley
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