Monthly Archives: July 2019

Dogs, Environment, Science, Space

MUSINGS FOR SUNDAY 21ST, JULY 2019

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“This is one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” -Neil Armstrong

“The Earth is the cradle of humanity, but mankind cannot stay in the cradle forever.” -Konstantin Tsiolkovosky

“Nobody knows what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow.” -Robert Goddard

Wow it has been a month since I last posted. Time just got away from me and one thing led to another and before I knew it…. Well, lets just say that a month has passed. And in truthfulness, I think that I needed time to recharge. The last four weeks have been pretty good. Although I pushed myself a little too hard and did not get enough sleep back during the first part of July which led to a summer cold. This took about 4 to 5 days to get over which translated into no heavy running or biking for about 8 to 9 days to help in recovery. That is one thing I have found out as I have gotten older is that it takes a lot longer to recover than it did when I was 25. This forced rest from doing heavy exercise was hard. I really wanted to get out and push it but that would not have been good. Thankfully I am feeling better now. And things are back to normal so to speak for me. Oh well you live and learn and sometimes you get to repeat those mistakes of the past. Lol.

Astronaut Edward H. White II, pilot on the Gemini-Titan 4 spaceflight, is shown during his egress from the spacecraft. His face is covered by a shaded visor to protect him from the unfiltered rays of the sun. White became the first American astronaut to walk in space. He remained outside the spacecraft for 21 minutes during the third revolution of the Gemini-4 mission. He wears a specially designed spacesuit for the extravehicular activity (EVA). In his right hand, he carries a Hand-Held Self-Maneuvering Unit (HHSMU) with which he controlled his movements while in space. He was attached to the spacecraft by a 25-feet umbilical line and a 23-feet tether line, both wrapped together with gold tape to form one cord. He wears an emergency oxygen supply chest pack. Courtesy of NASA.

In this blog I wanted to briefly talk a little bit about space and what it might mean for humanity if we really tried as a global community for a more permanent presence in space. Also July 20th, 2019 was the 50th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission and the first human to step foot on the moon. Unreal to think it has been 50 years. I was 7 years old at the time and watched the event on TV. Both of my parents in attendance. All of us glued to the TV set watching in awe. When this occurred, hand held calculators as we know them today did not exist, cell phones did not exist, the internet did not exist as it does today, and the modern day computer was still just a dream.

AS11-40-5874 (20 July 1969) — Astronaut Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., lunar module pilot of the first lunar landing mission, poses for a photograph beside the deployed United States flag during Apollo 11 extravehicular activity (EVA) on the lunar surface. The Lunar Module (LM) is on the left, and the footprints of the astronauts are clearly visible in the soil of the moon. Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong, commander, took this picture with a 70mm Hasselblad lunar surface camera. While astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin descended in the LM the “Eagle” to explore the Sea of Tranquility region of the moon, astronaut Michael Collins, command module pilot, remained with the Command and Service Modules (CSM) “Columbia” in lunar orbit. Courtesy of NASA

A few years later, I remember reading and listening to my dad talk about Skylab. I believe it was launched in 1973. And how we all thought that by this time there would be all kinds of futuristic space stations, moon and mars bases, and much easier access to space than riding the “Roman Candle” as my father liked to call it. But life moved on and I forgot all about space. Then, about the time I was in College, I remember being in a world history class and the professor was watching a live feed of the launch of the first Space Shuttle. This I believe was in 1981 and it was the Columbia. For the life of me I do not remember the professors name but I do remember him saying after the successful launch “This changes everything.” And it seemed to for a while but then like Skylab it faded. If I remember right, the launches did become more common place (135 total), but the only time the Space Shuttle seemed to make really big news, unfortunately, was when there was an accident. The last shuttle flight was Atlantis, July 8th, 2011.

Space Shuttle Columbia (STS-50) launched into history carrying crew of seven and its payload was comprised of the US Microgravity Laboratory 1 (USML-1).The USML-1 was one of NASA’s missions dedicated to scientific investigations in a microgravity environment inside the Spacelab module. Investigations aboard the USML-1 included: materials science, fluid dynamics, biotechnology (crystal growth), and combustion science. Managed by Marshall Space Flight Center, the STS-50 mission was plarned for a 13-day duration, the mission ended with 14 days in space, the longest Shuttle mission to date. Courtesy of NASA

With the shuttle flights came the ISS (International Space Station), completed between 1998 and 2011. It has been continuously occupied since November 2nd, 2000. 230 individuals from 18 different countries have visited it, with the crew size usually being 3 to 6 people at any given time. It has severed as a great platform for research into how human health is affected by micro-gravity. They have also done research in product design, robotics, and botany as a few other examples. This is just a very brief over view of the ISS. If you want to learn more, the web site “space.com” has a more comprehensive review of the ISS. You can find it at this link: https://www.space.com/16748-international-space-station.html

iss059e016574 (April 8, 2019) — Expedition 59 Flight Engineer David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency takes a quick self portrait while working outside the International Space Station. In a six and a half hour spacewalk, Saint-Jacques and NASA astronaut Anne McClain successfully established a redundant path of power to the Canadian-built robotic arm, known as Canadarm2, and installed cables to provide for more expansive wireless communications coverage outside the orbital complex, as well as for enhanced hardwired computer network capability. The duo also relocated an adapter plate from the first spacewalk in preparation for future battery upgrade operations. Courtesy of NASA

Now fast forward a little and you have a lot of new private “space companies” – Space X is the one that I think most people are familiar with due to the fact it has been successful with cargo launches and cutting down the cost of said launches by creating reusable first stage boosters. I am always amazed when I see those rockets re-landing on the pad. Like something out of a science fiction movie. Crazy. When I say that there are a lot of space companies, there really are. Check out this listing on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_private_spaceflight_companies

So cool!!

