Space
While you were out watching the World Series, I was thinking about space. Until jr. high, I was quite certain I wanted to be an astronomer. I had read all the books in the wedgewood elementary school library. I knew, and still know by heart that Pluto takes 248 years to revolve around the sun while mercury takes a mere 88 days. I know that Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is three Earth’s wide and that the Sun is 93 million miles away, but only takes light 8 minutes to reach Earth. I know that in fact it is better if Pluto was not considered a planet because of it’s odd revolution and because of similar surrounding bodies.
Space has always fascinated me, because there is no more west. It literally was “the final frontier”. Of course realizing that astronomers don’t do as much as I thought sooner or later in sophomore year of high school I decided I’d teach history instead, but the thoughts of the stars has never left my mind. I took a solar system class freshman year and I’m taking Stars and the Galaxies now. It’s the last gasp attempt to quench the spatial thirst of the unknown. I am left heartbroken sometimes by how bad the teachers are. My teacher is not even primarily an astronomical man. He’s a mathematician, I suppose they needed him for more astronomy classes. Of course in order to confirm astronomy as a level science to anything else like physics, or biology, then huge equations are needed. I’ve never had a problem with quantifying the universe, but what has this done to the modern age? You know most people don’t look at stars anymore. Most of us can’t. So much light pollution has shifted our eyes so much that only a handful are visible. Imagine thousands of years ago on a moonless, lightless night what our ancestors saw. Combine this with incredible knowledge of the universe and all hope is lost for science fiction. One of my favorite genres (if not my most favorite) in film making is science fiction, because it combines the unknown to systematic true to life attempts to explain those phenomena. And while Star Wars is considered a Space Opera, it is still an incredible experience. But what has science fiction become now. Narrow? Complicated? Confusing? Sure, to some, but still intriguing to others. But the damage has been done.
Let’s look at the “dogfights” in Star Wars. Now most of these fighter on fighter scenarios seem to transfer aerial combat to space, which is a total lie. In the case of a vacuum, what is the point of wings? The entire Rebel Alliance has named their ships with a letter and the corresponding word “wing” but these are not necessary in space. X-wing, Y-wing, A-wing, and B-wing. Now you could say that they are entering and leaving atmospheres, but they still follow the same principles of turning and ducking and weaving in space. So now we have dogfights in space. When Wedge Antilles and the Rebel Alliance take on the second Death Star in Return of the Jedi, all hell breaks loose when Admiral Ackbar so famously cries, “IT’S A TRAP!” Star Destroyers have opened their hanger bays and tie fighters and interceptors (new design) have come storming out. Now here come the dogfights, but here’s the problem. Say Wedge is being shot at from “behind” (we’re in space of course) by a tie fighter. What’s the most obvious thing to do in aerial fights. Well he could “do a barrel roll” or he could loop over and around, or he could S-right or S-left repeatedly until he lost the enemy or got behind him. But what’s the obvious thing to do in a vacuum? Rotate the ship using air pods and shoot him.
Now you gotta think about this…
Just because he is behind him, does not mean he is in that big of danger. A vacuum implies no air resistance, and with that Wedge Antilles could rotate his X-Wing (while moving forward!) and now be moving in reverse but is now facing the tie fighter. Bam Bam! No more tie fighter. Kind of takes all the tension out of the movie right?
For more information on this, read this…
http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/rocket3t.html
Now I’m only using an extreme case in Star Wars. No one really cares because Star Wars was never trying to be realistic. Star Trek might be a little different. The bottom line is, is now Space Opera’s are very hard to do with so much scientific knowledge. There are no “Endors” or “Hoths” or “Tatooine” worlds out there. The closest star to Earth is Alpha Centauri. Even if you were traveling at light speed, (which is impossible for objects with mass as light speed is considered pure energy) then it would take you 4.37 years to even get there! To go any faster would possibly bend the mechanics of space-time itself. After the moon landings in 1969, mankind thought there was nothing that was impossible. People pictured space colonies, lunar bases, space naval platforms, it was a great environment. But then the data started to come in. Science of the sheer scope of the universe came into picture, and now somehow NASA was not the same as it was then. Indeed until cryogenic sleep is invented or until people are willing to live on a ship for 200 years, we might never see another planet, save maybe Mars. Mars does not even have anything worthwhile. It’s atmosphere is too thin, and it’s environment is too harsh. What’s the point?
Indeed what is the point. Science has concluded that most everything out there is indifferent matter, following the clockwork that has been the universe for millions upon millions of years. And now people have become so separated with this truth, or depressed by it, that we’ve stopped looking at the “fireflies that got stuck up…in that…big bluish black thing”.
