Positive Thoughts
Jun. 6th, 2004 09:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mishalakI've decided that whenever I post something negative here I must immediately follow it up with something just as, if not more, positive. Therefore I will note something that gives me hope for the future.
Scaled Composites has announced that it will make the first private manned space flight on the 21st of this month. In many ways this is the real beginning of the space age, for if space flight is to become common it cannot be something done by government to capture publicity and bragging rights. The reason we've never been back to the moon isn't because of a lack of dedication, it is because it was a shot, something done without any of the infrastructure that would make returning to the moon either logical or easy. If there had not been the cold war race I suspect that the first manned space flight would not have been until the 1970s and we would not have been to the moon yet.
This is the first tentative step that could very well be the start of a real manned presence in space. No longer a program constantly under threat due to government cuts, but people going there for their own reasons. And that is a very hopeful thing.
Scaled Composites has announced that it will make the first private manned space flight on the 21st of this month. In many ways this is the real beginning of the space age, for if space flight is to become common it cannot be something done by government to capture publicity and bragging rights. The reason we've never been back to the moon isn't because of a lack of dedication, it is because it was a shot, something done without any of the infrastructure that would make returning to the moon either logical or easy. If there had not been the cold war race I suspect that the first manned space flight would not have been until the 1970s and we would not have been to the moon yet.
This is the first tentative step that could very well be the start of a real manned presence in space. No longer a program constantly under threat due to government cuts, but people going there for their own reasons. And that is a very hopeful thing.
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Space
Date: 2004-06-06 12:45 pm (UTC)My father worked at NASA here in Cleveland and was a part of the Moon Shot. I ran the wall sized computers at 8 years old (shhhh) and saw the first tyvek and the first space foil.
He hated the government and adored me for protecting the Viet Nam war. (another story) He wanted missions and colonies and space stations.
As a radical child of a spaceman, I always thought it would be awesome to have a honeymoon resoirt on the moon. Talk about getting away and having some privacy!
But then there is the problem side of space. We burn off 1/10 of a percent of the ozone with each flights which mean that unless we can compensate, we should stop. Or only do it when it is important.
We actually may need to go off planet soon. We should at least try to make that possible.
Make it so.
hehe
And if I'm really no good for the future, I have no problem with being soylent green. Better than a nursing home!
Give me liberty or give me death.
Re: Space
Date: 2004-06-06 02:25 pm (UTC)http://scaled.com/projects/tierone/New_Index/news/091803.htm
Re: Space
Date: 2004-06-06 02:47 pm (UTC)Re: Space
Date: 2004-06-06 09:41 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-06-06 09:39 pm (UTC)"The Earth is too small a basket for humanity to keep all of its eggs in."
- Arthur C. Clarke, if my memory doesn't fail me.