XiNeutrino's blog

That's right, there is no word, "conflictions!"  I have hatched it from the root word conflict to apply to my own deep and troubling reactions to what is happening to our space programs.They are lumped into three broad areas. Space exploration, private sector development, and international cooperation.  In my mind, and heart, things are quite jumbled and intense. They are jumbled because of the lack of clear national objectives, they are intense because of the strong feelings of the exploration advocates and the private sector advocates. Additionally these two conditions are further aggravated by calls for international cooperation that appear more as lip service than serious action. Let's look at all three individually.

Space Exploration: In my humble opinion space exploration is a government investment on behalf of the advancement of all civilization. Making it inclusive of all civilization mandates that these exploration efforts should be internationally conceived and supported.

Don't worry this is not a birth announcement. Well, actually it could be! MISS in this presentation stands for Mars International Space Station. That's right a good focus point for our future exploration of our solar system is the creation of orbiting space stations that provide both observation and launch points for the study of our planetary neighbors.

MISS would be constructed in the same manner as the present ISS orbiting Earth. Like the ISS, MISS would be built in a LEO environment with the needed propulsion units to eventually move it on its way to Mars. Right, it would not be a high speed rocket trip to Mars, but as a moving space laboratory it would be gathering a host of new data enroute.

Well, forget it right? We just shelved the shuttle  So we take that glorious design and expand upon it and create a super shuttle that gives us the load capacity to carry the required components for MISS. We are planning on building a new HLV  anyway, so lets make it an HLV that will put a super shuttle in LEO.  

In short, Sleeping Beauty is our Moon, and The Lorelei is Mars. Both are charmers and invitingly pull us toward them. No wonder there are such heated discussions over their relative charms and promise.

Well Sleeping Beauty is asleep and needs to be reawakened for us to fully realize her value and magic. The Lorelei, well they are the ladies of the rocks, and as alluring and beguiling as they are; for the incautious they can spell catastrophe. If you are unfamiliar with the Lorelei, follow this link for delightful edification.

Me, I am a Sleeping Beauty man and strongly believe that by re-awakening her we will open a golden gateway to a magnificent route for the exploration of our entire solar system. Yes, I hear the soft croons of the Lorelei maidens and admit they are almost irresistible, but I have, in my sailing days, run close to rocky doom and so I am very careful while still enjoying their charms.

Jim Cameron, producer/director of "Avatar" has kicked open the door. By this I mean the incredible advances his film made in both 3D and virtual reality viewing makes it clear that we could add to the great Smithsonian panorama of history and science, a virtual reality planetarium.  Why?

The main reason why, is that over the next several centuries most residents of planet Earth will never experience close encounters with our solar system.  We will be left to depend, as we do now, on wonderful telescopic presentations that are stunning, but short on personal involvement.  A virtual reality planetarium would offer a step up in getting us up close and personal with our home solar system.

Here is how:

Of course, there is life throughout the universe.  Life, though, as we already know takes myriad forms.  We also know that some, if not all, of those forms are evolutionary stepping stones.  We could even be evolutionary stepping stones. I hope we are.

It could happen in our lifetime or later in the lifetime of future generations. Regardless, when we make that first contact it may be less than momentous. It could even be somewhat disappointing.  There we are on a nearby moon of either Saturn or Jupiter, and there before us is a squiggly life-form that took an astrobiologist to identify.  WHAT? A moon of either Jupiter or Saturn?  Is that all we have done?

Don't despair.It will be in our own solar system where we first meet up with ET life. Remember, extra-terrestrial means just that; beyond Earth. It will be many, many future generations before we make contact with life on some distant exoplanet.  When that happens, what we experience and accomplish locally will prepare us to be ready for exo-life out there.

For Space Tweeps teetering on job loss and scrambling to find new opportunities while preserving their valuable space technology experience, I can only offer my deepest condolences and support.  I hope your voices are being heard, locally and nationally, and I hope that they are making a loud noise in the right ears.

Somehow our space society must survive and prevail if we hope to continue to move our nation both forward and upward.  It is easy in these really depressing times to just get totally frustrated and chuck it all; leaving your space careers behind.  Please don't if at all possible.  This is not an easy request and may seem insensitive, but believe me I have walked in your shoes and I know the sadness and despair.  I repeat, don't give up. In fact, get aggressive about yourself and your skills. Don't let doubt and despair cripple your efforts to move forward even in these times. You are invaluable and all of your experience is priceless and essential to all those who seek to continue our efforts to move the space sciences and technology forward.

