The New Voyages

      Thinking about our human-crewed space programs these days.  The problems are daunting.  Radiation spewing from the Sun, bathing every object in harsh particle baths.  Long periods of isolation and boredom for prospective astronauts.  Bone density losses and other physiological changes will have to be endured.    The problems are there, and not easily dismissed or defeated.   And then there is the everpresent issue of funding.   (At least the private operators are committed to their programs for the long term.) 

     But the hardy explorers of the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries give an example of how difficulties were overcome.   They had to travel in fragile, tiny ships across vast distances.  They had to endure deadly storms, huge waves, and near-starvation conditions.  They travelled in cramped, uncomfortable quarters.  They had to stay in tiny cabins, or in some cases, the hold at the bottom of a ship.   And yet they persisted.

     They endured harsh voyages of several months to a year.  And then occupied wild new lands, and hacked out a living for themselves.  They created vast new areas of wealth.   In the end, they payoff was enormous.

     The first voyages to a place like Mars will be difficult, no doubt about it.  But, in the intervening years, propulsion methods will improve, just as they did for sailing ships over the years.  (better sails, better navigation, better ships, and finally, steam power.  Then, diesel engines made it routine)     The space craft will get faster, more durable, more efficient as we grapple with and eventually solve the problems of long-distance space travel.  It will come to us, just as it always has. 

     As long as we do not stop, give up, turn inward or succumb to silly superstitions.  Careful observations and deliberate scientific methods have taken us from demon-infested cities swamped with plagues, to sending spacecraft to the edge of the Solar System  (Pioneer and Voyager probes,  and New Horizons probe).   We should not hastily discard all we have learned in favor of any kind of religious or superstitious psycho-babble.   Here is hoping we keep going, and make the incredible efforts of people from Galileo to Sagan and Van Allen count for something.  

     Let’s keep the voyages going outward.  Keep sending those fragile craft out to new worlds, new lands.  It is part of our condition, who we are.    And someday they will bring back splendid, amazing news.   It will be worth it.  I only wish I could be there to see it all. 

Things are always happening...

     It would be so nice to just forget the problems of the world, to be happy, keep one’s head down, do your own thing, not worry about anything.  Sometimes I actually succeed in this.   A weekend arrives, and I go get my groceries, household tasks done.  I go out to eat, or to the nightclub, and try to have a good time.  But the media is ever present these days - like an omniscient conscience that keeps reaching out of my TV or computer screen, grabs me by the shirt and says,  “Hey, you uncaring boob.  This woman’s son just got gunned down for no reason.  Or that middle school teacher just got charged with 50 counts of sexual abuse.  Or the Russians are offloading troops in Syria.”

     Then I get wound up and angry.  The clincher is when I log onto Facebook, and there are the posts of conscience and injustice, assaulting my eyeballs.  What right do I have to breathe the air in my own free space when such horrifics are going on everywhere.  So I unleash my temper through typing fingers, posting venom and ichor of my own.  And on it goes, nearly every day. 

     Whereas before the barrage of 24-hour nonstop media, one could comfortably ignore the numerous injustices going on around us at one time, and blithely, cheerfully lead a reasonably happy life.  Not any more!   Now you will care whether you want to or not - cannot escape the images, the statements.    Maybe this is to the good.  Perpetrators can be brought to justice, victims can be helped,  injustices redressed.   But I can’t help but wonder, the rest of us are left in a state of constant, low-level tension, never quite feeling like we have done what we should. 

     Because somewhere, in Uganda or Syria or the Congo, someone is being hacked up, raped, murdered, or bullied.   They always have been, and they always will be.  While it is good to care, most of the time there is little or nothing we can do.  And that is not our fault.  We are still okay, and we can still strive to have a good day.  No matter what happens - anywhere.  This has probably been said elsewhere, but I was feeling tense and anxious tonight, so just had to say it again.  Thanks for reading. 

