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This 'n That
Aug. 28th, 2003 03:56 pm1. A hectic summer is skittering to its end with a very hectic week. Wedding on Tuesday, then sheva brochos - a Jewish thing where the newlyweds are feted for a week by friends and family - yesterday and today. Another sheva brochos, in the shul, Satruday afternoon, and I'm giving the brief word of Torah that accompany such things. Friends in from out of town Sunday.
We've had a vast number of happy things going on this summer, mainly in the form of lots of friends visiting from all over the place. A nice shift from last summer when one friend had a near-nervous breakdown and when Batya's grandfather had just died. And yet, being overwhelmed with lots of fun tihngs to do still leaves one overwhelmed and tired.
Doesn't mean, of course, that we were not very happy to see Seanan and Eloise and Rika and Allyssa and Batya's family from Israel and many other friends and relatives. But sometimes I wish I could carve out an eighth day of the week to rest up from the other seven.
2. Some thoughts to follow the release of the official report about the Columbia accident. I am still a space enthusiast. I still think that the little voice that urged us on to keep moving, keep exploring, must be heeded, that Mars calls to us. I still think that manned space exploration has a future. but I cannot say I think that NASA has a role in it anymore. Part of me, hearing the news that NASA is an entrenched, somewhat cowardly, self-serving, rudderless bureacracy, wants to see NASA - or at least the manned flight operations of NASA - scrapped and started over form scratch. They have failed twice now to make sure that avoidable accidents were avoided. And sometimes when a company, or an institution, is that inept, you cannot say "third time's the charm."
Problem is, if NASA stops running manned spaceflight, I don't think anyone else will. The will to explore even with robotic craft is limited now, and the money is barely there. Suspend manned flight, and odds are Congress will find other uses for the cash. (And honestly, with a huge deficit, with various wars and social services to fund, with a need to even rewire the electrical grid, it's hard to blame anyone who wants to spend the money elsewhere.) The only way I see to make sure that a publicly funded manned program continues is to make sure it doesn't stop for one second. Which is a pretty big waste of money short-term.
Now I know that there are efforts being made to develop spacecraft by private citizens. I hope they succeed. But should space become just another place to make a profit? I would love to see a non-profit but private effort to send man to Mars, funded by donors and run free of the old NASA bureacracy but also free of the old mindset that drove centuries of mercantile exploration to the New World, exploiting it along the way.
I doubt this will actually happen. The first manned trip to Mars might only happen if there is a profit motive. But I am ready to say that I don't think it will happen under NASA's watch. Never mind that getting to Mars might costs hundreds of billions of dollars, and never mind that only 1/3rd of probes to Mars make it there.
But can we not try?
We've had a vast number of happy things going on this summer, mainly in the form of lots of friends visiting from all over the place. A nice shift from last summer when one friend had a near-nervous breakdown and when Batya's grandfather had just died. And yet, being overwhelmed with lots of fun tihngs to do still leaves one overwhelmed and tired.
Doesn't mean, of course, that we were not very happy to see Seanan and Eloise and Rika and Allyssa and Batya's family from Israel and many other friends and relatives. But sometimes I wish I could carve out an eighth day of the week to rest up from the other seven.
2. Some thoughts to follow the release of the official report about the Columbia accident. I am still a space enthusiast. I still think that the little voice that urged us on to keep moving, keep exploring, must be heeded, that Mars calls to us. I still think that manned space exploration has a future. but I cannot say I think that NASA has a role in it anymore. Part of me, hearing the news that NASA is an entrenched, somewhat cowardly, self-serving, rudderless bureacracy, wants to see NASA - or at least the manned flight operations of NASA - scrapped and started over form scratch. They have failed twice now to make sure that avoidable accidents were avoided. And sometimes when a company, or an institution, is that inept, you cannot say "third time's the charm."
Problem is, if NASA stops running manned spaceflight, I don't think anyone else will. The will to explore even with robotic craft is limited now, and the money is barely there. Suspend manned flight, and odds are Congress will find other uses for the cash. (And honestly, with a huge deficit, with various wars and social services to fund, with a need to even rewire the electrical grid, it's hard to blame anyone who wants to spend the money elsewhere.) The only way I see to make sure that a publicly funded manned program continues is to make sure it doesn't stop for one second. Which is a pretty big waste of money short-term.
Now I know that there are efforts being made to develop spacecraft by private citizens. I hope they succeed. But should space become just another place to make a profit? I would love to see a non-profit but private effort to send man to Mars, funded by donors and run free of the old NASA bureacracy but also free of the old mindset that drove centuries of mercantile exploration to the New World, exploiting it along the way.
I doubt this will actually happen. The first manned trip to Mars might only happen if there is a profit motive. But I am ready to say that I don't think it will happen under NASA's watch. Never mind that getting to Mars might costs hundreds of billions of dollars, and never mind that only 1/3rd of probes to Mars make it there.
But can we not try?
