How very odd.
Feb. 2nd, 2003 01:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
baratronThe division between the people I know in the UK and US has never been greater. Looking through my friends page today, every single post from a US-person has to do with the Space Shuttle explosion. Not a single UK-er has even mentioned it: people are talking about their weekend plans and parties. How very, very odd.
I never hear news that happens at the weekend. The Evening Standard is my main source of news (because I object to paying money to read news from the previous night), and it only publishes on weekdays. If stuff happens between Friday night and Monday morning, I don't hear about it. This Space Shuttle explosion doesn't seem very real to me, because I've only read about it on the internet (even if it was the BBC's site). It will continue to not feel real until I see it on the front pages of tomorrow's newspapers.
It's weird. I'm confused as to what the big deal is, why so many of my American friends are upset. Of course, it's tragic for anyone who knew the people involved - any death is tragic for those left behind. But all this stuff about dreams... it must only make sense to a country that has actually been involved in space exploration. I've veered between seeing it as a valuable way to find out more about our planet and a colossal waste of money. I've always seen it that way, even when I was a student in a Space and Atmospheric Physics Group.
Edit: OK, I mis-spoke. One UK-er mentioned it. A couple more in email. But even then...
I never hear news that happens at the weekend. The Evening Standard is my main source of news (because I object to paying money to read news from the previous night), and it only publishes on weekdays. If stuff happens between Friday night and Monday morning, I don't hear about it. This Space Shuttle explosion doesn't seem very real to me, because I've only read about it on the internet (even if it was the BBC's site). It will continue to not feel real until I see it on the front pages of tomorrow's newspapers.
It's weird. I'm confused as to what the big deal is, why so many of my American friends are upset. Of course, it's tragic for anyone who knew the people involved - any death is tragic for those left behind. But all this stuff about dreams... it must only make sense to a country that has actually been involved in space exploration. I've veered between seeing it as a valuable way to find out more about our planet and a colossal waste of money. I've always seen it that way, even when I was a student in a Space and Atmospheric Physics Group.
Edit: OK, I mis-spoke. One UK-er mentioned it. A couple more in email. But even then...
no subject
Date: 2003-02-01 09:03 pm (UTC)One of my partners is actively involved in space work and research; my other partner is thinking about trying to get a job in that field when he gets his PhD.
I'm a sci-fi writer.
A lot of people are pretty justifiably afraid that something that has produced tremendous value -- not just in technology and prosperity, but in the sense of human striving and achievement -- may be crippled or killed by this. I have hope that it won't -- or if it is, it won't last. But that fear a thing that intimately concerns all the people whose dreams as children were to go into space -- dreams that some people (my partner
I wish I had a good enough grasp of British zeitgeist to find a parallel for you, so the gap could be bridged. I don't even know what questions to ask to find a thing that shaped the last fifty years, a perpetual part of cultural awareness, something that even people who pursued careers in entirely different fields might look at events in and say, wistfully, "You know, I wanted to be a [fitb] when I was a child. . . ."
this is rushed out, not properly worded, but...
Date: 2003-02-01 09:39 pm (UTC)Were they things that we actually needed, though? I mean... yeah, now we have Teflon and can make non-stick pans out of it, for instance. I suppose there may be laboratory uses for it where it is very important, but apart from that, I'm not sure that the finances are justified.
Not trying to start a huge argument or negate your grief or anything, but I have a real problem spending money on space technology instead of looking after the planet we have already. There is a definite problem with the way we conduct space exploration already: with space junk floating round as "pollution". Then I get stressed about the huge amounts of fossil fuels and metals that get wasted in the process, and... I mean, this bugs me on Earth as well, the waste of fossil fuels and how little material gets recycled and how little can be recycled: overpackaging of things and so on. When I start thinking about environmental issues, I get so upset that I end up in a place where I can't function anymore. I recycle as much as I can and don't own a car, and try not to waste heat, but... I'm aware of how little it is compared to what should be possible - for instance, the huge number of plastic items I have to throw away because nowhere collects random plastic packaging for recycling, only bottles and bags - and it makes me cry.
The impression I get from... well, maybe science fiction, but could be some fact in there as well, is that we need to explore space so we have somewhere to go when we've finished crapping up the Earth. I don't think we deserve other planets until we've started to take better care of this one. That includes all the Earth's inhabitants - all its peoples, animals and plants. How many people die of hunger each day? How many endangered species are lost each day?
The part of me that's a scientist has never really got on with the part of me that's a 10 year old kid who wants world peace :/ In an ideal world, we'd spend money on space exploration and solving world hunger and recycling all our crap. There may even be ways in which space exploration helps us solve world hunger (this has to be true for atmospheric science... I just don't know how). But it doesn't seem to be what happens in practice. Ultimately, going to space is sexy, and starving people and ruined natural habitats are not.
Re: this is rushed out, not properly worded, but...
Date: 2003-02-01 10:11 pm (UTC)I don't know. How do you feel about improved odds on breast cancer prevention? Air quality monitoring systems that make it possible to rate compliance of factories with air pollution standards? Scratch-resistant glasses lenses? Hydroponics? Laser angioplasty? Emergency cutters used to cut people out of wreckage? Lighter-weight, stronger, safer structural materials in buildings and automobiles? What I'm guessing is a fairly comprehensive thing is listed here.
Re: this is rushed out, not properly worded, but...
Date: 2003-02-02 01:50 am (UTC)Sustainable living isn't going to help us any if a 20-mile meteor wipes out one hemisphere and throws the other into perpetual winter.
I agree completely; in an ideal world, a space program would be part of a balanced breakfast, complete with 10 vitamins and minerals. But for the overwhelming majority of human history, we've had frontiers to explore, and places to go if catastrophes beyond our control lay waste to our homes. Now we don't, and that scares me. Reclaiming that is, in my opinion, a justified and necessary expense. I actually find myself hoping that we DON'T find any other planets to settle before we figure out how to live responsibly on this one; but it's important that we keep searching, and stay aware of why the search is important, and give the sort of people who are most comfortable on the frontiers a place to go.
The fact that humanity currently the world's biggest potential threat to humanity doesn't make it any less urgent to me that we keep pushing out into the void.
Re: this is rushed out, not properly worded, but...
Date: 2003-02-02 07:13 am (UTC)Knowing where hurricanes and other major storms are saves lives every year. It doesn't make headlines anymore, unless you're in the area that's being told to evacuate--"thousands not killed by storm" isn't news.
Re: this is rushed out, not properly worded, but...
Re: this is rushed out, not properly worded, but...
Date: 2003-02-03 11:05 am (UTC)It may look like launches use a lot of fuel and material, but there aren't very many - next to, say, mass motorcar ownership it's not even a drop in a bucket.
I would hope - bit of a pipe dream - that experience gained from terraforming Mars would help us deal with climate change here.