Exercise Restoration - Finally!

It had been years since I did any kind of working out.  Heck, in my 20's I used to jog several miles a day, and was even in a couple of races back in 1981.  Over the years, I would fall out of shape, and then get back into it, by jogging, walking, or biking.  One year it was via Tae Kwon Do, but that was relatively short-lived.  Finally, as my 40's arrived, the jogging stretches became further and further apart.  Beer and snacks in the winter was a big source of weight gain and general sloth.

    But if I stayed reasonably active, especially in the summer, with bike rides and some intense gardening, I could at least get the blood pumping some.  It helps that I have a physical 'labor' type job - if I had to sit at a desk, I would surely be 30 pounds heavier.   During my 50-52nd year I exercised indoors via step aerobics and calisthentics.   But then I fell out of this that summer, and the last two years have been a non-starter  (except for the occasional bike ride.)   My body slowed, the weight went way past 190, headed for 200.  Things really seemed hopeless.

     And then a guy at work happened to mention  (again) that he did stair-climbing.  That day my brain must have been fertile, because a light bulb finally went on.  Of course!  I saw people walking the hallways on a certain floor, during work hours, for fitness.  Why couldn't I walk up and down the stairs?  Hell yes.  So I started by going from the ground floor to the eighth.  I saw spots, was gasping for breath, and was dizzy.  But I made it, thankfully.  That was over amonth ago.  Today I did 21 flights of stairs, or almost three times the amount I started at.  I feel lighter, more spry, and my reflexes are quicker.  It is a gift, almost a miracle.  My body is rewarding me with a taste of youthful quickness I thought was Gone, gone, gone.  

     Stair-climbing.   A miracle in my life - as long as I keep a sweating and climbing.  Once again, I find exercise pays off - a lesson first learned at age 23, my first year jogging, and repeated on this, my 54th year of life.   The lessons go on.

Well, I finally got another short story written.  around 3,800 words and a rough draft.  The finished product will be different, and hopefully, better.

     Waiting expectantly for any response to a few stories sent away earlier.  Have to remember not only the myriad ways to craft a good story, but also to keep submission records, to remember to try and build relationships with Editors  (who are human beings too, not robots), to critique and get critiqued, and on and on...
Then ther is this thing called The Rest of My life - my day job, my house, car, cat, relationships, even politics  (this is a presidential election year).   Trying to hold onto my sanity and keep this writing thing going.  But it gets pretty wobbly at times. 

Thanks for reading the literary rant for today.  Hope it is better for some other writers than for moi. 
Happy Fat Tuesday.

Where we've been and where we are going.

     Way back in the 1920’s, in Germany, Russia and even in the U.S. there were various groups of regular civilians who gathered for the purpose of building rockets.  They would share stories and news of each others exploits, build small, experimental rockets, and even publish scientific papers.   They ended up advancing the capability of rockets quite a bit.  They designed, built and tested liquid-fueled rockets of increasing thrust, that reached higher and higher altitudes.   These were students and amateurs, mostly.  In Germany and Russia, they eventually gained small amounts of funding from their respective governments. 

 (see:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verein_f%C3%BCr_Raumschiffahrt)

      They advanced the state of the art.  And some of them went on to head up government labs and efforts both during and after WWII.   These individuals ultimately helped us escape the bonds of Earth and make it to the Moon and beyond  (with accomplishments like the V-2 liquid-fueled rocket, the precursor to our expendable rockets like Redstone,  Atlas and Titan). 

 (see:  http://www.army.mil/article/46989/German_Rocket_Site_Unearths_Memories/ )

      Now here we are in 2012.  Our Space Shuttle program is done, and we are hoping and waiting for some corporate, for profit efforts to become available.  In other countries, especially China, governments are heavily funding national programs.   In the US, we have placed our hopes on that elusive thing called ‘private enterprise’ .     There are lots of beautiful photos and mockups and such.  But whether anything actually gets flown is another matter.

