I recently finished reading Mary Roach’s Packing for Mars, a humorous look at what’s involved in getting and sustaining several humans in space. This book ponders several weighty (k, I couldn’t resist this) questions, such as: How does one go to the bathroom in zero-G? And, how long can a person wear the same pair of underpants before it falls to shreds? Also, why is a bad idea to take a deli sandwich into space?
All questions that I’m sure keep you awake at night. This is the private life of astronauts–all the non-glamorous, sometimes funny, often embarrassing stuff that makes me glad to spend the rest of my days feet firmly on Planet Earth.
Today I read the kids a picture book about zooming off into space. Then we put the book down and watched a real shuttle launch on YouTube (can I say I love YouTube?). Here’s Atlantis launching from the Kennedy Space Center. It’s a long video, but worth a look. Every time they mentioned the velocity of the shuttle (which just kept increasing and increasing till it hit 11, 000 miles an hour(!)), Sir I’s eyes grew rounder and rounder. “Wow!”
I confess–I get all tingly and teary-eyed over shuttle launches. There’s such a huge barrier to getting into space and living in it for even a few months. That we’ve launched shuttles at all is a testament to human ingenuity, courage and persistence. And those astronauts? They’ve got guts. You won’t catch me going anywhere strapped to tons and tons of burning rocket fuel, going a zillion miles an hour, with no way to bail out–or survive even if you could.
And besides, rockets and shuttles tickle the same part of my brain that loves dragons, spaceships, and other ginormous fast fiery things. The part that goes squee! over cool technology, fantastic beasts and awesome magic. The part that loves adventurers and frontiersmen, and desperate missions and doing the impossible (or merely the highly improbable).
The part that’s still a kid and breathes “wow” when shuttles break the sound barrier.
I also get chills and choked up when I see (or read about) shuttle launches. When they were doing all the stories recently about the Challenger disaster (anniversary), I was a wreck, just listening. But I’m a wreck at the successful launches, too.
Yeah, I watched some footage about the Challenge disaster today and got all weepy. I did NOT show the kids that one. We saw Atlantis and Discovery launch successfully and got a thrill every time. There’s just something so fragile and powerful about those shuttles, and something so insane and courageous and creative about the people who work on them and in them (and consent to being launched on them–yikes!).
I saw a clip of Discovery’s landing from its last-ever mission and got teary-eyed at that, too. Yep, that’s me. Emotional all around. 😀
Having a background in science I don’t get too tickled-up by launches. I see it as the culmination of a huge amount of research and hard, painstaking work; and the only long-term hope for mankind – always supposing we’re sensible enough not to kill ourselves off or wreck the planet or other ingenious ways we might have of ending our species. For all species do come to an end. On the other hand, human ingenuity ought to be able to ensure that we escape that particular end result of evolution.
I do get excited by the thought of space travel and finding new planets and everything that goes along with that. The idea there may be ways of travelling through the universe which aren’t as yet obvious (wormholes anyone?).
I’m probably destined to be Earthbound even if there was a quick and easy way off Earth. I don’t even like flying so the idea of rocketing up into space and looking down on the Earth freaks me out 😀
I’m a home-loving girl and wouldn’t want to live anywhere on Earth except England, so another planet? Well, I suppose if the world was going to blow up or something then if my husband drugged me and somehow got me into a spaceship I guess I’d go. Otherwise, I’m here to stay.
I have immense admiration for those who do risk their lives by going up into space.
I have immense admiration for those who do risk their lives by going up into space.
Me, too. And even if a mission goes well, they still have to deal with tight quarters, lack of personal hygiene, and icky food. Not comfortable at all.
I admit to loving the idea of space, etc., but not the actual launches themselves. This is primarily because space launches cause insomnia and disturbed sleep patterns in we poor, earthbound humans, and I have discovered myself to be also vulnerable. Ah, well. That aside, love the wonder of it all.
You mean for the people living near launch sites?
Nope. Apparently, it affects a lot of people ’cause of how the earth turns, etc. My grandmother knows more about it because when she was younger, they would actually announce and warn people about the effects. Pretty much, if the United States has a launch, it affects the sleep to varying degrees of almost the entire United States. When I was younger, it didn’t affect me so much. For whatever reason, I hit my twenties and it started affecting me. Weird dreams and just generally more disturbed sleep patterns. Symptoms just last a few days though, so that’s good.
Huh. I wonder what the scientific research on that is. I must look up. 🙂
I think it has to do with the magnetic grid maybe. There’s a hole up there in that and it’s worse for affecting sleep.