This truth has never deterred me from the love of space, but it has brought a different perspective upon mankind. Astronomy does not exist for most on a large scale, but it does exist closer to home.
Mankind no longer looks at stars, we look at skyscrapers.
They are so majestic, and tall, and they are easy to approach and behold. Streetlights are beautiful at night. There’s so many different colors. You got flourescent white dwarfs, you’ve got Red Giant stoplights, and you’ve got the standard incandescent suns. We especially have named them. There’s the “Well’s Fargo ATM” star, and there’s the “Jack in the Box” system ahead. We are approaching the “Cowboy’s Stadium” galaxy. And while the infinitely more distant lights have died out, we have not blinked once. Asteroids are now space ships that zoom by, because there are so much more of those than in the far reaches of the unknown. And when they collide, it means so much more because we were the pilots of such matter.
I watched a special for homework in my Astronomy class called, “Secrets of the Universe: the Sun”. I was exceptionally excited because I was hoping they would mention man attempting to recreate the fusion present in the light that powers our world. Can you imagine? Little suns performing fusion and providing us with limitless energy? Incredible. With that kind of power, space colonies really would be possible. What I watched was more doomsday crap. All the ways the sun can kill us, and we should be afraid because THERE IS NOTHING WE CAN DO ABOUT IT. What baffled me was when they said, “we have people on the case”. So that when a massive solar flare fires straight towards Earth, we will be ready in the mere 18 hours it gives us. Of course I can see why they are paid. Some solar flares are minor but can disrupt satellites and since The United States has 56 satellites up there, they might want to turn those off so they don’t short circuit. Does the Discovery and History Channel think we are so stupid that they have to include some kind of massive cataclysmic death scene so that we get excited to watch it? Is that what entertainment has become? “I love space because there are so many ways to die by it.” ???
Is giving up on space and building stars on earth bad? No, but I do believe that dreaming about space instead of doomsday aliens and solar flares is essential. I think that’s what inspired the moon landings in general.
“We do these things not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” -John F. Kennedy
Do you really think that astronauts were going to find something extraordinary on the rock that orbits the rock? No, but it was a dream since forever to have a man wave back from whence he came separated by the vacuum of the dangerous and distant.
While you were out watching the World Series, I was thinking about space. Until jr. high, I was quite certain I wanted to be an astronomer. I had read all the books in the wedgewood elementary school library. I knew, and still know by heart that Pluto takes 248 years to revolve around the sun while mercury takes a mere 88 days. I know that Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is three Earth’s wide and that the Sun is 93 million miles away, but only takes light 8 minutes to reach Earth. I know that in fact it is better if Pluto was not considered a planet because of it’s odd revolution and because of similar surrounding bodies.
Space has always fascinated me, because there is no more west. It literally was “the final frontier”. Of course realizing that astronomers don’t do as much as I thought sooner or later in sophomore year of high school I decided I’d teach history instead, but the thoughts of the stars has never left my mind. I took a solar system class freshman year and I’m taking Stars and the Galaxies now. It’s the last gasp attempt to quench the spatial thirst of the unknown. I am left heartbroken sometimes by how bad the teachers are. My teacher is not even primarily an astronomical man. He’s a mathematician, I suppose they needed him for more astronomy classes. Of course in order to confirm astronomy as a level science to anything else like physics, or biology, then huge equations are needed. I’ve never had a problem with quantifying the universe, but what has this done to the modern age? You know most people don’t look at stars anymore. Most of us can’t. So much light pollution has shifted our eyes so much that only a handful are visible. Imagine thousands of years ago on a moonless, lightless night what our ancestors saw. Combine this with incredible knowledge of the universe and all hope is lost for science fiction. One of my favorite genres (if not my most favorite) in film making is science fiction, because it combines the unknown to systematic true to life attempts to explain those phenomena. And while Star Wars is considered a Space Opera, it is still an incredible experience. But what has science fiction become now. Narrow? Complicated? Confusing? Sure, to some, but still intriguing to others. But the damage has been done.