 (see:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_spaceflight)

       Might there not be a way to join a loose confederation of individuals, to plan, fund and build small-scale efforts, to probe other ways to escape Earth’s gravity and so forth?   It seems important, after a century of hard-won gains in the field of rocketry design and practice, to keep up our momentum.   The U.S. has had to play catch-up more than once, as other countries showed foresight and persistence.   We are a large and relatively prosperous country.  We should be able to do better.   

     Some college-level rocketry organizations, modeled after some of the early German orgs, might stimulate interest on the part of students to not only learn about rocketry in general, but also to perhaps build and test some of their own models.    This could help us advance the state of the art here in the US, and keep up with the rest of the world when it comes to getting objects and people sent into space.     One example is here:  http://aero.cpss.calpoly.edu/

      We have accomplished much in the last 100 years, going from the fantastical stories of Hugo Gernsback to the reality of rovers snapping pictures of Martian rocks.   We can justly be proud.  But we should not stop here.   No, we are just on the cusp of a breakout.  A breakout into livable habitations on the Moon, on Mars and the Asteroids and even in orbital facilities cycling between Mars, the Moon, and Earth Orbit.  We should not stop now.  A pause, perhaps, to regroup and re-focus some efforts.  And then the next leap forward.   Our youth can lead the way for us.   Thanks for reading.

Another 25-word hint fic-let:

The external drive seemed dead.  Jason tried unplugging and re-connecting it;   loud screeches ensued.  Then he tried a different system, and it worked. Darn viruses.

-end

my entry into the 25-word hint fiction category...

Roger tried a laser pointer on the crows that roosted in trees near his job.  He came to later, heavily bandaged.  The warning went out.

-end 

Have a good Monday.

Raucous Caucus 2012

The noisy seven smothered our fair state,

Ingratiating themselves into coffeehouse

society - shotguns and words fired straight;

Exciting results reported from the statehouse.

Fortunes raised and fell more than the Dow,

Values questioned and half-truths belied;

Debates started civilly, became a genteel row,

Accused each other of being special interests allies.

Finally those incessant ads will soon cease,

The votes will be tallied and the field winnowed;

Weary Iowans eyes and ears will get peace,

Leaders will declare success with eyes narrowed.

Another Iowa Caucus draws nigh to an end,

We go back to normal, no more rhetoric to defend.

- Whew.

Republican Candidates spewing more garbage.

      Did these people sleep through middle school civics classes?  Or maybe they never had a civics class.  You know, the part of the lesson on our American form of government, where we have checks and balances put in place to prevent abuses of power?  So we have a legislature, an executive branch headed by the President - and a Judiciary.  The judiciary has powers vested in it to block or stay rulings that it sees as improper, after sober, careful  deliberation.   This is for the protection of all the people, to prevent discrimination and oppression of the majority by some fanatical minority. 

     The ranting of these Republican candidates are downright frightening when one sees them applied to our laws in the future.   Women will have no say in what happens to their bodies.    Females will revert to what they were looked upon in the 1800’s, mere chattel, cattle for men’s whims.     Gay marriage?  Heck no.  They will be chased back into the closet with handguns and tasers.   Other civil rights?  good luck there.

     These forces have already overturned the Miranda ruling, which stated that police have to read a suspect their rights, and make sure they are understood.   They have made it possible for a corporation to donate unlimited funds to a political campaign, thereby corrupting the process.    More people are going to prison than ever, for minor offenses.     Teenagers are finding themselves arrested for infractions that used to be dealt with by families or school officials.  There is less community mental health being offered, and more incarceration.  We are becoming more and more like a repressive communist society - a true police state!

     The Tea Party Nazis won’t be satisfied until everyone is either imprisoned or is wearing 24-hour electronic surveillance  (except them and their families).    Our entire democracy is being destroyed by a few fanatics bent on imposing their own twisted will on everyone.    Today the judges and women’s rights - tomorrow - who knows? 

