Today, anyone with an average computer and an internet connection can go to the Moon or even Mars thorough Google Earth...
What happened to the manned space program in the last 40 years? We visited the Moon a couple of more times, docked a Russian space craft with an American one and put up Skylab, Mir, the ISS and various other space stations, and were generally stuck in lower-Earth orbit for 4 decades. Tsk Tsk Humans!
All this while the human race achieved immense leaps in the fields of computing, robotics and other sciences needed to make a journey possible... We created the shuttle, a spacecraft with unmatched capabilities, but never really used it to it's full potential. We sent dozens of very successful unmanned missions around the solar system (and in the case of Voyager, beyond the solar system as well!) and as I mentioned before, even a bored teenager sitting in front of a computer has more knowledge about Mars than NASA ever had of the Moon before the start of the Apollo program...
So what has kept our feet grounded on this matter? Is it Environmental concerns? I don't think so, coz every day millions of people start their day by polluting the environment with their car engines... Is it safety concerns? not really! (although there's a possibility that a solar flare can fry the astronauts like omelets inside the spacecraft... hik hik) Is it a lack of technology? Most certainly not!
So what's basically keeping us from Mars is the lack of political will, and a president who's willing to put his money where his mouth is... Our generation certainly needs a bold Kennedy, and till that day comes, we'll all have to do with Google Earth!
note: any comments suggesting that the Moon landing was a hoax will be given the Patented Buzz Aldrin Conspiracy Theorist Treatment! lol ;)
True, but what is the point in going to the moon?
ReplyDeleteA few decades ago it was national pride and a space race.
NASA estimates it will cost around a 100$ billion to go back to the moon.
Also Buzz Aldrin himself,stated that going to Mars via the moon is not a good option, even better would be to go directly to Mars.
At a time when there the economy is recovering from the worst economic crisis in recent memory, when unemployment is high and the fiscal deficit is close to a trillion dollars. It would be incredibly wasteful to spend so much money to Mars to explore the area. Right now spending is needed for basic infarstructure, healthcare, education , etc.
It would be political suicide to give NASA so much money to go to the moon or even Mars. Also why waste so much resources with manned programs when unmanned probes stand to do an equal or even better job over a longer period of time.
Its about time the government got its priorities right, instead of starting to explore the solar system, its time the US government spent money on saving this planet and its economy.
IOW, thank god the US government isn't funding a mission to the moon or Mars anytime soon.
Also guys check out www.lankapedia.lk . a fully functional Sri Lankan on-line encyclopaedia, which needs your help to start evolving. so start contributing :)
@Navam: well, let's put it this way: it's never cheap or easy to send your kids to university, but parents work day and night to find enough money to send their kids in, since they want them to be educated and have a bright future. space exploration is like university for the human race... it's the only way that our future can be secured. what if an asteroid hits the Earth tomorrow and throws us into perpetual darkness... that'd be the end of us, and known life in this solar system. Also: unmanned space vehicles cannot do what a human settlement can do. I am not advocating visiting Mars for the sake of visiting, I'm advocating a permanent settlement on Mars.
ReplyDeleteRemember what brought the Europeans to India (and through accident to America), it is the need for resources. The Earth's supplies are rapidly running out, and we need to mine in other planets to meet the demand. It is said there will be enough Tritium (H3) on the Moon for us to run fusion reactors and provide power for centuries... (if we ever get to perfecting the fusion power plant that is)
the bottom line is that humans have lost their drive, their determination to explore the unknown... their desire to conquer new and uncharted territory.
and we should also not forget: the space programme developed some of the most important technologies used by man today, and funneling money into such a project always ends up having a positive effect on the general human population...
thanks for the comment Navam and the link to the encyclopedia, will check it out! :)
Wow.. a very informative and interesting post. And yep, I agree with Chavie on that. It sure costs a fortune no doubt, but why not be a lil more innovative like we do with everything else and find some budget exploration means. and I feel humans have enough brains to do so.
ReplyDeletePlus, it's weird that people often forget where they live. o__O Gosh.. if you take the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and all those comets, etc. entering our solar system, our lives are at constant danger from ET. And we still don't have enough technology to survive a similar or bigger shoemaker levy type of crash.
True there are priorities but what about the priority given to the only place we could call home in this entire universe?! Don't ever forget, if it's gone.. we're gone too!
Thanks heaps for bringing up this great topic Chavie. It used to be one of my favorite subjects during schooling days. ^__^
oh.. and I almost forgot.. that's such a classic pic. I totally thought the earth was the moon.. until I looked at it more closely! -__- hehe..
ReplyDeleteI accept your counter-argument Chavie, but I still agree with Navam. No one's saying that the space programme should be shut down, and everyone acknowledges that our lives have benefited from scientific advances in the field. But if a manned Moon landing actually costs as much as Navam says it does, don't you think there's a hell of a lot more we can do with that money right here, right now?
