This page contains an archive of all entries posted to Confessions of a Jesus Phreak in the Space Exploration category. Entries are listed from oldest to newest.
WARNING: This is long and impassioned, but it will explain where I'm coming from regarding space exploration.
For as long as I can remember, I have been enamored of space exploration. My first memories of the U.S. space program were of me sitting in the living room with my family, watching the Apollo Saturn V vehicle steaming on the launch pad, while Uncle Walter's voice intoned a description of man's future in space. In those days (I was all of six years old), I would take three of my Mom's dining room chairs and lay them on their backs. This was my "Apollo capsule." My dream from that day on was to become an astronaut. I wanted it so bad I could taste it. I never even considered a "plan b."
I grew up with the Apollo program. My goal was to grow up to be an astronaut.
Fast forward to high school. Twelve years later, we hadn't had an American in space in 5 years, except for the inaugural flight of the space shuttle. I was really excited about that, but soon realized that it was a vehicle in search of a mission. It only went to Low Earth Orbit (LEO), after all. This wasn't exploration, it was a taxi service! The Challenger accident only served to underline that it was even more dangerous than we were supposed to believe. Still, I would have given anything to "ride the fire" into space - even LEO!
In the meantime, I joined the Air Force and got married. With the pressures and concerns of raising and supporting a family, I all but forgot my dreams of spaceflight. Then came Ron Howard's Apollo 13. As I walked out of the theater, I was overwhelmed with emotion. I literally bawled my eyes out for ten minutes. This movie, with its superb storytelling and awesome effects, had brought back to the surface what had been suppressed in my subconscious for almost ten years. It forced me to remember the yearning to go into space with which I had grown up.
I went into overdrive, devouring everything I could get my hands on about the early space program. I journeyed to Johnson Space Center six times that year. The following year I bought a season pass for my family to Space Center Houston! I've been to Kennedy Space Center (which has been Disneyfied beyond belief) five times, Marshall Space Flight Center twice, Jet Propulsion Labs once, and seen two shuttle launches (STS-94 and STS-95). They may only be playing taxi, but it's still a spectacular sight.
With time, though, I realized that If we are going to ever go into space for real, it won't be NASA that does it. It will be civilian companies that do it to make money. There is ample precedent for this. When explorers left the old world, they were financed by companies who were looking for gold, exotic goods, etc. I believe this is how we will eventually expand into space on a large scale.
In 1998, I read a book by some guy named Robert Zubrin. The title was The Case for Mars. In it, Mr. Zubrin explained logically and thoroughly how we could get people to Mars within a decade, using present-day technology. Not only that but it could be done for only about forty billion dollars! Now, that's a lot of money, but all NASA's studies up to that point had estimated over a quarter of a trillion dollars!
Upon reading this book I got real excited. Mr. Zubrin had made a believer out of me. At the same time, he and a group of scientists and space advocates known as the "Mars Underground" were forming an organization called the Mars Society.
Unfortunately,I don't think any group will make a difference until individuals get motivated to do so. Robert Zubrin is a great motivator on paper. Unfortunately, based on public statements and documents, he seems to be a control freak. That, combined with the cult of personality that the Mars Society has become, limits (or negates) any effectiveness in advocating for manned space exploration. Also, it is my experience that even most people who are interested in such things want to sit back and be spoon-fed, rather than get out and do something about it. Apathy abounds, not only in the general populace, but in those of use who should be most motivated to make a difference. Try the National Space Society, Space Frontier Society, or the Planetary Society. They at least seem to be able to move in the right direction.
"Earth is the cradle of humanity, but one cannot live in a cradle forever." - Konstantin E. Tsiolkovski
That brings us to today. I'm not bitter, though it may sound that way; just a little more aware of human nature. But I cannot forget the above quote from Tsiolkovski. We have been in space for over forty years now, and the vast majority of our own planetary system is still unexplored. Let's get out there and do something about it!
On this day in 1958, President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, which created NASA and led directly to Neil Armstrong taking a jaunt across the Sea of Tranquility. Armstrong's trek took place 33 years ago. I think we need to get it in gear, and get our collective a$$ to Mars!
Thirty-six years ago today, at 6:31 P.M., EST, astronauts Ed White, Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee were killed when their capsule caught fire and burned during a "plugs-out" systems test. In eighteen seconds, they were gone from this mortal coil.