      And we are telling countries like Iran and North Korea to get their act together?  We need to deal with the fanatic lunatic tea partiers and other conservatives on our own shores first.      Thanks for reading.

Wanna bet?

The debate was lively, even vicious.

Labels flung back and forth like firebrands,
Accusations and ripostes, ducks and jabs.
The truth hid in a corner and listened...

 to six elite political professionals debate,

abase themselves for purported higher purposes...
Results filled the newspapers and airwaves,
different columnists tallied different outcomes.

 New polls will be taken and confidence shaken

as their positions raise and lower, over and over.
The one lagging the pack is doggedly traveling up
and down the highways, appearing anywhere he can.

 If Carter did it, so can he, he reasons, no matter if Carter

was a Democrat running in 1975.  Hope just keeps going.
One thing is for sure - they are stimulating the economy,
with all this traveling and spending, and heating winter air
with never-ending rhetoric and bombast.   A silver lining at last!

- my 0.02 today.

Drop the rhetoric and do something already.

Here in Iowa, there are more cutbacks, increased taxes, and public money bribes to companies to build things like hotels off the beaten path.  Nationally, large companies keep announcing layoffs.  The US Post Office announces huge cutbacks, in order to try and balance it's budget.   Candidates are going around promising to cut more and more services and agencies.  This is the most ominous, depressing TV season I have seen since 2008, perhaps worse. 

     I just wish that the powers-that-be could drop any ideological linkage to party platform, and do what our parents had to do in the aftermath of the great depression.  Even if it may involve public funding of our Post Office  (something George Washington founded to help tie the country together - remember?).  Even if it involves keeping these goverment agencies afloat that do pesky things like research energy alternatives, and keep our seniors healthy.  Instead of cut, cut, cut - America should Reach, Build, Employ.   

     Thats right - just like in the progressive days of the late 1930s and 1940s, we should reach for higher achievements, build up our infrastructure, and Employ every able-bodied American to do it.  Cross party lines, cross ideologies, cross stubborn intransigence, and do something, side by side, shoulder to shoulder, for the common good of all of us.  That is what made us great to begin with.

Nowadays everyone seems to want to cut, close her down, let the Chinese or the Mexicans worry about it, and go to  bed.  We can't do this.   We should take a page from the 1930's, dare to dream again, drop the ideological garbage, and get to work.    Something to think about.  Thanks for reading.

Just watched the inspiring liftoff of the NASA Curiousity Mars Rover, and it seemed a good time to post this one...

We are the LGMs

Are they little green men with antennae?

Or short fat ones with globular heads?
Maybe they are smart animals or
talking giraffes, purple tongues wagging.

Perhaps a herd of antlike beings with

one intelligent purpose behind them?
Or maybe huge things like elephants,
centuries old, wisdom beyond measure.

 If they can travel between stars,

it seems likely they are pure energy,
spindly or fleshy as they see fit, maybe
wearing appearance and transport as one.

 The truth may be far simpler than imagined...

DNA from the stars has seeded Earth from meteorites,

People evolved from aliens, arriving on an earlier flight.

-end

In olden times the truth seekers chanted,

Marched in rhythm and wore special robes;
Burned special incense or sacrificed cattle,
Appeased gods so they might receive visions.

Manipulating magic stones and writing runes,

Or drawing symbols and casting certain spells;
they tried to control fate and influence the future,
Bodily movements helped  to decide the outcomes.

Science the usurper has upended old superstitions,

Steady march of technology changed our practices;
Now our moving fingers draw forth images and videos,
Gyrating bodies bring responses from phantoms on screen.

No need to shout into the sky at gods anymore,

We speak into iconic totems in our hands --
The entire Earth is shrunk to one village evermore,
More color, light and sound at our command
than any Norse, Germanic or Egyptian deity
could ever hope to have - as long as we pay the bill.


