10-11-2005, 03:28 AM
[An article We had published in the local newspaper here today.]
Is it just me, or has getting to the moon gotten more difficult now than the first time it was done?
With each announcement of returning to the moon and going on to Mars, my anticipation grew, and so did my irritation at the time frames. That was, until I really considered the situation.
When President Kennedy issued his historic challenge to the United States, and indeed to the world, it was 1961, and the United States was far behind in the space race. By 1969 Neil Armstrong was walking on the moon. That is about eight years.
Now NASA is talking about going back to the moon. This is great. But the target dates I have seen are from 2012 to 2020. That is seven to 15 years out. Apparently getting to the moon the second time is more difficult than the first time. One would think it takes less time to do something that has already been done. You are supposed to get better with practice, right?
But, NASA is planning something that is about a billion times more ambitious than the last moon missions. We are not talking about a touch-and-go mission anymore. We are talking about a touch-and-stay mission, with aspirations to Mars. In 1969 the objective was to keep three men alive for eight days. Today's NASA wants to keep many more people alive for years. The challenge is as large this time as it was in Kennedy's day, maybe larger.
It is not just me. It is our language and our perspective that confound the issue. This is not a Kennedy space shot, this is a colony. This is not the ride that put Neil Armstrong in the history books. This is a whole new horizon which will test American will power as much or more than American technology. It is going to take a new perspective. It is going to take new language. I have to stop thinking "Apollo" and start thinking "Mars." I have to stop thinking of eight days, and start thinking three years.
If an ardent space travel enthusiast like me can be confused for a bit, I wonder what the average person who does not follow space exploration much must be thinking? We have been sending mixed messages to the world for a long time. The moon was impossible and then it was routine. The shuttle went from cutting edge to space truck. Even the International Space Station has gone from advanced human outpost in space to space tourist hotel. It is easy to imagine that going to Mars seems like just a bigger rocket.
It is not about physics. The physics problems were solved when we sent robots to Mars. We can send robots to Mars now. They don't eat. They don't drink. They don't need air. They don't have emotions. Robots are relatively easy to send to Mars. People are impossible.
Going to Mars is about humanity. Going to the moon was about a few men for eight days. Mars is about all of us, forever. Sending people to Mars is about understanding ourselves and our place in the environment at a whole new level.
We do not know how to design an ecosphere that can sustain people for indefinite amounts of time. Going to Mars means we have to learn our place in the scheme of things. I don't mean just being on the top of the food chain. We use that phrase "food chain" but we do not even know all the links. It is a poor analogy anyway. It is not a chain, but a cycle. Mars will force us to know exactly and definitively what our place is.
Mars is not about getting samples and cool video from a dusty, cold, red-colored rock way off in space; it is about our beautiful Earth. It is about understanding the mysterious processes that happen day in and day out that supply us with all the things we need to live.
We need to go to Mars, for our sake.
We need to go to Mars, for Earth's sake.
We need to go to Mars.
TO MARS!
http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/new...on/12860970.htm
Is it just me, or has getting to the moon gotten more difficult now than the first time it was done?
With each announcement of returning to the moon and going on to Mars, my anticipation grew, and so did my irritation at the time frames. That was, until I really considered the situation.
When President Kennedy issued his historic challenge to the United States, and indeed to the world, it was 1961, and the United States was far behind in the space race. By 1969 Neil Armstrong was walking on the moon. That is about eight years.
Now NASA is talking about going back to the moon. This is great. But the target dates I have seen are from 2012 to 2020. That is seven to 15 years out. Apparently getting to the moon the second time is more difficult than the first time. One would think it takes less time to do something that has already been done. You are supposed to get better with practice, right?
But, NASA is planning something that is about a billion times more ambitious than the last moon missions. We are not talking about a touch-and-go mission anymore. We are talking about a touch-and-stay mission, with aspirations to Mars. In 1969 the objective was to keep three men alive for eight days. Today's NASA wants to keep many more people alive for years. The challenge is as large this time as it was in Kennedy's day, maybe larger.
It is not just me. It is our language and our perspective that confound the issue. This is not a Kennedy space shot, this is a colony. This is not the ride that put Neil Armstrong in the history books. This is a whole new horizon which will test American will power as much or more than American technology. It is going to take a new perspective. It is going to take new language. I have to stop thinking "Apollo" and start thinking "Mars." I have to stop thinking of eight days, and start thinking three years.
If an ardent space travel enthusiast like me can be confused for a bit, I wonder what the average person who does not follow space exploration much must be thinking? We have been sending mixed messages to the world for a long time. The moon was impossible and then it was routine. The shuttle went from cutting edge to space truck. Even the International Space Station has gone from advanced human outpost in space to space tourist hotel. It is easy to imagine that going to Mars seems like just a bigger rocket.
It is not about physics. The physics problems were solved when we sent robots to Mars. We can send robots to Mars now. They don't eat. They don't drink. They don't need air. They don't have emotions. Robots are relatively easy to send to Mars. People are impossible.
Going to Mars is about humanity. Going to the moon was about a few men for eight days. Mars is about all of us, forever. Sending people to Mars is about understanding ourselves and our place in the environment at a whole new level.
We do not know how to design an ecosphere that can sustain people for indefinite amounts of time. Going to Mars means we have to learn our place in the scheme of things. I don't mean just being on the top of the food chain. We use that phrase "food chain" but we do not even know all the links. It is a poor analogy anyway. It is not a chain, but a cycle. Mars will force us to know exactly and definitively what our place is.
Mars is not about getting samples and cool video from a dusty, cold, red-colored rock way off in space; it is about our beautiful Earth. It is about understanding the mysterious processes that happen day in and day out that supply us with all the things we need to live.
We need to go to Mars, for our sake.
We need to go to Mars, for Earth's sake.
We need to go to Mars.
TO MARS!
http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/new...on/12860970.htm