Out on the Mojave: space shot for the common man

[CShine]

MOJAVE, CALIF. – Down Route 58, past tangles of scrub brush and 20 miles of landscape that ripples in the heat of the high California desert, America took its first steps into the space age in the 1960s. For the generation of test pilots who would become America's first astronauts, this was the launching pad for the impossible - where machines took humans faster and higher than ever before.

Monday morning, as the sun creeps over the umber edge of the San Gabriel mountains, a local engineer famous for his independent attitude and revolutionary ideas will seek to take that spirit into the 21st century. If all goes as planned, his SpaceShipOne will shoot straight up - 62 miles above the Mojave sand to where the sky is as black as shale - and for the first time a human will reach space unaided by any government. It will be an event earmarked for history, and a statement that - after 40 years of exploration - the final frontier might finally be open to the common man.

While floating hotels and lunar honeymoons might still be years if not decades away, they are impossible without this achievement, experts say. This is the beginning of cheap access to space, and the last gasp of the notion that the heavens are solely the domain of governments. Like Charles Lindbergh's flight across the Atlantic, which fired the public's imagination and led to the creation of commercial air travel, SpaceShipOne's space shot could set off a new space race, as private entrepreneurs see what is possible and race to stake their claim in the ether.

"It would create a feeling among the population that space is an achievable place," says Edward Crawley, an engineer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. And "it would create a feeling among people interested in investing that this is part of the general human experience, not a fringe thing."

http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0618/p01s02-ussc.html

[PartyPooper]

1. *sigh*

Why spend the energy, time, and money to do this when we need to do so much more here on earth?

:shrug:

[truthisfreedom]

2. why not do everything? there's plenty of us.

this do-it-yourself approach inspires people to solve problems here on earth.

[AndyTiedye]

4. Mankind Needs Frontiers

There will always be more to do on Earth,
until there is nothing left to do it with.

We need to reach out,
not spend the last of the Earth's resources
fighting over the last of Earth's resources.

[truthisfreedom]

6. THAT's interesting. it would be fascinating to look at exactly how much

of our resources were consumed in an effort to depose saddam. just exactly how many drops of oil, including all that has been and continues to be spilled as the pipelines are blown up.

[Trajan]

3. Having lived in Apple Valley and Antelope Valley ...

and having spent time along HWY 58 and in the Mojave ... this much I know: the sun does not rise from behind the San Gabriel Mountains, which is actually due SOUTH of the 58 and the Mojave, not east ...

Furthermore: having worked on the Manned Space program over the years, I can only say this: I greatly doubt this man will survive ... Burt Rutan is a great aviator, but he is strapping himself to a human bottle rocket .... a squirrely, twisty, jiggly ride that may be straight up, or may not be ....

Great men achieve even greater heights when they sacrifice for their cause .... I worry about Burt Rutan's future ....

[Jake_DeLeon]

5. I hope it works.

[moof]

7. WELCOME TO DU Jake_DeLeon

WELCOME TO DU Jake_DeLeon

We are glad to have you to post here at DU.

So stretch out & relax,



Take a load off,



and join in the fun,

there's always room for one more loon.



Link to DU glossary explaining among other things,

- * - bush* - moran - BBV - ABB- bfee - sorry Yaks not included

http://dug.seattleactivist.org/

Somewhat Official Lounge Welcome copyright moof enterprises

[Jake_DeLeon]

8. thanks for the welcome.

I'll check that glossary out.

[moof]

9. Glad to have ya, if you have any questions about Yaks stop by the Lounge