April 12th, 2007 by Atomictumor
Thats right folks, today is the day we celebrate Yuri Gagarin’s historic and heroic first manned orbit of the Earth.
Yes, those were bold days, when a man could be a man in a diaper, and still get confetti dropped on him in the square in Red Moscow. What happened to that grit, that moxie, that made countries slit each others throats to head up to space? Space flight is no less necessary today than it was in the 60’s, so what happened to our chances of living in the stars?
Was it all just a big cold war sucker punch?
April 12th, 2007 at 1:03 pm
I think once Pluto was demoted from planet-hood, it was all down-hill from there.
April 12th, 2007 at 1:11 pm
At least those of us on the tail end of the baby boom enjoyed much better science educations than are/were typical.
http://www.amazon.com/Scientists-Classroom-Reconstruction-American-Education/dp/0312295715
April 12th, 2007 at 6:47 pm
I don’t know AT. I hate to put it in terms of economics but it isn’t very profitable is it? While NASA argued in the late 1990’s that real science was happening in space — better concrete and the like — it seems a technological gap that is preventing the space program from “going to the stars”. The talk about pulse ion engines still but they have been around for a while. Carl Sagan once described the shuttle program “a tin can in orbit”. But then you look at the Orion project and it really does look like a tin can after the shuttle retires. I think it helped to have a nice super power rivalry to rap up the space program. Now it is been there done that so lets do it again. No clear vision. I think we need a good educational revival. Lets face it — our home grown talent is pretty poor and no one will talk about it. I am not saying that there is no talent — I am just saying that the talent is there and we are failing to work it. I just feel that if you invest in education it is only a win win situation. It keeps your workforce globally competitive and it promotes a healthy sense of nationalism which says “our geeks are better than your geeks”.
April 12th, 2007 at 8:31 pm
Thank you for explaining that! I couldn’t figure out why Google had a space theme today. Yes, I’m a moron.