|
||||||
(AP/New York Times) |
||||||
The Quest |
||||||
FTLComm - Tisdale - Monday, February 3, 2003 | ||||||
The reentry into the Earth's atmosphere from orbit is
totally unrelenting, orbital speed is about 18,000 miles per hour and the friction
of the air on the reentry vehicle builds up unimaginable temperatures. Since the
first trip into space by Yuri Gugarin (April 12, 1961) and every flight since, the
launch atop an explosive fuel tank is a walk in the park compared to reentry![]() Early findings report of a rapid build up of heat on Columbia's left wing near the wheel well and then over Texas the aircraft experienced catastrophic structural failure. Human life and the activities of most of us involve danger and we know that each day, people's lives are ended long before they should have by one reason or another, but these seven and the ten before them are different. Every person looks up into the vast and seemingly endless emptiness of space and wonders are we alone or is life as we know it common and normal for a planet like our own? There is perhaps no other question more important. As fundamental as the meaning of life, as simple as our presence is here may seem, it is a quest that must be taken up and to do that ,we must have people leave the planet and venture out into space. Every pilot who straps themselves into a flying machine and leaves the ground either swiftly or slowly, knows they are defying gravity, the most obvious and least understood force we can experience. Flight defies the rules of nature as man and machine use the intellect that humans possess, to transcend from being a terrestrial being to one able to rise above the ground. This year marks only a hundred years since as a species we have been able to accomplish this feat with machines heavier than the air in which they fly. But how much more impressive was the cost, energy and collective will power to hurl a human, not only above the surface of the ground, but to go beyond the earth's atmosphere. In the past forty years it has been done over and over and as mentioned, not with out mishap. This quest must continue for the answers to the burning questions here are clearly out there. ![]() ![]() The seven who died on Saturday will be missed, and their achievements will not be forgotten, but the quest must continue and political leaders all around the world need to realise that a struggle to win against the odds of the vacuum of space, to overcome the heat of reentry, to overcome the perils of the almost infinite time needed to make journeys beyond our solar system, these goals far out weigh gaining control over a patch of desert, or the oil resources which lie beneath. Lift up your eyes to the heavens, for surely that is our future. |
||||||
References: | ||||||
Broder, John M. Temperature Rise in Last Minutes, (PDF) February 3, 2003, New York Times |
||||||
Timeline of space explorations |
||||||
Cybersurfari, Armstrong quote. | ||||||
|
||||||
|