The sidewalk due to be replaced had a semicircle cut in one side, because once upon a time there was a stout tree on the boulevard. For decades the semicircle was the only sign the tree had been there at all. Now it’ll be replaced. There’s about a hundred years of history reflected in that process, and as far as the universe is concerned it’s the flutter of a hummingbird’s ventricle. That’s why we’re here: the passing of time has no meaning unless experienced by conscious beings. Better if they have imaginations, too: look at the depth of the cut in the sidewalk. Stout trunk, tall tree. An elm, probably. Whoever lived in that house in ’41 parked under the tree in the afternoon in July so the steering wheel didn’t feel like gripping a steam iron. Dad rued the leaves. The kids loved the smell when he burned them in fall.
“That’s why we’re here.” That’s also why we should go into space, whose vastness similarly has no meaning unless someone is out there to experience it.
The forgotten opposition. Most people don’t realize how close it came to not happening, which is why they foolishly insist on trying to do it again. Not also the implicit but false assumption that Apollo (and human spaceflight in general) was about science. It wasn’t then, and it isn’t now.
Mark Whittington continues to foolishly confuse an off-hand off-teleprompter remark with policy. There is now, and never has been any “policy” for us to not return to the moon. Yesterday wasn’t the first time Lori has said we are going back, and it won’t be the last, and the White House doesn’t give a rat’s, either way. Nor will a Romney administration.
I was at Space 2012 most of the day in Pasadena, sans laptop. In theory, I can blog from my phone, but it’s very clumsy (linking is a real pain). I did see Colin Ake there (among many others) and expressed my condolences on the Masten mishap. He told me their next vehicle (which is designed to go to a hundred kilofeet) is standing up on the floor in the shop, and might be able to fly in the next two or three months. I guess they’ll have more time to work on it now that they won’t be doing as much flight test for a while…
I wonder what color the sky is on that planet? I’d fisk it, but I’m trying to finish up my space safety paper, and I’m getting ready to go to the AIAA conference in Pasadena tomorrow (and possibly Wednesday and Thursday, depending on how useful it seems).
NASA has to hope that Curiosity doesn’t find any. This is part of a broader issue. People who want to settle Mars had better hope we don’t find life there, or the biologists and greens will be decrying the “genocide” we might cause by contaminating the planet.