Author Topic: If someone asked you why you liked space, you would respond...  (Read 6692 times)

Offline ClaytonBirchenough

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If someone asked YOU why you liked spaceflight/space related activities, you would respond...
Clayton Birchenough

Offline QuantumG

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A timely answer:

http://www.theobligationbook.com/

Check it out.

We still have so much to learn about space, what's out there?

Space is the future home of humanity. We can't stay on this planet forever, so let's get started.

The challenge of space is an amazing catalyst for invention.

There's so much work to be done to get humanity out into space, and I have great respect for people who are doing.

Space has inspired so many great visionaries.

Protecting humanity requires mastering the space environment.

Space brings all of us together in a way nothing else ever has.

« Last Edit: 07/05/2013 02:10 am by QuantumG »
Human spaceflight is basically just LARPing now.

Offline Downix

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You'll never find the end of it.
chuck - Toilet paper has no real value? Try living with 5 other adults for 6 months in a can with no toilet paper. Man oh man. Toilet paper would be worth it's weight in gold!

Offline R7

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Simple: I don't know why, don't care why, just do.
AD·ASTRA·ASTRORVM·GRATIA

Offline Cinder

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The ideal answer would be to buy them a ticket on SS2 -- "If you have to ask, you probably won't understand" ?

More likely I'd tell them that space is the means to give them astronomically more of anything/everything they like about life already; eventually.
« Last Edit: 07/05/2013 05:48 am by Cinder »
NEC ULTIMA SI PRIOR

Offline nethegauner

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". . . because it is imperative!"

;)

Offline MATTBLAK

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I could tell them something like: because it's cool but that would be too glib. My mother once told me that when I was a toddler (I don't remember this) I used to want to stare at the Moon for ages and look at the sky, too. I was very young when Apollo 11 happened (4 years), but I remember it well. After watching the TV footage of the EVA and later a film about it, I would put on my brothers motorcycle helmet and go to the neighbour's huge sandpit - they had a kid's slide with a big ladder on one end. I would drag the end of the ladder into the edge of the sandpit and make believe I was Neil or Buzz, climbing down the ladder to the lunar surface. Before this, I would place small rocks at various places in the sandpit for collection later and I would also set up 'experiments' in the sand.

I've been reading about and following Space exploration my entire life. Other than all the above; it's almost as though if I have to explain why I loved Space, you'd have little hope of truly understanding. I've been waiting - often impatiently - since 1972 for someone to leave Earth orbit again and later on for the first time; take steps on the Martian surface.

I fear I will have to wait an equal time longer again....  >:( :'( :'(
« Last Edit: 07/05/2013 11:09 pm by MATTBLAK »
"Those who can't, Blog".   'Space Cadets' of the World - Let us UNITE!! (crickets chirping)

Offline spectre9

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It's the final frontier.

You know there's a whole universe outside of this little blue speck right?  :P

Offline IRobot

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Imagine you are incarcerated in a very large room for life, with food and everything you need to survive (that might include women :) ). But you look up and there is a hole in the ceiling, with some tricky long stairs to climb. You can occasionally see something through the hole and it looks amazing.

Wouldn't you want to know what is outside of the room?

Offline Lar

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Only a fool keeps his eggs in one basket. It is our destiny to be an interstellar species, or die trying.
"I think it would be great to be born on Earth and to die on Mars. Just hopefully not at the point of impact." -Elon Musk
"We're a little bit like the dog who caught the bus" - Musk after CRS-8 S1 successfully landed on ASDS OCISLY

Offline Rocket Science

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"The Earth is the cradle of humanity, but mankind cannot stay in the cradle forever." - Konstantin Tsiolkovsky
"The laws of physics are unforgiving"
~Rob: Physics instructor, Aviator

Offline Archibald

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Quote
The challenge of space is an amazing catalyst for invention.

Seconded. See the number of different RLVs concepts as an example.
Han shot first and Gwynne Shotwell !

Offline grondilu

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Few years ago, I watched an episode of the fun and excellent TV series "The Universe".  It was the first time I watched an episode of this series and it was about Nemesis, an hypothetical companion to the Sun.

It was the first time I heard about this hypothesis and I had no clue such thing could even be considered possible.  The whole idea fascinated me.  I mean, I was amazed by the idea that such a big object could exist in our solar system, and still be undetected.

Nemesis probably doesn't exist but that does not matter much, this idea renewed my interest for space.  When I was a kid I used to be interested in space.  For instance before ten I knew all the names of planets in their order, and a few Jupiter satellites.  Like all nerds, I was interested in those stuff, but with time this interest decreased: my scientific curiosity shifted to other topics, like programming, physics and stuff.

