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Hope for the future and new discoveries
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After David and of course Jung have informed us with their as always excellent knowledge about space and the rest of the universe, perhaps another Canadian should have his say here, who not only loves to do road trips but especially space trips.
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I wasn’t aware of this Hubble Telescope thing that’s being mentioned here, lol… I’m not really into following that kind of stuff, but yet I enjoy original Star Trek and The Next Generation and even Buck Rogers , Battlestar Galactica on tv in the 1970s/80s growing up and only like the Star Wars movies that feature Carrie Fisher/Harrison Ford/Mark Hamill , Billy Dee Williams in them…lol… and Wayne Parker’s ( Glass Tiger’s bass player) side business of his SkyShed Observatory Pods for astronomers …. And have watched Shuttle launches on tv, especially The Challenger disaster …. watching David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust movie in movie theatre as a teen back in the 80s ….
The key to the future is to be optimistic, hopeful, open-minded , positive minded … I’ll leave it at that …????
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Hi Jurgen, another great video on space travel from an astronaut, thanks. David Hadfield gives a very nice perspective on Einstein theory of relativity related to time and speed of light travel in space. Did you know every astronaut is issued a Swiss Army knife in space.
“On November 15, 1995, Chris Hadfield had a problem. He was the Canadian astronaut traveling aboard NASA’s Atlantis space shuttle, which had just docked to the Russian Mir space station for a five-day mission.
Hadfield was unable to open the Atlantis hatch to enter the Mir because, days earlier, NASA engineers at Cape Kennedy had sealed it too tightly.
“So,” says Hadfield, “I did the true space-age thing: I broke into the Mir using a Swiss Army knife. Never leave the planet without one.”
Over the years, the term “Swiss Army knife” has entered popular culture as a metaphor for utility and adaptability. The knife itself is a mandatory tool aboard every NASA flight.
Two blades, a toothpick, scissors, a screwdriver…and much more”“It was the first time we’d ever built a space station by transporting material on a NASA Space Shuttle,” he said. “We’d brought up a big Russian-built connecting tunnel, 15 feet long, a docking module. When we docked and attached it to Mir, we found that some great big strong Russian technician had strapped it all down with wires and cables and straps.
“We were there. We were docked. We were equalising pressure. My job was to open the hatch, but when I tried it was completely covered by all this safety strapping.
“I thought, what do I do? I had in my pocket a Swiss army knife so I pulled it out and used the little saw feature, then clipped bits away with the tiny scissors.“At one point I realised just how ludicrous it was. I turned around to the camera we had set up, let the knife float in front of me, and smiled. The folks in Switzerland, at Victorinox, they just loved that.”
He’s a pretty good singer too. Here is a music video from space.
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Hi Jung, thanks for all the very interesting information. No, I didn’t know that all astronauts carry a Swiss Army knife. But I could have guessed it. Now I know why you like to carry a Swiss Army Knife: when you push the gas pedal to the stop on your Mustang and the car comes dangerously close to orbital flight, it is certainly useful to have two blades, a saw, a toothpick, a can opener and a corkscrew. You never know what can happen up there. 🙂
But seriously: When I hear such stories of space travel, as you have described them, I always have big doubts: On the one hand, absolute high-tech is developed and produced there. Incredible calculations are made and materials are used of which one still dreamed years ago. And the whole thing is operated by a life form that has not developed significantly in the last 300,000 years. If it then comes to problems, a tool is used that was developed in the 19th century. A really hot mixture. I think the human factor should never be underestimated. We can do great things, even in emergency situations. But we can also do damn stupid things. And the exciting thing is: you never know exactly which of the two variables is active in which situation. We humans call it improvising and are very proud of it. Technicians and scientists call it irrational acting or formal thinking disorders. I always have to think of Mr. Spock (no wonder that his ears became more and more pointed from episode to episode. There is a vulcan saying, if there is a particularly illogical action: „I think my earlobes are curling (rolling up)“.
A nice anecdote comes to mind: In the 1980s, a German company built a state-of-the-art steel mill in Africa. After some time, serious problems arose and the steel plant had to be shut down. The reason: unfortunately, they had forgotten to train the people on site sufficiently. Shortly after the start-up, a red warning light had begun to glow. The staff didn’t know exactly why and they found the lamp annoying, so they turned it off or removed it (probably with a Swiss Army knife, by the way, originally called „Sackmesser”. But you probably already know that). This reminds me a bit of the Russian astronaut who strapped the hatch tightly with cables, wires and straps.
Thanks for the video “Space Oddity”. Yes Chris Hadfield can sing quite well and it must have been a great feeling for him to orbit up there and sing that song. His way to enjoy the space trip.
There is an iconic children’s show in our country called “Die Sendung mit der Maus“ („The TV-Show with the mouse“). The program is led by the eponymous mouse and his best buddy the blue elephant. In this program, everyday things or facts are explained in an understandable and clear way. It is always beautifully done and entertaining not only for children. In this episode, the mouse and the elephant accompanied the German Maustronaut (Maus + Astronaut = Maustronaut / Mousetronaut) Alexander Gerst on the space station ISS. On youtube you can activate an english subtitle. I hope that works for you too. Whereby the pictures actually speak for themselves.
