Category Archives: astronomy

astronomy, discovery, NASA, space flight, space imagery, space shuttle

We Still Have a Space Program

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But We’re Saying GoodBye to a Once-Active Part of It Today

Today is a bittersweet day for space buffs. The space shuttle Discovery left the Kennedy Space Center for the last time this morning and a few hours later made its victory lap over Washington, D.C. before settling down on the runway at Dulles Airport. It now begins its retirement at the Smithsonian’s Udvar-Hazy complex near the airport, as an exhibit. It was a thrill to see the shuttle (mated to its carrier 747) swoop over the D.C. area in a graceful display of our hopes and dreams in space. Look at the pictures below, and you’ll see not just Discovery, but the people who came out to watch her final descent. People who wanted to see something special, people who realized this was the passing of something special. It meant something to them.

Those hopes and dreams are going in a different direction these days. Ever since President Bush announced in 2004 that it would bring the program to a close and signed directives to that effect, we’ve known this day was coming. Still, it’s sad to know that the shuttle program is really coming to an end. Yet, it didn’t have to be this way. In the years since then, NASA should have had the funding and support to come up with a new means of getting to space that improved on the shuttle program.

Instead, we have begun work on what looks like an Apollo-style program that is withering on the vine, being jerked around by political considerations.  The companies working on it are doing the best they can, and I wish them the best. But they have a rough row to hoe, reinventing wheels that NASA people were raised to perfect long ago.

NASA’s other missions of planetary exploration, education, and research are also suffering, getting just enough money to keep stayin’ alive, but not exactly thriving. Tax cuts or not, NASA programs create JOBS and pride; two things that Wall Street lobbyists, Teabaggers, wingnut politicians, anti-science bigots, and many others either just don’t get or just don’t really care about.

But, many, many people of our country DO care. The space program is part of our national psyche, something we’ve always been proud of.  Just look at the faces of the people who lined D.C.’s roads today, flocked to viewing sites, and took millions of images and videos to post on the Web and Facebook and Flickr and other sites, and tell ME they don’t care.  It excites them.

The political hacks who are helping to “ungrow” our space program one program at a time are mocking that excitement; worse, they’re mocking a thing that makes many Americans feel good about what we can accomplish if we set our minds to it. They’re mocking fellow Americans, and that seems almost traitorous.

Don’t get me wrong. I know that we had an aging shuttle fleet and that it would have needed to be retired sooner or later. That’s the nature of technological change. And, for the record, I doubt there’s very much the current administration could have done to resurrect the shuttle program. By the time President Obama took office, the shuttle program was too far gone to bring back. The relevant work needed to be done well before Bush left office. A new program that built on the success of the shuttle, rather than going back to “spam in a can” designs should have started up as soon as Bush signed the warrant killing the old one. But, that didn’t happen, and so today, we have our last shuttles becoming museum pieces. And, not to put too fine a point on it, but Congress (more so than the President) bears a HUGE responsibility for funding for NASA. Congress has not met that responsibility; indeed, rather than admit that, some members prefer to finger-point away from themselves, blaming the President or anybody else even as they gut the NASA budget. Hypocritical much?

The good news? We still have a space program, but one that is being gutted by science-intolerant hacks intent on wrecking government in order to save it. Our space program, which costs YOU and ME (if you’re a U.S. citizen) LESS than half a cent apiece, is a job creator. It’s a technology incubator. It educates. It inspires. It returns MORE to our economy than it takes in. It feeds the future, which is something we need. It shouldn’t be ripped to shreds by politicians in Congress who waste their taxpayer-paid salaries and gold standard benefits (that WE pay for) creating and wallowing in ugly political pigsties in order to get elected (or re-elected). Perhaps if we didn’t vote for people whose only intent is to destroy jobs and technological innovation in their efforts to pander, things would change. But, that’s a rant for a different day.

Several million young stars are vying for attention in this NASA Hubble Space Telescope image of a raucous stellar breeding ground in 30 Doradus, located in the heart of the Tarantula Nebula. Courtesy NASA/STScI. Click to embiggen.