This "The Universe" episode about Nemesis triggered something.   First, I watched all other episodes of the series, I learned a lot about all the other kind of celestial bodies I knew nothing about.   Then I rred many wikipedia articles about astronomy.  I learnt much more than what I used to know.  Like the transneptunian objects,  Sedna, the asteroids like Vesta and Ceres, and all those stuff.  I learnt more about the different stars.   I learnt for instance that there are a few red giants, like Betelgeuse, that could explode in supernova any time.   My interest for space had grown quite a lot.

My point being:  space is fascinating because it's full of mysteries (we don't know exactly what's out there), and there are lots of things to know (there are literally whole words out there), many of them with weird, unknown physics.

Unlike many on this thread and this forum, I don't think mankind is destined to travel to outer space, but I do know that human beings are curious about things, and space is certainly a fascinating subject.  It's full of words which not only can strike our imagination, but can also give us precious information about the structure of the Universe and therefore can help us understand the laws of Nature.  That's why space is very much worth studying and exploring.

Offline bkellysky

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I say to people.... space is so.... big.  There is so much to see and explore - starting with spying the rings of Saturn, visible even in a small telescope. And that same telescope can help you relive Galileo's discovery of Jupiter's four brightest moons. If people want a closer look, we get to look over the shoulders of robotic and human explorers. 

If people don't know where to start, this site (and a few others in other categories), run by dedicated volunteers and visited by interesting professionals, is a wonderful place to begin an exploration of the universe.

Hey, MATTBLAK, I spent a couple of summers, from time to time stepping off the ladder of my 'neutral buoyancy tank' (i.e., our swim club pool).

Offline Nickolai

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I love space because I love the surreal. I love thinking about those moments that must inspire awe simply because they are so out of the ordinary. Like Gagarin's flight with the riding of the rocket and the parachuting out on re-entry, or how the astronauts on Apollo 13 felt as they crossed the far side of the moon, with no radio contact, in a dying spaceship, not knowing for sure if they would get home, looking out at the entire universe as they drift in silence.

Or the crew of Soyuz T-13, who rendezvoused and docked with a dead space station, opened the hatch and floated inside with coats and flashlights, shining their light on the frozen walls of the station it was their task to repair. Stories like that inspire the kind of awe within me that grondilu found when learning about Nemesis.

I'm really excited about what it'll be like to travel to Mars. I like to imagine looking out the window from time to time, as Earth gets smaller and smaller, to the point where it is just a pale blue dot. And for a while I bet both Earth and Mars would just be pale dots out the window, but slowly and surely, Mars starts to get bigger, and bigger, until it fills the window! Just that image, of travelling so far between planets, inspires awe in me like no other.

Offline edkyle99

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If someone asked YOU why you liked spaceflight/space related activities, you would respond...
I would show them this photo.

 - Ed Kyle
« Last Edit: 07/05/2013 09:38 pm by edkyle99 »

Offline spectre9

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I prefer this one  :P

Offline Bob Shaw

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If someone asked YOU why you liked spaceflight/space related activities, you would respond...

I was born in 1955. I don't know, but my enthusiasm was sparked in 1959 by the Soviet Luna probe, which is just about my earliest memory! I also recall later being smacked by my rabidly Catholic mother after pointing out to her that the Cosmonauts hadn't seen God during their visit to heaven, as the BBC kindly mentioned. Guess what smacking did for my belief in white-bearded men who live in the sky?

Then came the joy of the BBC coverage of Apollo: James Burke and Patrick Moore, with Gene Shoemaker for the geology...

Offline USFdon

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 As a modernist / believer in technology... I would much rather prefer the military industrial complexes of world utilize the billions invested in destroying the "enemy" not gone to waste (ie. not starting Armageddon), but rather used as a medium to understanding  the universe around us. It is hard to get funding to do scientific research in outer space, but thanks to the missle race, humanity has gained the knowledge to leave our atmosphere and explore the "near" cosmos. This is why I love space exploration; a terrible conflict between superpowers, after the (2nd) war to end all wars,  led to one of humanities greatest achievements... Machine / Man being able to go to space. It's quite honestly breathtaking that man has left the surface of this planet to explore the solar system around us using military technology not originally designed to do so. This is why I love space exploration... the political and geopolitical reasons that brought the technology  into existence that allowed man to explore the universe have been de-fanged of their original purpose and used to actually benefit mankind in general.

Offline brad2007a

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Simple: I don't know why, don't care why, just do.

Amen.
Democrats haven't been this mad at Republicans since the Republicans took away their slaves..

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