Two and a half years later, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon. If Gus had lived, there's a good chance it would have been him to command Apollo 11.
Chances are, most folks today don't even know about that terrible tragedy. But I remember. Rand Simberg and Orrin Judd remember. Many others of the Apollo generation remember today, and stop, if only for a moment.
January 28th, 1986 , 11:39am "Challenger, go at throttle up..." "Roger, go at throttle up..." "...uh-oh..." "One minute fifteen seconds... velocity 2900 feet per second... altitude nine nautical miles... downrange distance seven nautical ... miles... " ...Flight controllers are looking very carefully at the situation... obviously a major malfunction... we have no downlink.... "
Seventeen years ago today, The shuttle Challenger was destroyed, 72 seconds after liftoff.
The Crew:
Francis R. Scobee, Commander Michael J. Smith, Pilot Judith A. Resnick, Mission Specialist Ellison Onizuka, Mission Specialist Ronald E. McNair, Mission Specialist Gregory A. Jarvis, Payload Specialist S. Christa McAuliffe, Teacher in Space
all perished.
Hearing those words, seeing that image, even after 17 years . . . I still almost get sick to my stomach.
I remember where I was when I heard about it. I was working as a drafter, and the man in the next cubicle (who had a radio) stood and shouted, "The shuttle just blew up!"
After a moment of shocked disbelief, I rushed back to my apartment, flipped on the TV and saw that awful footage replayed over and over . . .
When I got back to work, I called my then-fiance, who was attending Baylor University. I tried to tell her what had happened, but I just broke down sobbing.
Many saw the Challenger disaster as a sign that we shouldn't be "wasting our time" going into space. The next day, some jerk asked me, "So, space-boy, do you still want to fly on the shuttle?" I looked him square in the eye and replied, "In a heartbeat."
Jerrry Pournelle has some good information on what we must do following this tragedy. There is also a this:
Robert Heinlein wrote a verse in one of his short stories, of the Prayer for Travelers:
Almighty Ruler of the all, Whose Power extends to great and small, Who guides the stars with steadfast law, Whose least creation fills with awe, O grant thy mercy and thy grace, To those who venture into space.
A chunk of foam from the ET hit the leading edge and bottom of the left wing during ascent to orbit.
In the technical news conference that I'm watching, they are saying that they lost sensor readings from that area, with fluctuations in temperature and loss of tire pressure on the left main gear just prior to breakup.
It sounds like a direct link to me. If so, then they were doomed before they made orbit.
UPDATE: Rand Simberg has some astute observations about what might have happened, and what this could mean to the space program.
UPDATE: The debris field is spread over southeast Texas, and southwest Louisiana. Several buildings in Nacogdoches TX have suffered damage from falling debris. President Bush will make a statement at noon.
UPDATE: Instapundit has some good coverage and linkage as well.
I'm actually more excited by this than the prospect of the shuttle returning to service. I am convinced that grand government programs are a dead-end. If you look at history, most exploration has been (at least at first) driven by the profit motive. Show a way that a buck can be turned in microgravity, and capitalists will be on it like white on rice.
Another parallel can be drawn with early commercial ocean travel, as well as early commercial air travel. Both were extremely expensive, being the domain of the rich upper class. Yet both are now within the reach of most Americans today. I think that commercial spaceflight will follow a similar path. Maybe I'll travel into space during my lifetime, after all.
UPDATE: A "major award" to anyone who can name the reference in the title of this entry.
UPDATE 2: According to their press release, yhey have set a date: 21 June, 2004. Remeber that date: it may go down in history.
SpaceShipOne is due to fire its engine at any moment now. Rand Simberg is blogging about it live from onsite at the Mojave Spaceport. He's got it covered, and is promising photos. CNN and Fox are broadcasting it live from what I understand. Of course, I'm at work behind a firewall, so I can't watch it. If you're near a TV, though, get thee hence!
On July 20, 1969, The single greatest technological achievement of all time was accomplished when a human first set foot on another celestial body.
Six hours after landing at 4:17 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (with less than 30 seconds of fuel remaining), Neil A. Armstrong took the "Small Step" into our greater future when he stepped off the Lunar Module, Eagle, onto the surface of the Moon, from which he could look up and see Earth in the heavens as no one had done before him.*
Three years, five months later, Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt left the moon; no one has been there since. Now, I'm not going to launch (no pun intended) on my patented tirade about the lack of progress since then. Instead I'll look at where we are going now.
