Nov 1, 2004
And while we wallow in the Earthly election mire
Exploration of space continues. This article from wired.com reminds us that our exploration of space continues. Neat pictures and new mysteries concerning Titan, Saturn’s largest moon.
China continues its long-term space plans. Here’s a BBC summary of its goals of a five-day orbital mission next year. They hope to have an unmanned vehicle land on the moon by 2010 (the year they made contact).
In the meantime, NASA's manned program continues to decline as it has adopted safety standards that it’s shuttle fleet cannot meet without drastically curtailing exploration.
This is not entirely their fault. The peculiarities of politics and public attention have made each flight a combination test and research mission (which remain inherently dangerous) and photo op (which tend to backfire when people die).
Geriatric dictatorships have their downside: See this article on the harassment of internet cafes. But they do have some capacity for long-term planning that depends on incremental achievements. Barring the arrival of aliens—whether warm and fuzzy or Klingons with phasers--the effective exploration of space is going to be incremental. And manned exploration still puts lives at considerable risk.
Arthur C. Clarke once suggested that the most enduring contribution of the United States would be the space program. To the extent that it has inspired emulation by others this speculation may still have validity. But unless there is a sea change in American attitudes, it will not be led by us. In fact, it is no longer led by us, unless the private sector joy rides evolve into something more substantive.
Perhaps in the long run, that will matter more than who is elected tomorrow.
China continues its long-term space plans. Here’s a BBC summary of its goals of a five-day orbital mission next year. They hope to have an unmanned vehicle land on the moon by 2010 (the year they made contact).
In the meantime, NASA's manned program continues to decline as it has adopted safety standards that it’s shuttle fleet cannot meet without drastically curtailing exploration.
This is not entirely their fault. The peculiarities of politics and public attention have made each flight a combination test and research mission (which remain inherently dangerous) and photo op (which tend to backfire when people die).
Geriatric dictatorships have their downside: See this article on the harassment of internet cafes. But they do have some capacity for long-term planning that depends on incremental achievements. Barring the arrival of aliens—whether warm and fuzzy or Klingons with phasers--the effective exploration of space is going to be incremental. And manned exploration still puts lives at considerable risk.
Arthur C. Clarke once suggested that the most enduring contribution of the United States would be the space program. To the extent that it has inspired emulation by others this speculation may still have validity. But unless there is a sea change in American attitudes, it will not be led by us. In fact, it is no longer led by us, unless the private sector joy rides evolve into something more substantive.
Perhaps in the long run, that will matter more than who is elected tomorrow.