Space Exploration: 40 yrs since
Today July 20th 2009 is the 40th anniversary of the Lunar Landing on Mars. The Boston Globe has a great gallery of photos from the time. Also recently NASA worked with movie studios to restore the original moon landing footage to a better quality. Ironically, NASA does not own have the original tapes! After 3 years of looking they have concluded that someone taped over them. You can find some of the restored footage here at NASA’s site. Although I did not get to experience it, I do think this is one Americas greatest feats.
If NASA got $1 every time someone in a company cited John F. Kennedy’s race to the moon speech we would all be taking trips to Alpha Centauri right now! The founder of the company I used to work for used the metaphor one of the 1st times I met him in person, and it actually worked on me. It wasn’t that I hadn’t heard it before, it was the fact I felt he really understood the immensity of the mission and goal. Kennedy gave the speech on September 12th, 1962 and by July 1969 we had accomplished this goal as a nation. I say as a nation because I don’t think there have been many goals set in my lifetime in which a major majority of Americans have worked towards it (or cared). So even though I was not there, through my eyes, I do see it as national effort. Here is JFK’s speech:
The mission itself is mind blowing even by today’s standards. Disregard how rapidly we have advanced technologically since that point, the financial and logistical aspects of the mission make it seem impossible today. But somehow in roughly 6 yrs. and 9 months we accomplished it. With todays space program I think the general public has a sense of security, that rarely things will go wrong. Back then when it was pioneering and no one had a manuel to turn to it was an era of space cowboys. There were no astronauts, just test pilots. All of which who knew the risk of dying every time they flew and did it anyways. I find it all to be very gritty and real.
I know a part of that sounds romanticized, and I think a part of it is for most Americans. Every time I have heard someone reference the speech (including the founder of my old company) in a corporate environment there is always a little voice in the back of my head that says, “Yes, but they were motivated. Motivated by fear”. And at the time Americans were fearful, and they were motivated by the Russians and what they were doing. How is that supposed to relate to my job (well, maybe I can see it in this economic climate)? With that said I still find it very inspiring. Fear is as good a motivator as any! And the fact is the country came together and we accomplished it, that is the part I look at. I just hope we as a nation still have that today. The fact is in the last 15 years there have been many incidents that I would think would have gotten us to that point. I just have not seen the unification of the nation around any one of them. Sadly if fear hasn’t been able to motivate people, how are the more cerebral ones supposed to job? I am shocked at how far President Obama’s universal healthcare program has gotten so far (stay tuned…)!
One repeating theme every year about this time is how we have not gone back to the moon. How our space program is not a priority, how we produce less engineers out of our schools, how our program is in decline. I have had a different opinion for awhile and here are a couple projects/reasons why (in no particular order):
Mars: Spirit and Opportunity Rovers:
The Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Opportunity landed on Mars on January 25, 2004. The rover was originally designed for a 90 Sol mission (a Sol, one Martian day, is slightly longer than an Earth day at 24 hours and 37 minutes). Its mission has been extended several times as it continues to make new and profound discoveries about the red planet.
SKYLAB:
America’s first experimental space station. Designed for long duration mission, Skylab program objectives were twofold: To prove that humans could live and work in space for extended periods, and to expand our knowledge of solar astronomy well beyond Earth-based observations. Successful in all respects despite early mechanical difficulties, three three-man crews occupied the Skylab workshop for a total of 171 days, 13 hours. It was the site of nearly 300 scientific and technical experiments: medical experiments on humans’ adaptability to zero gravity, solar observations, and detailed Earth resources experiments. The empty Skylab spacecraft returned to Earth July 11, 1979 scattering debris over the Indian Ocean and the sparsely settled region of Western Australia.
VOYAGER:
The twin Voyager spacecraft, launched in 1977 to travel to and explore Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, have made many intriguing discoveries, including a possible ocean of liquid water on one of Jupiter’s moons. On page 71, long-time Voyager project scientist Edward Stone of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and his colleagues detail Voyager 2’s latest finding – that the ‘bubble’ formed around the Solar System by supersonic solar wind is asymmetrical and dynamic. Stone tells Nature that the Voyager crafts will deliver more ‘firsts’ when they reach interstellar space.
NEAR SHOEMAKER:
The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous – Shoemaker (NEAR Shoemaker), named in honor of planetary scientist Gene Shoemaker, was designed to study the near Earth asteroid 433 Eros, one of the largest of the near Earth asteroids, from close orbit over a period of one year. The mission was the first-ever to orbit an asteroid and the first to touch down on the surface of an asteroid.
STARDUST:
In January 2004, the Stardust spacecraft flew through comet dust and captured specks of it in a very light, low-density substance called aerogel. During the encounter, the Dust Flux Monitor recorded rates of impact of dust particles and the Comet and Interstellar Dust Analyzer (CIDA) did real time analyses of their compositions. But primarily, Stardust captured samples and stored them for safe keep on its long journey back to Earth.
CASSINI:
Launched from Kennedy Space Center on Oct. 15, 1997, the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft will reach the Saturnian region in July 2004. The mission is composed of two elements: The Cassini orbiter that will orbit Saturn and its moons for four years, and the Huygens probe that will dive into the murky atmosphere of Titan and land on its surface. The sophisticated instruments onboard these spacecraft will provide scientists with vital data to help understand this mysterious, vast region.
MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR:
Mars Global Surveyor was the first successful U.S. mission launched to Mars since the Viking mission in 1976. After a 20-year absence at the planet, Mars Global Surveyor ushered in a new era of Mars exploration with its pioneering science investigations. Mars Global Surveyor arrived at Mars on September 11, 1997