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Hi Jurgen. Enjoyable video shows what “a day in the life” of an astronaut is like in space. Get to see what a meal up there is like, tea and cornflakes, mind you the corn flakes freeze dried did not look so appetizing but I am sure it taste good. From up there above the atmosphere when he looks out over earth, gives an interesting perspective of how fragile and precious our little blue world really is in the backdrop of the vast harshness of space. The importance of preserving it rings a little stronger, because it is so very precious in the big picture of things. Maybe some CEOs of our major polluting corporations might do well to spend a day up there and see that the air we breath is just the little blue layer above the earth, and once we destroy it, that is it.
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Yes Jung, you are so right: all politicians and decision-makers who talk grandiloquent about CO2 concepts, environmental protection and climate change should go there. In a small, narrow space suit, with limited oxygen supply and with a view of this thin, fragile structure that we call atmosphere. Just so that they understand what we are talking about.
And also super rich people, who dream of escaping to the moon and Mars colonies, after our earth is ruined, should perhaps spend a few months on a space station and think about how they can save the earth with their billions of dollars.
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That makes three of us.
Cheers
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Well said, couldn’t agree more Jurgen. ????????????????
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I have a feeling NASA engineers and scientists watched MacGyver growing up. I think I’ve figured out what I want for my birthday present coming up! LOL
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Cool, Jung, cool. Can you use the thing just like that or do you have to attend an extra course for it? 🙂
Or better yet, just wish for one of these two: There are rumors that whole parts of the ISS space station were completely assembled with it.
PS: How many Swiss Army Knives do you have? Surely more than just one!
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Jurgen, I’ve been trying to avoid the fountain pen rabbit hole with my swiss army knives, so I adopted a minimalist rule to only having half a dozen. The largest one I have that I think would be suitable for space travel is the Swiss Champ. Ballpoint pen feature is really handy, and if they do one with a built in fountain pen, I may have to make an exception to my rule. ????
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Actually, I’m not really surprised now Jung. After all, I suspected it. 🙂
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German ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer may not be able to sing as beautifully as Chris Hadfield, but he received musical support from Peter Schilling (Major Tom) before his space mission: “Alles an dir” / “Everything about you”.
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With regard to politicians in space, two U.S. Congressmen flew on the space shuttle. One of them, whose mission on Columbia ended just ten days before the Challenger accident, is the current administrator of NASA.
William Shatner really nailed the concept of the fragility of the Earth in his spontaneous comments immediately after his recent spaceflight:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTfQVMH5SuI
As excited as I am about space exploration and the eventual human colonization of other worlds, it’s sobering to note that even if we completely trash the Earth’s environment it will always be vastly more liveable than any other place we could go. Terraforming another planet, although exhilarating to contemplate, is zillions of times more expensive than cleaning up our own mess.
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David, yes I agree. William Shatner who is one of the big iconic symbols of space exploration from his character as Captain Kirk of the Starship Enterprise was very moved indeed by his first real travel into space. His description of out there in space is “death” and the sole place we know of in the universe that can support life is this very thin blue fragile atmosphere that you pass through in like seconds vividly expresses the reality of how vulnerable and precious our eco-system is. According to David Hadfield, we have giant technological hurdles to conquer before manned space travel beyond our tiny little solar system can be considered to get anywhere practically, so we better not start puncturing and thrashing our little rubber dingy in the middle of the ocean too soon.
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My reply to Jung got lost ….on here under this topic here, Lost in Topic Of Space discussion….lol… amongst Jung, Jurgen, David’s banter but I enjoy your back and forth of Canadians Chris Hadfield & William Shatner , I’mbaware of who they are ????????????
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“30 years ago the distant Voyager 1 space craft had completed it’s primary mission of exploring Jupiter and Saturn. The late Carl Sagan proposed it turn around and look back toward it’s home planet to take one last meaningful picture of earth all alone against the blackness of space. It saw a pale blue dot. This image of our earth taken from an unimaginable distance became one of the greatest legacies of our endeavours of space exploration. Carl Sagan knew this picture would have immeasurable cultural value offering a unique perspective on our place in the universe.”
In this inspiring and moving video, hear Carl Sagan talk about this lonely little “pale blue dot”.
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I remember this, Jung. It was actually pitched as a solar system “family portrait” as Voyager obtained a mosaiced image of the Sun and all the planets together. I laughed at the idea, as I knew it would just be a collection of bright unresolved pixels, a few of which would probably be lost in the Sun’s glare. But I was only thinking scientifically, not poetically. Leave it to Sagan to articulate what it means to look back at home from billions of miles away.
http://cdn.sci-news.com/images/enlarge/image_2500_1e-Pale-Blue-Dot.jpg
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David, I suppose that is why Sagan is so great, he takes the universe and adds his poetry, so the rest of us can benefit from his insight and imagination, to better understand the the universe we exist in. He is an artist.
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Sagan’s book Pale Blue Dot is worth reading.
Cheers
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Tom, sounds like a great book indeed. Something for the reading list.
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I should mention the book Cosmos as well and the TV show on PBS. It was in the 80’s.
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The Cosmos TV series jump-started my lifelong fascination with space exploration. Specifically, to see the four major moons of Jupiter transformed from points of light in a telescope to actual worlds, all very different from each other and all utterly unlike any worlds we had ever seen, was to me science fiction turned to reality.
Another great Sagan book is The Demon-Haunted World, which is a critique of the growing anti-intellectual movement and the dangerous trend of favoring superstitious interpretations of nature over scientific ones. He wrote it nearly thirty years ago, but sadly it’s much more relevant now than it was then.
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Science or fiction or just interesting entertainment, what do you think David?
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