Here’s to 30 years…

I read an article by that wind-up merchant Kevin Myers today, I know, I know, I should know better than to read anything written by an obnoxious, chauvinistic, self-aggrandising ignoramus such as he but he hit a nerve this time. In it he essentially slated the entire 30 year Space Shuttle program by claiming that they weren’t in space as it was only 210 miles up and because he finds the term ‘astronaut’ misleading in that they don’t actually visit/traverse through stars. I re-read the first paragraph to make sure I hadn’t missed an obvious joke.

He claims that mankind has not benefitted from the Space Shuttle program and goes on to say that we could not, and should not try to send a manned mission to Mars. I’m not going to dissect and respond to every mis-informed and ignorant part of his rant. Instead I’m going to tell you why I find the end of the shuttle program to be quite sad and yet quite inspiring.

Every day I’m inadvertantly reminded of the benefits of the space shuttle without ever really being conscious of it. Every time I switch on my PC my NASA-inspired background theme coughs up a new image from the Hubble telescope for me to gaze at. I’ve lost many an hour flicking through them picking my favourite (currently this one of the Carina Nebula) before getting perplexed at how such things can exist in the Universe. After the feeling of being even more insigificant passes, I move on and forget it for another day. Hubble was put in the sky by the Space Shuttle program. Unfortunately the designers messed it up first time around and installed a faulty mirror which left Hubble out of focus. Another lengthy repair job carried out by the Shuttle Program later though and it was ready to start photographing the cosmos. Within a short time Hubble had answered many of the biggest questions that faced cosmologists and physicists everywhere including the age of the Universe, the presence of the radiation background and the confirmation of the existence of black holes, which until Hubble were an unconfirmed theory. Many might ask what direct benefit Hubble and it’s observations have had on every day life and you need only look at your mobile phone for answers. The Lithium-Ion battery was developed for the Hubble and it’s off-shoot is the reason you can fling birds at pigs for hours on end now. Many modern cameras and camera sensors are descendants of the Hubble sensors and it was one of the first pieces of technology to use a memory card. Hubble has provided the kind of imaging and subsequent knowlegde that Gallileo would have killed for when he first cast his telescope skywards. Without the Space Shuttle there would be no Hubble, or it would be launched only around now such was the lack of alternative space vehicles which could carry such a large payload until now.

As a result of the (delayed) success of Hubble the Space Shuttle was granted a new lease of life with the announcement of a permanent manned structure in space – the International Space Station. Again, such a project was only possible due to the large payload the Shuttle could offer and the ISS has had major benefits to society and in more direct ways. Their observation of weather patterns, climate, sea currents and polar ice cap activity has provided much of the data necessary to identify and document climate change. Microbiology experiments in zero-gravity have brought critical advancements in stem-cell research and medicine which would not have been possible in a gravitational environment. Unfortunately, the ISS while being the Space Shuttle’s saviour, it was also ultimately the Shuttle’s grim reaper. With the ISS complete, and post-flight checks on each Shuttle and turnaround taking too long and costing too much President George W. Bush ordered the program closed for reasons of cost and loss of life.

The loss of the Challenger in 1986 due to a (previously highlighted and ignored) flaw in rubber seal in a rocket booster and the subsequent loss of the Columbia in 2003 due to (previously highlighted and ignored) damage to the heatshield upon launch were the first two nails in the Space Shuttle’s coffin and a terrible and, as it turned out, avoidable loss of life. I can’t help but get the feeling though from the countless documentaries I’ve watched about the Shuttle that the astronauts who volunteer to pilot and crew the Space Shuttle are aware of the risks and almost live on the risk. Much as a marine trains to fight in war these pilots and scientists train to operate in a traditionally-unkind, high-risk environment. Yuri Gargarin, the first man in space was a Russian fighter and test pilot. He eventually died in a plane crash 7 years later. The Astronauts who man the Shuttle and any space exploration/scientific mission get nothing but admiration and amazement from me in that they choose to do their job knowing the risks but they get to see things that most of us will never see and experience things like zero gravity that our minds cannot even contemplate here on hard ground. The best quote I could find that illustrates the sense of enlightenment and awareness that astronauts possess goes as follows;

“You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, ‘Look at that, you son of a bitch.” – Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell

Using costs and risk to justify the ceasing of exploration and frontier-mapping is a poor reflection on the state of the human race. While the global recession rages on and costs become ever-more scrutinised people so easily forget that it was the constant pressure applied to science by those such as NASA that fed the wonder and amazement of kids like me. The boom that pre-empted the bust was because of things like the Shuttle program that showed people that our race is advancing and capable of things that only one or two generations previous couldn’t even imagine and drove a baby-boom into college to study science, math and business. As the Space Shuttle bows out after 30 long years of being the work-horse of modern science and cosmology with it goes a certain amount of wonder and awe that I kept over from my childhood. For me it was THE symbol of modern technology and at that it was just a giant space truck that carried the magic-making equipment that scientists now depend on. The idea of putting a human on Mars is the next natural step and I hope beyond hope that it will happen in my life-time so I can experience a ‘moon-landing-moment’ like my parents and grand-parents did as it’s probably the last time the entire World held it’s breath at once and focused on one event. The back-up speech that Nixon had prepared in case the lunar module failed to lift off from the moon shows that considerable risk must be overcome to achieve the highest goals. If they are looking for volunteers I’d ask them where can I sign, even if a speech such follows might some day be written about me.

“Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace. These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery. But they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice.

“These two men are laying down their lives in mankind’s most noble goal: the search for truth and understanding. They will be mourned by their families and friends; they will be mourned by their nation; they will be mourned by the people of the world; they will be mourned by a Mother Earth that dared send two of her sons into the unknown.

“In their exploration, they stirred the people of the world to feel as one; in their sacrifice, they bind more tightly the brotherhood of man. In ancient days, men looked at stars and saw their heroes in the constellations. In modern times, we do much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood.

“Others will follow, and surely find their way home. Man’s search will not be denied. But these men were the first, and they will remain the foremost in our hearts.

“For every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind.”

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