A Storm Trooper, a Na’vi and Mark Twain

Walk into a Mexican Restaurant…

No, this isn’t the start of a bad science fiction joke. It’s what I saw this past weekend at StarFest, a convention put on each year by StarLand.com.  I was a guest speaker on Saturday, and my talk was about Hubble Space Telescope science. I’ve given talks at StarFest (and its former sibling conference StarCon), and at WorldCon and Shore Leave and other conferences over the years. They’re always a lot of fun and the audiences are always very receptive.  This one was no exception — I was very happy to have a standing-room-only crowd, some in costume (which is always fun). And mind you, I am a Trekkie from WAY back, so I can appreciate the frame of mind in which conference-goers attend. The very first con I ever talked at (back when I was in graduate school), I was greeted by a whole troop of fully battle-clad Klingons in the front row — and I was happy to report that they did NOT hurl bat’leths at me at the end of the talk!

Now, it’s a no-brainer that astronomy and science talks might be welcome at a sci-fi/star trek/anime/gaming/you-name-it kind of convention.  There’s a certain passion that folks who are into these things also bring to the rest of their outlook on life.  They tend to be curious and intelligent and open-minded and open to new ideas and directions of discussion.  So, at such a con, it’s easy to find yourself in a conversation with a kid dressed as Harry Potter, passionately defending the idea that we should go to the Moon before we go to Mars.  Or, you find yourself chatting about NASA’s budget with (as I did) an older gentleman dressed in full steampunk.  Or, you end up in a conversation with a movie star (as I als0 did) about astrology and astronomy, and her boyfriend joining in with questions about life on other worlds.  There’s a wonderful art room, with everything from paintings and pottery to original fan-based art for all the genres. It’s coordinated by our friend Tim Kuzniar of Autumn Star science fiction, fantasy, and space art. And the dealer’s room is an amazing sight. Among the booths for belly dancing jewelry, carved dragons, and science fiction movies and books and gamers I found like-minded souls who share a sense of what’s out there, what’s to be discovered, and what piques our curiosity.

A Na'vi at Starfest. Copyright 2010, C.C. Petersen.

So, it’s a great place to experience all the artistic influences that are related in some way to space, to astronomy, to exploration… to the flights of fantasy and imagination that can give us races like Na’vi, the quaint but forward-looking writing of Mark Twain, and the power and backstory that an Empire Storm Trooper represents. Not to mention all the folks in Star Trek uniforms, Batman outfits, dressed as robots, the Terminator, animals, Na’vi, and even Charlie the Unicorn.

About the folks in the title at the top? Our friend Tim spotted them before dinner and I saw them after dinner.  I didn’t have my camera handy to catch the three of them together, although I caught this Na’vi (at left) an hour or so later after the costume contest. But, the vision  of the three of together  is in my memory — and I like the mix of metaphors, times, and ideas that bring together three people who can attend the same meeting, dressed as creatures from very different times and idea-spheres, and find common ground in a Mexican food joint.  That’s the beauty of mixing science and culture — the hybrid that is born brings you scenes like that one.  And, I look forward to going again next year, presenting a talk, and talking to whoever– and whatever — shows up!

Mars Needs Moon Bases

Practice Makes Perfect

So, the new NASA plan, according to our president, is head for Mars and not necessarily stop at the Moon first.  I’m not sure that’s a good idea.  I don’t have a problem with cancelling the Constellation program, and I certainly LOVE that NASA will get a bunch more money.  It only gets just around one HALF of one percent of the federal budget, and with that little bit, NASA does a lot of good work that we need to have done. So, I’m happy to see NASA get more money.  That money gets spent here on Earth, for jobs, tech devopment, and so on.  For that, I salute President Obama. He’s doing a darn sight more for NASA than the previous occupant of his seat ever did.

But, I think it’s pretty important that we return to the Moon as part of a long-range plan of increased exploration, including going to Mars. Here’s why.

Going to Mars is a long trip.  When you get there, there are no backups — no convenient repair shops if something goes wrong. Mars has a pretty hostile environment and we don’t really know what it takes to survive there.  However, if we start on the Moon, we can solve problems that crop up when a rescue team is only a couple of hundred thousand miles away, somewhere between 36 million and 250 million miles away.  I pretty much guarantee you that if we fling people out to Mars without the proper safeguards and “space colony building” experience, and a disaster happens, it’ll be pointed out forcefully that we should have learned our lesson in near-Earth space first.

So, hell yes, we should go back to the Moon!  Take advantage of its closeness to learn how to live in a hostile environment.  Please.