"...his gaze went to the dust of megayears, tumbled and tracked like the dust of Luna when man first fared into space..." (p. 223)
When I started reading sf, Moon landings were still in our future although they had occurred in sf, most notably in The First Men In The Moon. The Apollo landings took place from July 1969 to December 1972. The Day Of Their Return was published in 1973. Thus, the Apollo landings were happening while Poul Anderson was writing this novel. Now they are fifty years in the past and can be referred to in works of fiction that do not thereby become sf. That is a big change in our lifetimes - in the lifetimes of those of us who are old enough, I should say. There was an interregnum of space travel in Robert Heinlein's Future History. We might be coming to the end of our interregnum although, quite frankly, who knows? I can't get excited about space travel anymore. There are too many problems down here.
15 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I have to disagree with the last two sentences of this blog piece! We should get excited and happy about the increased hopes, thanks to men like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, of the human race finally getting decisively off this rock. Moreover, we will never get off Earth if we wait till all our problems are solved and everything is nice and tidy--because we are always going to have problems.
My belief remains that simply getting off Earth will make some of our current problems irrelevant, even obsolete.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
I agree that a space program should not be delayed until all Terrestrial problems are solved. That way it would never happen!
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Exactly. Thanks!
Ad astra! Sean
Also the attitude that we should solve the problems on earth before going to space ignores the likelihood that space can help solve some earthly problems.
For ways in which that has already happened see earth observation satellites & communication relays in orbit.
We need:
a laser defence system against asteroid strikes;
people living in self-sustaining habitats off Earth so that all our eggs are not in one basket.
Space travel defined as what, exactly?
Between 1975 (ASTP) and today, there have been an on-going series of HSF missions in low earth orbit, including to and from a series of space stations, mounted by three different nations and (arguably) four different programs. Human beings have achieved multiple human space flight records of a year or more and a demonstrated ability to manage in orbit assembly, rendezvous and docking, autonomous supply missions, HSF-dependent spacecraft repair and sustainment missions, etc., all of which quite significant when it comes to the prospect of interplanetary travel and/or long-term missions away from Earth, of course.
In addition, autonomous spacecraft have imaged every planet, the Sun, and have gone as far out as Pluto and the outer elements of our Solar System, quite successfully, and have landed repeatedly on Mars, as well as repeated observations and landing on the Moon.
Beyond that, orbiting observatories, including some with human-assisted sustainment, have been placed in space and used to image and observe extrasolar systems and multiple galaxies, across the spectrum.
The above, of course, are solely the public programs focused on astronomy and HSF capabilities; the public programs that make civilization and human life on Earth extraordinarily safer and more pleasant than anything before the Space Age are equally extraordinary - and the achievements and milestones of the non-public programs, of course, are as important or more so.
Very little of the above was achieved by "commercial" contractors, of course, and even what little for profit operations have managed is based on research and development conducted entirely under government auspices.
The reality of the world the entirety of humanity lives on, and how to use space to civilization's benefit, is what makes all the difference between rational scientific and public policy pursued by adults - and fantasies longed for by children.
There is no Planet B, after all. ;)
SpaceX is launching the overwhelming majority of global mass to orbit as of this year, and that total is also reaching records.
I detect an element of butt-hurt...
SM - No, simply using historical and technical perspective. You should try it. ;)
SpaceX is a launch services contractor that depends on the USG for business; same as (over the years) ULA, GD, MD, etc. have all been. Nothing especially "revolutionary" about using six decades of existing research and best practices to provide the cheapest bus service. ;)
When the commercial operators achieve something significant that the US, the Soviets/Russians, Chinese, Europeans, etc. haven't done - in terms of milestones in astronautics, or anything in astronomy, planetology, cosmology, materials research, etc. - maybe they can claim something approximating a BFD.
Until then, as has been said, they "stand on the shoulders of giants"...
And that's simply the public programs. In terms of accomplishments SpaceX' best are not even read in on (and never will be, for obvious reasons) - as has been said, "there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of"...
80% of total global mass to orbit, reusable first stages. You seem reluctant to address this.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
And besides the work SpaceX has been doing as a necessary prelude to sending manned expeditions to the Moon and Mars, I've been longing for really large space habitats being built. Such as O'Neill habitats or ring shaped space stations large enough to use spin for creating artificial gravity. Large enough to have several rings for Earth normal, half normal, a fifth normal, etc., gravity.
I can imagine people on Earth troubled by heart disease or arthritis being able to live much more easily and with far less pain if they could live in places with lower gravity.
Ad astra! Sean
Since zero gee is known to be bad for human health, I can also imagine lunar or martian gravity being bad for human health. We won't know until we have humans living for months (at least) under those conditions.
Kaor, Jim!
I agree, zero gravity or the very light gravity of the Moon would be bad for human health. In fact, Anderson speculated in HARVEST OF STARS that Luna's gravity was so low that pregnant women could not bring their babies to full term on the Moon, and invariably miscarried. That was one reason why genetic engineering was used to change humans just enough that they could live and have children in Luna type gravity. With additional, unintended "side effects"!
Unmodified women either had to go back to Earth if they wanted children, or, after an O'Neill habitat was orbited around Luna with Earth type gravity, go there for their pregnancies.
Since the gravity of Mars is about 37 or 38 percent that of Earth's, Anderson speculated that was high enough for humans to survive and have children, with no need to use genetic engineering.
I agree we will only find out for sure, either way, once humans are permanently living on Luna and Mars!
Ad astra! Sean
SM - As said, Gwynne Shotwell's achievement is selling a cheaper bus service to a customer looking for a cheaper bus service. BFD.
Lee Atwood she is not. Hell, she's not even Olive Ann Beech.
And Musk? Musk makes Howard Hughes look like a paragon of health and stability.
I think the first rotating space habitat should produce Martian gravity so we can test the health effects of that before a return voyage of a few years to Mars and back.
Note that the surface (or cloud top) gravities of solar system bodies cluster oddly about certain values that differ by a ratio of 2.5 or 0.4 depending on which way you look at it.
Jupiter - about 25 m/s^2
Venus Earth Saturn Uranus & Neptune - all close to 10 m/s^2
Mars & Mercury - both just under 4 m/s^2
Luna, the 4 Galilean moons of Jupiter & Titan - all close to 1.6 m/s^2
So testing the health effect of Lunar & Martian gravity is all the data we need.
Kaor, Jim!
Of course I would agree. Build rotating stations with rings at different gravities. I'm still inclined to agree with Anderson that Mars' gravity is still high enough for humans to live well there.
Ad astra! Seann
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