As the days of the great shuttle program draw to a close I keep thinking about what a great event it would be if there could be a special NASA tweetup for kids at either the last or the next to last shuttle launch.  The reasons are obvious, I am sure. We need to make that inspirational imprint on our future, and our future is our youth of today.

Now, I am sure many youngsters from the Florida region have accompanied their parents to shuttle launches; however, I am not certain that they have ever benefited from a full NASA tweetup program. The opportunity for tours and maybe to meet and listen to some of our astronaut heroes as well as witnessing a live launch creates an indelible impression and stimulus.

I mentioned this on Twitter and have gotten some positive reactions and recommendations. In all cases the kids, or course, would need to be accompanied by an adult. The kids ideally should be in grades 6-12 with preference for kids in grades 6-8 This latter grouping has the highest promise of serious impact. So how do we do it?  Here are some ideas:

What? Moon base now? Don't you follow the news? Constellation has been cancelled! Yes, and I understand the confusion and consternation, but the most logical first step in getting ready to reach out into our solar system will be to develop a full-scale assembly and launch facility within a low-gravity environment. I nominate the Moon.

In his briefing before the National Press Club, Administrator Bolden implied that we will be going to the Moon despite the acknowledged demise of Constellation.  When we go, and under what arrangement will depend on three important bodies; the White House, The Congress, and a NASA-Private Sector-International partnership. Partnerships are a sharing arrangement in both benefits and costs.  This is the key to a renewed and expanded Moon mission that is completely designed as a stepping stone from which humankind will leap out into the solar system.

Yes, when we consider space exploration there are many bountiful trips awaiting us, but for me and for many others it is: that bountiful trip to Mars.  Yep, I know, there are already tons of arguments in favor of this astro mission and I will try to not repeat them.

There was probably some level of life on Mars, and maybe there still is. What is vital is that we learn the details.  I believe Mars was well along the way in evolutionary development when something happened. We need to fully investigate that and understand what happened.  Why?

First, we need to understand the entire planetary process and threats thereto.  This will help us not only to better understand and protect our home planet, but come to understand what is happening with the increasing number of exoplanets that we are finding.

The words in the above title of this blog, along with, "Your heretical ideas that the Sun is not the center of the Universe will send you to prison" or "Monkeys? You are telling me we are related to monkeys? You are insane!" were all expressed in condemnation of ideas from great dreamers.  Throughout the history of humankind, it is the dreamers who have moved us forward, in fact they have helped keep us around and alive.

This Space Tweep Society is the product of a dreamer.  Most, if not all, of its members are dreamers and in their dreaming they put forth ideas that ignite dreams in the rest of us. What a great, invigorating and challenging social environment. When one becomes a Space Tweep, their mind never rests.  There is always a challenging idea around the corner to be considered, debated and expanded.  The real excitement; however, comes from the sharing of that interaction between all of us.

I was born dreaming, still dream, and will pass on dreaming.  The opportunity to share some of those dreams here and to experience my fellow Space Tweeps reactions, comments and LAUGHTER are priceless.

I will never forget or downplay the incredible experiences I had working with children within a regular school setting.  I did this not as a teacher, but as a therapeutic shadow to specific client children. In that role, I was able to observe and interact not just with my clients but with all the children in the class. This gave me a great opportunity to just watch and admire these young minds at work. It also gave me the chance to find among the students at least one, and usually more, shy geeks.  

Shy geeks? These are intensely bright children who for one reason or the other keep their intelligence close to their chests. In many cases, because of their shyness they performed poorly and were often mistakenly labeled as "slow achievers."  Who is not to say that among this muted group there is not at least one Einstein, Fermi, Feynman, etc?  I believe it from the bottom of my heart.

Recently, a highly respected and much read science fiction and horror story writer stated that starships will never be more than science fiction. I respectfully disagree. Well yes, I did write that Starship Paradigm blog here, and yes right now you could say it is more fiction than fact, but that will change.

