I was fascinated by Apollo-Soyuz at the time - I was eight years old, and drew a picture of it at school.
I don't remember the moon landing, though. I was probably sleeping the sleep of the Knackered Toddler...
The Space Shuttle launches one final time today
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I don't remember the moon landing, though. I was probably sleeping the sleep of the Knackered Toddler...
That was just freakin' fantastic!!!!! I have never been this emotional since the flight after the Challenger and her astronauts met their very sad demise. The gentleman CNN was interviewing was very interesting on the future of the space program and the need to go out of the lower atmosphere and go further out into space. All I can say is:
"Where NO man has gone before!"
"Where NO man has gone before!"
But why?
Don't get me wrong, I'm not necesssarily opposed to human spaceflight, but you've got to have a purpose and a goal where the benefit at least somewhat balances the costs. Spending billions just to pursue some romantic notions that make us feel better about ourselves is not a sufficient enough reason. Of course, this has always been the case... despite the all the pathos surrounding it, the US went to moon because the US wanted to beat the Russians there for political reasons.
It is for the very same reason that I personally welcome the expected expansion of private spaceflight though. Spaceflight has to make a profit in order to stay viable. If it becomes economically viable, maybe we'll return to the Moon someday. Originally, human spaceflight programs were conducted because of geopolitics, I wouldn't exactly shed a tear if they're continued because you can make a buck there.
"Mum! Mum! What's that spaceship doing to the other spaceship? I can see it's docking port! Wow!"
Just got back from Titusville. Had a great view of the launch from one of the state parks about 10 miles from the pad.
My mental image upon hearing the reason for the hold at t31: I imagine a guy in mission control leaning back from his console to the guy behind him and saying, "Frank! what the hell?"
My mental image upon hearing the reason for the hold at t31: I imagine a guy in mission control leaning back from his console to the guy behind him and saying, "Frank! what the hell?"
The purpose would be just the "start" of interplanetry exploration. Just how much do you think we could rape this planet even more?...BUT that is another topic.
I'm sorry, but I don't buy this planet raping idea. Regardless of what happens to the planet here, it would still be a better place to live than anywhere else in the solar system. Even after the most devastating calamity, Earth would be more inhabitable than Mars. And you're overestimating us and underestimating nature, don't worry, nature isn't going anywhere.
The reason to go is because we want and we can. Because it is amazing. Because we will learn. Because we will develop even more wonderful technologies to do it. Because we will progress even further and the life of humanity will be slightly different. Because when you look into the sky and point at Mars you could say “There are people living there right now,” shedding a tear.
Not keeping all your eggs in the same basket is a good idea, but this basked isn't going anywhere soon, learning how to use the other baskets is not that urgent of a matter. Going ahead is what is.
The reason to go is because we want and we can. Because it is amazing. Because we will learn. Because we will develop even more wonderful technologies to do it. Because we will progress even further and the life of humanity will be slightly different. Because when you look into the sky and point at Mars you could say “There are people living there right now,” shedding a tear.
Not keeping all your eggs in the same basket is a good idea, but this basked isn't going anywhere soon, learning how to use the other baskets is not that urgent of a matter. Going ahead is what is.
That's the problem. This basket isn't going anywhere. It's a nice stationary target for any random piece of rock to hit and wipe us out. Better to have multiple baskets. It lessens the chances that the loss of any one will destroy the human race. Hell, the Yellowstone supervolcano could wipe most of us out.
But the probability of such impact is low enough that it isn't an urgent matter. Excluding Theia, has such impact ever happened? Anything that a regular major asteroid (let alone a Yellowstone eruption) could do will still leave the Earth more inhabitable than Mars. By a regular major asteroid I mean one like the one that caused the Permian extinction. And the probability of a one like that is still too negligent to make us hurry.
A thousand years won't make a difference at a cosmic scale, if we go to Mars a thousand years later it wouldn't matter that much. What does matter is that if we lacked the yearning to go to Mars, we wouldn't have gotten out of the caves, and then we would be extinct already. We need to follow our desire to expand and learn regardless of the probabilities of some unimaginable event, because if we don't we would be unknowingly holding back our own development, and this has much more chance to be our demise than some overrated space rock.
A thousand years won't make a difference at a cosmic scale, if we go to Mars a thousand years later it wouldn't matter that much. What does matter is that if we lacked the yearning to go to Mars, we wouldn't have gotten out of the caves, and then we would be extinct already. We need to follow our desire to expand and learn regardless of the probabilities of some unimaginable event, because if we don't we would be unknowingly holding back our own development, and this has much more chance to be our demise than some overrated space rock.
Wasn't there a guy on here who was going to take care of that for us by building a dome over it?
Interplanetary exploration is conducted very well by unmanned probes (although it is less sexy). Trying to keep our own planet habitable is much, much cheaper and practical than actually colonizing another planet.
I maintain that the best reason for conducting manned spaceflight in the near future will be: for the money.
Unmanned probes don't give you experience of how humans fare in space. Unmanned probes can't build extraterrestrial structures like a space station (yet). Unmanned probes can't repair telescopes. Unmanned probes don't allow for easy improvisations and can't improvise on their own when you have minutes or hours of delay. Unmanned probes still do far less work than a human would, they even move slower.
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