Today, let’s focus on the beauty of what our space program does provide: some of the most gorgeous insights into our cosmos that anyone on Earth has ever been given. That’s priceless.  You can’t put a value on it, or what it does for the human spirit. Or what it pays forward in terms of knowledge and advancement in fields as diverse as biology and medicine and chemistry and physics, astronomy, and technology.

Yes, we can acknowledge the graceful beauty of the shuttles, the sadness of their passing, as is entirely right and proper. It is the end of an era and all such ends should give us pause to reflect on what we have accomplished and what remains to be done.

But, let’s also look at what our space program still offers us. For example, this gorgeous view of star formation in a nearby galaxy, released to celebrate Hubble’s 22nd anniversary of its launch to Earth orbit.

This is what investment in scientific knowledge gets you on the front end — the technological savvy to take pretty pictures AND explain them and relate them to our lives here on Earth. That kind of research IS an investment, and it pays off HUGE dividends on down the line. We just have to focus the attention of our leaders, to help them see their way clear to reupping and maintaining that investment.

astronomy

Stars at Sea

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Speaking of Astronomy…

When I’m not writing books or blog entries or writing scripts for documentaries about astronomy, I spend some time at sea each year as an enrichment speaker on cruise ships.  I began doing these in 2001, and over the years have spoken to thousands of people aboard various sizes of cruise ships about astronomy and space science. Lately I’ve been doing them on behalf of the Smithsonian Institution and their travel department, a relationship that I’m very pleased to maintain.

You’d think that cruising would be a great time to spend under the stars — and oftentimes, it is.  There you are, out in the middle of the ocean, nothing but you, the stars, the ship, and a crowd of people onboard.  What’s not to like?

Sometimes however, as happens on land, clouds encroach, there’s light pollution obscuring the view, and as in “real life” (instead of “vacation life”), other activities impinge on the time for stargazing. Cruise ship activity directors are employed to make sure that you have something to do (if you want to), whether it’s talks from people like me (and the other speakers), dancing, eating, learning a craft, taking in a show, and many other activities.

Still, when the conditions are right, the skies are clear and the lights are low, there’s nothing like standing up on the top deck, out in the middle of the ocean, and admiring the view.  I remember one of my early cruises, the captain would turn off all the lights up there and we’d bask in the starry skies. On the flip side, I was once on a ship that had a huge “jumbo-tron” movie screen on the top deck and the light pollution was enough to drown out all but the brightest stars and planets. So, the romance of the stars at sea has various realities, not all of them good ones.

One of the things I enjoy most is talking one-on-one with my fellow passengers. I encourage folks to ask any questions they want about astronomy, and the results are always amusing and enlightening. One time, I had just finished a presentation about some of the major discoveries made by the Hubble Space Telescope, and in the Q&A a person asked me about the nature of time and space.  Another time on a cruise around South America, I had a wonderful conversation up top with a rabbi about the nature of the stars.  After another I gave talk about the Moon, a fellow got up and asked me if I knew how the Apollo missions’ orbits were plotted. Turned out he was a retired JPL employee and had spent part of his career working on just that very problem.

And, the questions don’t just come from the passengers. One memorable night off the coast of Chile, we were standing out on the back deck and our table steward approached me with a question about astronomy. Mark and I ended up giving him a little private star party, and he shared with us some of the star legends of his society.  You can’t beat astronomy for bringing people together!

One of the most frequently asked questions I get is “how can we tell cosmic distances?”  People also ask me about things they’ve read in the media — such as the latest exoplanet discovery — and it gives me a lot of insight into how the media is handling such science topics.

What I like is that people are so darned interested in the stars. I often hear from someone that they used to have a telescope when they were a kid, or that they always loved going to the planetarium when they were in school.  So, it seems that astronomy is a universal topic we can all relate to. The truth is, no matter where I go in the world, people do have an interest in the skies.  We all share the skies, and grow up under the same sky — no matter where we call home. That’s a very valuable lesson to learn, no matter where you cruise in your life.

Speaking of stargazing, check out this month’s edition of “Our Night Sky”, the video stargazing tour I do each  month for Astrocast.TV.  It hits some of the high points of April’ s night skies — just enough to give you a taste of what’s up.  Use it as a springboard for your own stargazing adventures!