We will confirm that life exists in other solar systems,  We will continue to also admit that reaching any of those possible Earth twins is a big dream.  It is a dream because of the immense distances and the current dangers, as we know them, that could hamper any exploration. So what is new?  Relatively speaking, every exploration humankind has undertaken in its history has presented us with extreme distances and possible dangers. We responded by following the dream regardless of either distances or dangers.

So, now after centuries of exploratory successes and rewards, we are going to stop because of distances and dangers?  I do not think so, and those vessels that carried early explorers to the "edges of Earth" and beyond will become our starship vessels.

The once casual and often puzzling questions about whether humankind has relatives elsewhere in the universe has grown into a serious scientific pursuit.  A variety of powerful land-based and space telescopes are concentrating on finding and cataloging stars and their orbiting planetary bodies. The terms extra-solar and exoplanets have come into common parlance among scientists and the public.

We can get nostalgic and name it the Enterprise and we can also talk about going where no human has gone before, but at some point we need to settle down and think. What we will think about is the design, development and deployment of a starship-based space exploration system.  Again, I stress, this is not a Star Trek reality program.  I am talking about something far bigger and more versatile. It is a major, space-age concept of human space exploration.

 

The tweetup concept and philosophy is one of the most promising methods for getting us in touch with those who are making space exploration history and also with those who are planning its future.  That future, by the way, is THE future not just for this nation but globally. When we talk about space exploration, we must think about it in the context of we-citizens-of-planet-Earth.

So what about this National Space Tweetup?  Simple, we initiate through NASA and the White House a tweetup at NASA HQ with Administrator Bolden and President Obama. What?  Yes, Bolden needs to know the kind of support he really has from the public, and President Obama needs to know how important our space plans are for the future of the entire world.  Letters and phone calls help, but a tweetup lays it on the line.  Eye to eye, heart to heart, both leaders get to know where we stand.

In an effort to draft a petition from Space Tweeps to the Senate Sub-Committee on Science and Space, I came up with Option 5B as the one that holds the greatest immediate promise for a continuation of America’s human exploration of space.

Despite that decision, there are parts of that option that are not so good and some parts seem to ignore to some degree the important scientific and historic contributions made by NASA.  So here is my personal analysis.  I hope you read it and then make your own decision and express that decision directly to the sub-committee.  Don’t worry I will tell you how later on.

The Good:

It is time for the NASA we know and love to change.  Part of that change would be the incorporation of NASA’s key leadership functions into a newly created cabinet of the Executive Branch of the United States of America.  That means if it occurs as expeditiously as it should, this new organization would have General Charles Bolden, NASA’s current Administrator, as the first Secretary of the Department of Space Sciences and Exploration.

John F. Kennedy’s spirit remains alive and intensely in my heart. That momentous day when he vowed that we would “land men on the moon before the end of this decade” brought me to my feet with tears in my eyes. Sadly, while I was deeply embroiled in Navy rocket programs the word came he had been assassinated. Tears flowed again, that time from grave loss.

 

The essence of that spirit I hold so dear is, in his words, “vigah.” With his words, his actions and his strong belief in the future of America and especially its young people, he infused all of us with “vigah.” With that infusion we did the near impossible and put men on the moon as directed; safely and on time.

 

Sorry, but this blog is not about intergalactic sports. PEP for this discussion is an acronym representing: Preservation, Exploration, and Pioneering. This Talk seeks to address the logical and essential steps that, in my opinion, must occur if future generations are to successfully venture into deep space.

Preservation: Our home, planet Earth is vital to many thousands of years of both human and robotic explorations of our solar system and our galaxy.  It is vital because it remains the best equipped with science, technology, human-power, financing and natural resources than any other accessible place in the entire Universe. In fact, at the moment, as far as we know it is the only place with all these assets. As a wannabe, space-faring nation we need all of these resources, therefore, we must carefully protect and preserve them.

Reels and tomes of science fiction have been produced on the pros and cons of an international union of space agencies.  Unfortunately, in most cases these aggregations have not done well. Should we accept these scifi chronicles as predictions of any success humankind may have working together?  I think not.

The two essential and governing factors are cost and technology.  Going into deep space, exploring planetary environments, even colonizing some planets are all incredibly demanding of our dollars and our technological genius.  When we try to do it individually we do fairly well, but do not go very far and are under constant criticism of how and why we did or did not meet our goals. A union of dollars, brains and purpose could change that dramatically.