Re: [twuug] Space Shuttle Columbia blows up on reentry!

["Jeff Duffy" <jeff@xxxxxxxxxx>]

 William Gibson (creator of the cypberpunk genre of science fiction) had a
few good things to say about the shuttle accident today:

http://www.williamgibsonbooks.com/blog/blog.asp

 It's always been important to us as a race to explore. The world would be a
much poorer place if we hadn't had people like Magellan, Columbus, and Peary
to push out and find for the rest of us what's out there.

 The US space program does benefit everyone in practical ways; new materials
have been developed, new drugs have been researched that can only be created
in microgravity, new manufacturing processes found.

 Beyond the merely practical, it's important that humanity as a whole have
something inspiring to look forward to. Of all the things our tax money is
used for, this is one of the most worthy and noble; I think most of us would
rather have a hundred shuttles than fund a single day of war, even if
sometimes we don't get to make that choice.

 I hope this doesn't mean the end of our space program (even an indefinite
delay is still an end, in a way).  Perhaps NASA will begin to look harder at
other ways of reaching space, like the new Orbiter, or the Space Elevator.
In the meantime we should still continue to launch shuttles once it's
learned what caused Columbia to be lost.

 All of our astronauts understand that these sort of things will happen no
matter how many safety protocols we enforce; the odds are just stacked
against them, and yet they go anyway. I'm sad, but proud, and I can't wait
to see another group of the world's finest people head up to space again.

 I was thinking about the inscription on the plaque commemorating the loss
of of Apollo 1:

Ad Astra Per Aspera
(A Rough Road Leads To The Stars)



Jeff



-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
* To unsubscribe from the TWUUG discussion list, either send e-mail to
-  twuug-request@twuug.org with the word "unsubscribe" by itself
-  in the body of the message or visit: 
-  http://www.twuug.org/lists/twuuglists.html