Now with all this advancement you would think that we are on the fast track to becoming a space-fairing species, but here is the rub, in order to do this, we need to drastically increase our presence in space with significantly more hardware and humans. Much, much more than what is involved with the current ISS. I would go even as far as to say that our very existence as a species depends upon it. There is an old argument that we need to spend less money in space and more of it here on earth. It is as false now as it was years ago when I first heard it. Let me explain.

Nothing in life truly changes until there is a change in technology. Whether it be good or bad. Humans have always been good at procreation and technology has only helped to make us the most prodigious species on earth. Some estimate that we will be at the 10 billion mark by 2050. But I think it will happen sooner than that. The earth is a finite system and overpopulating it will only lead to our eventual extinction. The more money you spend here on earth will only increase our procreation and at some point there will never be enough “money, space, and resources” for all of us. Our only option, besides culling the herd, is to get off the planet. And in a big way.

World population in 30 years. Somewhere around 10 billion but I think we will hit this mark much sooner. All it would take would be a slight improvement in life expectancy (billions of research dollars are being used for this) and or improvement in general health care around the world in third world countries (this has been going for quit sometime now).

So how do we do this? Some have thought that building “Planetary Surface Settlements,” think moon or mars bases, would be the way to go. While others have said that the best way to do this is with “Settlements in Orbit,” think very large space station design. Both design ideas have their advantages and disadvantages. I personally believe that the Orbital Space Station is the cheapest and the easiest idea with today’s technology. Besides saving the world, you could harness sunlight for power and use it back on earth. No pesky atmosphere to get in the way.

But the thought that gets me really excited with orbital settlements is the idea that you could use them as a means to mine asteroids. A learning and jumping off point for deep space. The technology that would be developed to keep people healthy in orbital space stations would be easily adapted for deep space. The orbital stations could also be used as construction facilities for the ships that would take human into deep space. I firmly believe we have to make “space” profitable. Otherwise the altruistic notions of pursuing space for only scientific knowledge… Well, we are a greedy bunch and that idea will only take you so far.

The only flies in the ointment to me is how do you get out of the gravity well of earth without using large “Roman Candles” and what to do about “Micro-Gravity.” NASA has figured out how to do a lot of things in micro-gravity, but problems still remain due to the weak link – the human body. We are not evolved to live in MG long term. But what if there was a better way to manipulate gravity in general? What if you could lift very heavy and massive objects into space without a lot of effort?

If you could, a lot of issues would become much, much more easy to solve. Imagine being able to create a floating space station the size of a small city in space. You could add all the radiation and micrometeorite shielding that you could possibility need to protect equipment and the human occupants. Spin a large structure and you create artificial gravity. Now MG would not be a problem.

So many possibilities open up if you can easily get out of earths gravity well. I am not really sure if anyone is working on this but I would like to believe that there are some. For right now it appears that Elon Musk and SpaceX will be the “go to” company if you want to get into space relatively cheaply. You still have to ride a Roman Candle, and it will still cost millions of dollars but now thanks to their company it is not as many millions.

So thinking about this and organizing my thoughts. I have come to realize that if we want to save the human species (it is not save the planet – it will go on with or without us), then we need to be able to create one thing and one thing only in the next 10 years. A way to cheaply and safely get out of earth’s gravity well with the ability to life heavy, massive objects into space. Another words we need to be able to manipulate gravity in general. The movie “Interstellar” used this very idea as a main theme. By the way if you have not seen it, it is a good one to rent. You can find it on Amazon Prime: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=movie+interstellar&hvadid=78340254007781&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvqmt=e&tag=mh0b-20&ref=pd_sl_73fyd8nqi4_e

Well I could go on and on about this but I think I will save further thoughts about space for later posts. There is too much to cover with one blog post for a subject of this importance. I firmly believe that the survival of humanity is dependent on whether we become a true space faring society or not.

Marvin and Janet at the Canine Learning Academy, Thursday 18th, July 2019. He is 5 and 1/2 months old in this picture and just shy of 70 lbs.

I want to post a picture of Marin at dog school. He is doing pretty good so far in his first dog obedience class. We had to resort to the “gentle leader” for a training tool. He is going to be a big and powerful dog and we really wanted to get a quick start on his “rambunctious adolescent behavior.” Lol.

Well this is about it for me on this post. Hopefully I will have more trail porn pictures for you in the next one. Take care my friends and I hope to see you out there, whether it be on the trail, bike path or just hanging out and enjoying the beautiful Colorado landscape. Adios amigos!!