From the NYT Opinion Pages, SEPT. 25, 2014:
"In successfully launching an orbiter to Mars this week, India’s space program demonstrated what’s possible when a determined group of people put their minds to solving a complex problem.
India’s Mangalyaan, or “Mars craft” in Hindi, is not the first orbiter to reach the Red Planet — the United States, the Soviet Union and the European Space Agency have previously achieved that feat — but it has done so in its first attempt and on a shoestring budget of $74 million. (NASA’s Maven mission to Mars cost $671 million).
Furthermore, India is the first Asian nation to reach Mars. The Indian satellite will remain in an elliptical orbit around Mars to study the planet’s surface and atmosphere." (Read the rest of the opinion here.)
I have had an interest in India ever since I lived there for a semester in 1992. I have had an interest in Mars since forever (actually, since my grade school classmate Benji Farr got me excited about space travel and Mars in particular). So when India gets into the Mars race, I get a little nutty!
Recently I picked up The Mars Trilogy (for the fourth time) by Kim Stanley Robinson. It paints an interesting and seemingly plausible future where the colonization of Mars is a possibility driven by necessity. The books focus on relationships of the "first 100" and the resulting multi-global politics that surround an overpopulation-driven land and resource grab. Here is an excerpt from Red Mars that speaks to the perspective of truly changing one's world view and hints at the wisdom that can be brought by time:
"Everything had changed, it seemed; the world and its civilization all grown vastly larger and more complicated. And yet there they stood nevertheless, all the oh-so-familier faces changed, aged in all the ways human faces age: time texturing them with erosion as if they had lived for geological ages, giving them a knowing look, as if one could see the aquifers behind their eyes. They were in their seventies now, most of them. And the world was indeed larger—"
The impulse to explore space costs a lot, even when done as cheaply as India's Mangalyaan. I have heard and read critics who believe that the effort is ill spent money. Out problems on Earth should trump NASA and others' experiments out there. And yet, what dreams are born with men and women risking so much to push the boundaries of where we have walked? How many kids yearn for the unknown places to be uncovered like a mystery box opened? Nobody expects little green men to leap out from behind a rock, but wouldn't it be cool to find a little lichen somewhere in a deep crevasse on the red planet? I found a website that attempts to show earthly technologies that have been improved or created as a result of our impulse to explore space. I have not vetted the list, but the items seem plausible enough to be extensions of NASA work that I have not felt the need to doubt the claims. Some of the items of note to me:
It is good to dream and even better to cheer for those who live out our dreams. I have long said I would like to live to see someone step foot on Mars, felt crushed when the financial crisis on the 2000s forced NASA's Mars program to be severely scaled back, and now feel hope as India joins the effort.
India’s Mangalyaan, or “Mars craft” in Hindi, is not the first orbiter to reach the Red Planet — the United States, the Soviet Union and the European Space Agency have previously achieved that feat — but it has done so in its first attempt and on a shoestring budget of $74 million. (NASA’s Maven mission to Mars cost $671 million).
Furthermore, India is the first Asian nation to reach Mars. The Indian satellite will remain in an elliptical orbit around Mars to study the planet’s surface and atmosphere." (Read the rest of the opinion here.)
I have had an interest in India ever since I lived there for a semester in 1992. I have had an interest in Mars since forever (actually, since my grade school classmate Benji Farr got me excited about space travel and Mars in particular). So when India gets into the Mars race, I get a little nutty!
Recently I picked up The Mars Trilogy (for the fourth time) by Kim Stanley Robinson. It paints an interesting and seemingly plausible future where the colonization of Mars is a possibility driven by necessity. The books focus on relationships of the "first 100" and the resulting multi-global politics that surround an overpopulation-driven land and resource grab. Here is an excerpt from Red Mars that speaks to the perspective of truly changing one's world view and hints at the wisdom that can be brought by time:
"Everything had changed, it seemed; the world and its civilization all grown vastly larger and more complicated. And yet there they stood nevertheless, all the oh-so-familier faces changed, aged in all the ways human faces age: time texturing them with erosion as if they had lived for geological ages, giving them a knowing look, as if one could see the aquifers behind their eyes. They were in their seventies now, most of them. And the world was indeed larger—"
The impulse to explore space costs a lot, even when done as cheaply as India's Mangalyaan. I have heard and read critics who believe that the effort is ill spent money. Out problems on Earth should trump NASA and others' experiments out there. And yet, what dreams are born with men and women risking so much to push the boundaries of where we have walked? How many kids yearn for the unknown places to be uncovered like a mystery box opened? Nobody expects little green men to leap out from behind a rock, but wouldn't it be cool to find a little lichen somewhere in a deep crevasse on the red planet? I found a website that attempts to show earthly technologies that have been improved or created as a result of our impulse to explore space. I have not vetted the list, but the items seem plausible enough to be extensions of NASA work that I have not felt the need to doubt the claims. Some of the items of note to me:- Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs)
- Infrared Ear Thermometers
- Anti-Icing Systems
- Highway Safety Grooving
- Improved Radial Tires
- Land Mine Removal
- Fire-Resistant Reinforcement
- Firefighter Gear
- Temper Foam
- Enriched Baby Food
- Portable Cordless Vacuums
- Freeze Drying Technology
It is good to dream and even better to cheer for those who live out our dreams. I have long said I would like to live to see someone step foot on Mars, felt crushed when the financial crisis on the 2000s forced NASA's Mars program to be severely scaled back, and now feel hope as India joins the effort.
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