Godspeed John Glenn

Well, I had intended to write at length about the latest shuttle launch, but instead I will simply refer you to this:

http://www.spacedaily.com/news/rocketscience-03zj1.html

I will say that I was happy to watch a succesful launch and that the fueltank camera captured spectacular imagery. Me like. Unfortunately, there is this little foam insulation problem, and in the words of NASA administrator Mike Griffin "The space shuttle is fundamentally flawed". Damn.

Anyway, in the space sector there is the pro-shuttle people and the pro-scuttle people. Of which I belong in the last category. The shuttle should be retired, sooner the better, and a new vehicle should be designed. The new vehicle should obviously be safer, cheaper to fly and easier to maintain. It should be developed quickly because at it stands, the US does not have a human space program anymore. It is unlikely that the shuttle will ever fly again and it really shouldn´t, the funds currently used for the shuttle should immediatly be relocated to the development of this new vehicle. And that leaves us with the icky international compromise called the ISS, well it´s not going to be finished is it? No. We should leave it at that, finish what we can and learn what we can. I still think a large space station is a good idea, we know exceptionally little about living in space and the ISS is the safest, closest space to learn in. While many of the experiments sent up there seems silly(antfarms anyone?) the basic fact that we are clueless remains, and experimentation is the best way to learn. We want to go to the moon and mars and beyond, we don´t want to die from calcium loss, radiation, brand new just discovered yesterday particles while we´re half-way to mars. It´s a long and risky journey.

Meanwhile we should send more probes, measure more stuff, find water, there´s a whole little shopping list of needed science. And NASA wants to shut down the receieving of data from the only two probes(Voyager 1 just clear and Voyager 2 there soon) that has left the solar system, to save a measly $6 million(my info could be outdated).

But godspeed John Glenn. And RIP Scotty, whose ashes will actually go to space.

b