Monthly Archives: February 2010

NASA, politics and nasa, politics and science

Our Future in Space

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Depends on Growing NASA Anew

Space shuttle Endeavor as seen from the International Space Station. Courtesy NASA.

This image of the space shuttle is one of the most evocative and beautiful I’ve ever seen taken on orbit. It says volumes about our ability to regularly visit space and establish a threshold beyond the confines of our home planet.

What does this image say to you?  If you are one of the people who is concerned that the new direction NASA is headed is one that will bring an end to our exploration of space, this image may have an entirely different meaning than to someone who sees it as the end of an old era and the beginning of a new one. Regardless of your viewpoint, it’s a gorgeous and thought-provoking view of our presence in space.

For what it’s worth, I think that NASA needs to be redirected and guided into a more sustainable and less “grab some rocks and bring ’em home” kind of manned spaceflight future.  It’s been an ongoing struggle to define a human presence in space, especially given the challenges such a presence puts in our faces.  Robotic missions, such as the Mars landers, the orbiters, the Voyager and Cassini and Galileo and MESSENGER and Magellan planetary probes are relative “easy” to do, compared to putting humans in space.  NASA has had incredibly wonderful experiences with the robotic missions, and the images we get from HST, Spitzer, COBE, and so many other missions have revealed the wonders of the universe to us.  We will continue to do these missions and explorations — they are returning wonderful science to us every day.  The human missions and crewed explorations of the Moon and Mars and beyond?  I say, let NASA get its new sustainable future goals in place, and let these people do their jobs.  If politicians can keep their whining to a minimum (particularly those who are pandering to voters before thinking through the implications of what a sustainable NASA future can be), we might have a chance of getting a better and more robust crewed space program for our future.  If you’re a voter with a whining politician, let ’em know that they should become better informed before shooting off at the mouth.  Urge them to support NASA’s future — even if it does mean a few short-term cuts and re-arrangements. And, while you’re at it, urge your congresscritter or senator to push for better science and technology education funding.  If they don’t, they are relegating U.S. kids to second-class citizenship when it comes to science education and technology development.

national geographic, planetary science, planets, solar system

Extreme Planetary Tourism

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Explore the Solar System

— but Bring Your Adventure Gear

Some years ago my friend and colleague Paul Hodge, Professor Emeritus of Astronomy at the University of Washington, wrote a book called Higher Than Everest: An Adventurer’s Guide to the Solar System, that took the reader out to some of the most dangerous, gorgeous, and adventurous places in the solar system. I gobbled that book up because I could sit there and read it and dream about what it would be like to visit those worlds. To be sure, it would be the most extreme touristic adventure you could imagine: traversing the baking hot plains of Mercury, finding a way to dip into the Venus atmosphere and study that incredible surface; exploring Mars; braving the extreme hazards of the Jovian and Saturnian systems; warming up to Uranus and Neptune; and making one’s way to Pluto and the hinted-at treasury of other worlds that exist beyond Neptune. It would be the trip of a lifetime, if only one could fit all of that into one lifetime!

A computer-generated scene of the Galileo probe passing Io during its mission. Courtesy National Geographic.

Well, fast-forward more than a decade, and National Geographic TV has created a series called “A Traveler’s Guide to the Planets” that extends the adventure of planetary exploration  into the video realm and really makes you feel like you’re there on those other worlds.

It’s a three-night series that begins on February 14th. The folks at Nat Geo were kind enough to send me copies of two of the programs (about Jupiter and Saturn, respectively, which air on the 14th)  for preview. The presentations cover the exploration of the planets in a pretty exciting and visually stimulating way. For example, there are some really nice CG sequences set on Jupiter’s moon Io that look for all the world as if you’re standing right there, witnessing those volcanic eruptions against the backdrop of Jupiter rising over the not-too-distant horizon.

The presentations also include interesting interviews and commentary from planetary scientists like Torrance Johnson and Bob Pappalardo — both of who have worked extensively exploring the planets using remote probes such as the Voyager and Galileo spacecraft. Each hour takes you TO the planets, exploring via CG and animation just what it would be like to visit those worlds. That’s one of the coolest parts of the series — and I hope that “you are there” feeling will inspire people to learn more about the worlds of the solar system.

I’ve often wondered what our next generation of planetary explorers will find when they finally get themselves (or their spacecraft) “out there” again – with the newest instruments to help them gather data. I’m sure they’ll find wonderful things — as this series illustrates.  I hope that at least some of the audience members who see these shows will be inspired enough to join those missions of the future! There’s much to learn from the past, as these programs demonstrate — and more to find in the years to come!