Let’s look at the “dogfights” in Star Wars. Now most of these fighter on fighter scenarios seem to transfer aerial combat to space, which is a total lie. In the case of a vacuum, what is the point of wings? The entire Rebel Alliance has named their ships with a letter and the corresponding word “wing” but these are not necessary in space. X-wing, Y-wing, A-wing, and B-wing. Now you could say that they are entering and leaving atmospheres, but they still follow the same principles of turning and ducking and weaving in space. So now we have dogfights in space. When Wedge Antilles and the Rebel Alliance take on the second Death Star in Return of the Jedi, all hell breaks loose when Admiral Ackbar so famously cries, “IT’S A TRAP!” Star Destroyers have opened their hanger bays and tie fighters and interceptors (new design) have come storming out. Now here come the dogfights, but here’s the problem. Say Wedge is being shot at from “behind” (we’re in space of course) by a tie fighter. What’s the most obvious thing to do in aerial fights. Well he could “do a barrel roll” or he could loop over and around, or he could S-right or S-left repeatedly until he lost the enemy or got behind him. But what’s the obvious thing to do in a vacuum? Rotate the ship using air pods and shoot him.
Now you gotta think about this…
Just because he is behind him, does not mean he is in that big of danger. A vacuum implies no air resistance, and with that Wedge Antilles could rotate his X-Wing (while moving forward!) and now be moving in reverse but is now facing the tie fighter. Bam Bam! No more tie fighter. Kind of takes all the tension out of the movie right?
For more information on this, read this…
http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/rocket3t.html
Now I’m only using an extreme case in Star Wars. No one really cares because Star Wars was never trying to be realistic. Star Trek might be a little different. The bottom line is, is now Space Opera’s are very hard to do with so much scientific knowledge. There are no “Endors” or “Hoths” or “Tatooine” worlds out there. The closest star to Earth is Alpha Centauri. Even if you were traveling at light speed, (which is impossible for objects with mass as light speed is considered pure energy) then it would take you 4.37 years to even get there! To go any faster would possibly bend the mechanics of space-time itself. After the moon landings in 1969, mankind thought there was nothing that was impossible. People pictured space colonies, lunar bases, space naval platforms, it was a great environment. But then the data started to come in. Science of the sheer scope of the universe came into picture, and now somehow NASA was not the same as it was then. Indeed until cryogenic sleep is invented or until people are willing to live on a ship for 200 years, we might never see another planet, save maybe Mars. Mars does not even have anything worthwhile. It’s atmosphere is too thin, and it’s environment is too harsh. What’s the point?
Indeed what is the point. Science has concluded that most everything out there is indifferent matter, following the clockwork that has been the universe for millions upon millions of years. And now people have become so separated with this truth, or depressed by it, that we’ve stopped looking at the “fireflies that got stuck up…in that…big bluish black thing”.
This truth has never deterred me from the love of space, but it has brought a different perspective upon mankind. Astronomy does not exist for most on a large scale, but it does exist closer to home.
Mankind no longer looks at stars, we look at skyscrapers.
They are so majestic, and tall, and they are easy to approach and behold. Streetlights are beautiful at night. There’s so many different colors. You got flourescent white dwarfs, you’ve got Red Giant stoplights, and you’ve got the standard incandescent suns. We especially have named them. There’s the “Well’s Fargo ATM” star, and there’s the “Jack in the Box” system ahead. We are approaching the “Cowboy’s Stadium” galaxy. And while the infinitely more distant lights have died out, we have not blinked once. Asteroids are now space ships that zoom by, because there are so much more of those than in the far reaches of the unknown. And when they collide, it means so much more because we were the pilots of such matter.
I watched a special for homework in my Astronomy class called, “Secrets of the Universe: the Sun”. I was exceptionally excited because I was hoping they would mention man attempting to recreate the fusion present in the light that powers our world. Can you imagine? Little suns performing fusion and providing us with limitless energy? Incredible. With that kind of power, space colonies really would be possible. What I watched was more doomsday crap. All the ways the sun can kill us, and we should be afraid because THERE IS NOTHING WE CAN DO ABOUT IT. What baffled me was when they said, “we have people on the case”. So that when a massive solar flare fires straight towards Earth, we will be ready in the mere 18 hours it gives us. Of course I can see why they are paid. Some solar flares are minor but can disrupt satellites and since The United States has 56 satellites up there, they might want to turn those off so they don’t short circuit. Does the Discovery and History Channel think we are so stupid that they have to include some kind of massive cataclysmic death scene so that we get excited to watch it? Is that what entertainment has become? “I love space because there are so many ways to die by it.” ???
Is giving up on space and building stars on earth bad? No, but I do believe that dreaming about space instead of doomsday aliens and solar flares is essential. I think that’s what inspired the moon landings in general.
“We do these things not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” -John F. Kennedy
Do you really think that astronauts were going to find something extraordinary on the rock that orbits the rock? No, but it was a dream since forever to have a man wave back from whence he came separated by the vacuum of the dangerous and distant.
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