American Space Age Reaches Fifty Years

Bryansix brings us a story about the 50th anniversary of the United States' entry into the Space Age. On January 31st, 1958, Explorer 1 became the first U.S. satellite to reach orbit. The New York Times is running a similar feature. "Explorer 1 gave America a chance to recover some of its confidence and prestige after the Sputnik shock, but there was a scientific payoff as well: The data returned by the satellite showed that Earth was not surrounded by a swarm of killer pebbles, as some scientists had feared. However, the cosmic-ray readings hinted at the existence of bands of radiation surrounding the planet - an unexpected result that led to the discovery of the Van Allen Belts."

Comments

Killer Pebbles

[Shag]

Ironically, of course, after 50 years of the space age, the Earth is surrounded by a growing number of killer bits of space debris - but it's our own fault. :)

December 14

[evanbd]

December 14, 1972 is the anniversary I pay the most attention to. I sincerely hope we go back.

Re:December 14

[evanbd]

I beg to disagree on all counts.

Firstly, I believe my odds of going are significantly better than the average person's, due to my career choice. Still not good, but way better than average.

Secondly, sending a robot isn't as good as sending a person, even if only for purely sentimental reasons -- which are not without value. And if you say they are, then I ask very simply -- what is wrong with you? Have you no sense of wonder? No drive to see humanity explore?

And thirdly, robots are *not* substitutes for humans when it comes to doing basic science. The MER robots do in a day what a trained geologist could do in a couple minutes. The problem is that we're too modest in what we ask for from our missions. If we started by asking what a trained scientist could do given a week or two, and wrote that up as the mission objectives, you'd rapidly discover that no robot we could imagine building in the near future could complete the mission.

What kind of geek are you? How can you not look at the sky and want to *go* there? If you truly tihnk robots can do anything you want done up there, then I believe you have misplaced your imagination.

Re:December 14

[Anonymous Coward]

What kind of geek are you? How can you not look at the sky and want to *go* there? If you truly tihnk robots can do anything you want done up there, then I believe you have misplaced your imagination.

Maybe he's a geek with a driving passion for robotics? One who wants to improve robots as much as you want to explore?

Re:... and pointless

[The One and Only]

What makes you think we had it in the first place? The entire Apollo program was just an attempt to fulfill the propaganda speeches of a dead president and poke the Soviets in the eye, and after the first landing no one cared anymore and the program was cut back. Two things Americans have always had is a desire to honor our dead and the urge to poke our enemies in the eye. Sense of wonder? From the generation that grew up fighting the most destructive war in world history? That's a rose-tinted view of history.

Re:... and pointless

[Admiral Ag]

I don't know about that. Going to the moon is probably the outstanding achievement of our species. If you wanted to ask why it was done, there are lots of reasons, the most enduring one being "because it was there".No-one gives a crap about the Cold War now, but the moon continues to fascinate. It's probably the first time there had been a global awareness of our planet as an organic whole and our small place in the universe. There's a reason why enivronmental pamphlets tend to use the "Whole Earth" or "Apollo 8 Sunrise" shots. All in all we make ourselves better people when we do things like exploration, art and science.

It's not as if Apollo was particularly expensive either. Sure, 25 billion dollars (1960s) sounds real expensive, but given there were 200 million Americans at the time, the cost works out to a bit over 10 bucks a year per person over the 10 years of the program. That's probably not much more than a kid's pocket money each to watch arguably the greatest film ever shot (and it was real!!).

It's certainly a lot less than the warmongering sacks of shit spent on 'Nam, which achieved fuck all other than killing millions of people, poisoning vast areas of land, sowing mass social discord and ruining the lives of young men.

I'm convinced that historians will look back on Apollo as the high point of our civilization, before it sank into selfish decadence. When I was a kid, everyone wanted to be an astronaut. Now they want to be a rap star with guns, bling and mansions full of semi-naked hookers. /get off my lawn

Re:FIRST POST!

[badboy_tw2002]

Yeah, just like this ridiculous article:

http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/01/0247207

I think we need another Commie Purge...seems that our old friends the Ruskies have infiltrated Slashdot as well, and it looks like the new Cold War is being played out in the comments section of our beloved tech journal!

Or maybe its a historical piece about an important event in history (start US Space program, which you have to admit is important no matter what the nationality), and the phrase "sputnik scare" was taken in a historical context from within the article. Nah, too far fetched. Your theory is much better, Tom Clancy.

Re:Flat spin

[AJWM]

which points out that the same would have happened to O'Neill colonies without constant dynamical control.

Which just goes to show that the author didn't do his research on O'Neill colonies. O'Neill was a physicist, he knew the issues and addressed them (two cylinders tethered together, the agricultural ring, etc image here). And, of course, they do have constant dynamical control.

Just because some artists and Babylon 5 get it wrong doesn't mean the physicists did.