It
has been well over a year since I posted, and for that, I apologize. My life
has changed a lot in the last year. I have completed my undergraduate
career, received my degrees in Communication and Chemistry, and begun the
elusive job hunt.
I
figured there was no better time for me to relaunch Scitidbits. The United
States and the world recently celebrated the 45th anniversary of the first man
on the moon. July 20, 1969 was an amazing day in human history - Neil Armstrong
and Buzz Aldrin were the first two men to step onto the surface of the moon.
Below is a photo of the National Geographic from December 1969, just months
after the landing.
"Mankind
entered a new era at Tranquility Base - an era in which
travel will be reckoned not in thousands of miles but in millions
and billions. Space is an endless
frontier for our children,
and for all future generations."
-Dr.
Thomas Paine, National Geographic
December 1969
While
I am still in awe of this major human accomplishment, it also reminds me of how
far NASA has fallen - to just below 0.5 percent of the Federal budget. This has
to change because the vastness that is outer space still offers us a multitude
of things to discover, and great unknowns that are still to be explored.
"... To what goals in space would we
now commit ourselves as a Nation?"
-Dr.
Thomas Paine, National Geographic
December 1969
Dr.
Paine said it well then, and I believe it remains a fair question - "To
what goals in space would we now commit ourselves to as a Nation?" In the
past years, we have continued to send scientists and astronauts to the International
Space Station, but the STS-135
mission using the Atlantis space shuttle on July 8, 2011, was the last time we
launched our astronauts ourselves.
There
are many exciting new missions in store for NASA - this includes capturing
an asteroid and bringing it back to orbit the moon for research and study
purposes, sending astronauts to the same asteroid, even launching another
rover to Mars in 2020 to further research, and hopefully, eventually
getting people to Mars and back.
Private
industry is also developing some interesting opportunities. Space X has been delivering supplies
to the International Space Station the past few years, and Google has an
initiative, the Google Lunar
X Prize, that directly involves the moon. This competition is to be completed by December 31, 2015 and
features a huge monetary prize to the team that completes a series of
challenges first. These challenges include landing a rover on the moon, moving
500 meters on, above, or below the Moon's surface, and sending back HD video
from the surface of the moon. There are currently 18 teams still in the running
for the prize, and you can read about their progress on the individual team blogs. Mars One is obviously the
private, non-profit organization that has received the most media attention.
They intend to establish a permanent human settlement on Mars, and begin
sending astronauts to Mars by 2024.
So
here's to space, to continuing human curiosity, and to further exploration into
our vastly unknown solar system and universe!