ReplyDeleteThere are current global problems that we do have the technology to fix, but not necessarily the funds. In this climate, how can a government, entrusted with carrying out its citizens' mandate, justify spending so much money on something that won't bring dividends for at least another generation? Investing in the future is extremely important, but at the expense of the present...? I don't think so. If I had 100 bucks, I would save maybe 20 for the future and use 80 for now...not the other way around, which is what I think a 60s-esque space programme would require.
As for humans losing the determination to explore the unknown, being in research I can tell you that you couldn't be further from the truth. The space race was political - pure and simple. At that time, 'space exploration' was the flavour of the week...today it's 'renewable energy'. Tomorrow, it'll be something else.
@Harumi: Yes, and if America won't/can't do it, China most certainly will! :)
ReplyDeleteWe definitely don't have the technology... gosh we don't even have the technology to reverse global warming, how will we ever deal with the huge climatic impact that all the dust kicked up by a collision will cause... (if the collision itself doesn't destroy Earth, that is!)
It was one of my favorite topics too... always dreamt that we would've begun the mission to Mars by now when I was a kid, but sadly it was not to be... I think the Columbia disaster set us back too, since the shuttle had huge potential as a load carrying vehicle which would've helped us reach Mars or the Moon!
btw, that is indeed a classic pic, it's called Earthrise and in fact it even predates the Apollo 11 mission... :)
thanks for the comment Harumi! :)
@PseudoRandom: I'm just saying that space will pay back dividend for humankind... remember Queen Isabella investing in Christopher Colombus, and how much treasure the Spaniards got from the Americas in return?
ReplyDeleteI'm just saying that instead of sending people to lower Earth orbit, we should just take the risk, and send people to Mars, looking at creating a permanent settlement there...
looking at the cost of the whole thing and going "no way!" is the easy way out, but humans need to "boldly go where no one has gone before" if they are to "live long and prosper"... if you know what I mean! ;)
thanks for the comment Pseudo! :)
The space race started mainly with the cold war where US and USSR wanted to show their supremacy without touching the nukes. After the collapse of USSR, US lost their appetite as well. Also I think the challenger disaster in mid 80s, hasten this and shut down most of the planned shuttle missions.
ReplyDeleteSo ultimately the lack of political will is the main reason for backward stance in space travelling since 80s, but I do not think it is attributed to one leader. If Bush or Clinton were the presidents in 60's they would have tried the same.
Anyway personally I do not see any need for such space travel. If an asteroid is coming our way, wiser method is to use all our nuke power and blow it apart.
Space colonization - I have my doubts :) - There will be an internal war to get selected and no one would be able to go there.
Btw heard there going to be a resurgence in space travel again in next decade, but not in the near future. See this and this :)
@Kirigalpoththa: the political reason for going to the Moon is undoubtedly the race between the US and USSR, but there was great scientific yearning to explore space and public curiosity and support in the matter too... unfortunately while the technology to go further remains, the public support and political will in both the US and Russia has waned. But as the articles you linked to pointed out, other countries like China and India will have both the public support and the political will to make it to the Moon and further...
ReplyDeleteI disagree though that anyone would've done it, to make such a bold statement about making it to the Moon before the decade is out is indeed a big gamble, putting your country's prestige on the line... Bush and Clinton being rather fiscally conservative might not have said that, but I'm only speculating... :)
Space colonization is going to happen someday, and while the pioneers are going to be selected with care, once these places become more accessible it'll probably be very easy to go there, almost like getting a visa and visiting a foreign land...
Any missions outside the ISS won't probably happen for a good 10 - 15 years, because we do not currently have any launch vehicles capable of reaching the Moon. But I am hopeful that the groundwork being laid now will take the Human race beyond Earth orbit and to new and uncharted territory...
Thanks for the comment K! :)
_how_ does this get classified under fucktards? :S Sure, the moon is brilliant, and don't get me wrong - I'm all for advances in technology - but I think it's smarter to focus our current efforts on preserving the planet we're currently living on, rather than wasting time chasing the moon.
ReplyDeleteAlterEgo: I am passionate about space exploration, and when in my belief it's underfunded, it pisses me off... I didn't do the wisest thing by classifying it under 'fucktards' or indeed writing this post (it's pretty one-sided) but I went with my emotions on this one...
ReplyDeleteAh, my Vulcan ancestors would be pretty disappointed! lol :D
also: I don't under-estimate the need to preserve the environment... and am not impressed with the progress being made, especially in countries like ours which keep losing their forests/waterways/animals because of human expansion...
Hi Chavie, Interesting write up. While I commend you for feeling so passionately about 'man on mars' and how long its taking, I'm not sure it's fair for you to say the president is 'putting his money where his mouth is'. Needless to say....I feel certain the U.S will be the first to put 'man on mars', however, there are much larger burning issues to be resolved within society first. After all, these are times of worldwide recession, so even if the president did put a damper on things, I think 'man on earth' needs to be saved before 'man on mars' is achieved. Might I ask what in your opinion did Kennedy achieve that seems incomparable when compared to with most other presidents achievments ? ( do you feel he was responsible for putting man on the moon? Was'nt Nixon president when man stepped on the moon the 1st time?) (Please correct me if I'm wrong as I studied AL British history, not US History) Eitherway Kennedy didn't live long enough to really do much ( he would have eventually and he was a good man, but he wasn't given the chance). Nonetheless, these are exciting times to live in..., the world is changing and nothing is ever going to be the same, president Obama is our promise of the inevitable, 'equal opportunity in a prejudiced world and peace and happiness for all'. After this much is achieved, there will be plenty of time for man to spend on Mars. Don't you think ?
ReplyDelete@Mommythechef: Kennedy is accredited with starting the space race in 1961 by promising to land an American on the Moon by the end of the decade, which led to Project Gemini and finally the Apollo program. The Moon landing happened only because President Kennedy made it a political priority that the US get there before the Soviets... :)
ReplyDeleteI am, like everyone else, hoping for President Obama to succeed in his mission to improve the lives of Americans and the world. But it should also be remembered that the balance of power in the world is shifting, and the US might have more pressing needs in it's hands than the space program (like it's economy and it's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan). Looking forward, Mars may prove a challenge that no one nation can achieve alone, but I am certainly hopeful (after seeing all the excellent work put in by the Russians, Americans, Japanese and ESA into creating the ISS) that maybe the voyage to Mars maybe taken up by humanity as a whole, and not one single nation... The rivalry seen during the Cold War is certainly gone, and maybe this voyage will be undertaken as a journey of science and not of science + politics, if you know what I mean... ;)
Thank you for your comment MTC! :)
Whatever said and Done Bro.. it's a great achievement and just check out the pic Without the Moon .. Earth would have been one boring place to live.. =D
ReplyDelete@Disease: Indeed, it was one of humankind's finest moments, when people came together and watched the events breathlessly... :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment bro! :D
Chavie off topic I need your help on this stooopid blog of mine. My blog still seems to state some other update instead of mine. S.O.S!
ReplyDeleteVery true.. and I can't u'stand why the Japanese who can invent almost anything out of anything can't put their hearts and soul into doing something about this! =D And it's not like I contradict with others, we do have a lot of issues to prioritize.. of course, but I'm saying, what next? We won't have anything more than satisfying the requirements.. forever.. and that's it?
ReplyDeleteAbout nuking an asteroid as K said.. I still doubt its aftermath. Just imagine if we miss it, or in case if the debris are still too big and scattered.. won't it still cause a huge disaster? Even if we succeed to blow it to smithereens, those particles would still form a ring *as in Saturn* right around the earth and might even block the Sun for many more years.. and this might even summon another ice age! *ok.. I got carried away, and that's cuz I'm so missing Ice Age 3! it's not fair that it should be shown ONLY in Liberty Colombo..!* lol
Ya.. me too! geez.. if Sir Arthur C. Clarke was still here he'd be disappointed too. Oh ya.. that was a very shocking catastrophe.. an incident that humans can't simply 'forget' and move on.
Really? Thanks for the info. BTW aren't you aspiring to join NASA? or better still.. opening a NASA-like space firm in Lanka? =D
@Harumi: neither do I... I guess it's a cultural thing, the Japanese seem to want to invent rather than explore... :)
ReplyDeletehaha your not the only one missing Ice Age I think... ;) it'll be nice if they showed it at a couple of cinemas island-wide isn't it? :) but there are always 'other methods' of getting movies no? :D
yep, accidents just happen. how many times did the Europeans try to come to India, and ended up in America or Africa or the bottom of the sea? :)
haha I don't think so... ;) that being said, some Aiyas who used to go to school with us ended up at NASA! :) so you never know! ;)
Really? oh ya.. come to think of it. That's their forte isn't it?! lol
ReplyDeleteLike Limewire? =D Yep, I'm trying and the 1st attempt failed.. got a corrupted file! 2nd attempt says, can't open file!! Going for the 3rd round now.. =D Still I'd love to watch it at the cinema hall too.. cuz you can't get those ear blasting sound fx at home ne. =D
LOL your sense of humor has improved exponentially! =D found a great tutor? hehe..
Wow.. really? Lucky aiyas.. =D Yep.. I'm sure you have all the potential to join them too.. Good Luck! =D
yep! :D they build satellites and modules for the ISS too... :)
ReplyDeletehehe true that you can't get the same experience at home, but it's still better than nothing no? ;) and as for downloads, haven't you tried torrents? I find them more reliable than Limewire because people comment and say it's a bad torrent if they don't like it... :)
haha you actually liked that? :D
no waaaaay... they were brilliant... and hardworking too! ;) I'm at best mediocre, and more 'laid back'... (a better way of saying I'm lazy! lol) :D