-end

11-11-11

So much happening on this (fateful) date...

     Penn State reverberating with revenge over the Child Sex Abuse scandal.  As usual, in hindsight everyone is asking how can this be?  How did this happen?  Human beings are unfathomable at times - even we know that.

     Three Republican contenders are tied in a latest poll.   Those characters change positions more than any clump of racehorses coming around the track.  With their suits and stiff expressions, they all look unrealistic.  C’mon, guys.  Most Americans wear jeans and casual shirts, even to work.  You just separate yourselves from the bulk of the population with your stiffness.  But then, maybe that is the point, since you are the party of the rich and privileged.   Go buy a pair of jeans at K-mart.  It will be educational.

     The stock market soared today, regaining it’s losses from Wednesday.  Nice to see it go up.  But realistically it has been a roller-coaster all year.  Up and down, up and down.     I’m gonna stop watching it, it gets too dizzying - like watching a pendulum swing back and forth  (do they make those anymore?).

     We got an early snowfall here in Iowa.  Well, not really early, it was November after all.   Just a taste of what is to come.  And the antics of drivers was hilarious - that is, unless you were out there with them.  Ugh, winter.    Can’t wait until it is over with, and it hasn’t even started yet.

     Prices are going up, for the most part.  The distressing thing is, that wages are not.  It makes it really tricky to keep finances on an even keel.   Some of the pundits will say,  “Survival of the fittest” - well that means most of us are going down in flames.  Survival of the richest is more like it. 

     On this 111111, it is a Friday, and that is a good thing.  Means I can sleep in tomorrow, and then go off and do whatever on Saturday and Sunday  (and still come back to work on Monday).    Some people have to go job-hunting.  I do not - instead I’ll go try and sell some books.  Yeah, guess I’m a bit twisted.  But it will be fun.

     Hopefully dame fortune will smile and shower good things upon any who read this tonight, while it is still 11-11-11.  Otherwise you will just have to wait until 12-12-12.  And then come back here and see what good wishes await you then :)     Have a good night one everyone.

A departure from the usual fare here - and a suggestion to NASA-ESA-RSA...

Mirror smelting experiment to perform on the International Space Station:

Align several mirrors to focus sunlight onto a central point.  Brace them so they remain stationary. 

Possibly attach secondary  lenses in front of the mirrors.  These might be moveable, but could first be stationary.   Leave one side of the assembly open, to receive ores.

Then, place a sample of ore  (flown up for the purpose) at the center of the assembly.  While it remains in sunlight during an orbit, measure the temperatures inside or at the edge of the ores;  Visually inspect the ore to see if there is any melting.   In the short time it takes to complete the sunlit portion of an orbit, an astronaut could also simply observe  (or film) the sample as it is heated by the mirrors.

The second part of the experiment is to remove any melted materials, take them back inside the station, and try molding or forming simple shapes with the resulting ore-melt.  I.E. Squares, or circular forms.

The objective of the experiment is to find out if space rocks could be subject to simple solar focusing and heating, and thereby result in metals being smelted out from the ore.  Any resulting metal materials could then be used for assembly of habitations in space in the future.  

Materials needed:

At least three mirrors.

Aluminum or other lightweight framework to  hold the mirrors into place, all focused on a center point.

Framework to hold a specimen in the center (to be heated by the sun.)

Three (or more) different ore specimens.   Bauxite, Taconite and one other,( to possibly yield metals when heated.)    Additional ores could be added later to give a full range of possibilities.  One possibility is for NASA to donate some Moon rocks for the experiment.

Secondary lenses, either plastic or glass, to concentrate the sunlight to a higher degree.

Temperature probes and one or two viewing cameras.  Cameras could be locatged on the ISS itself.

Process:

Place the mirrors and assembly outside the station, nearby.  Preferably tethered in some fashion, or even held in place by the ISS robot arm.   Place a specimen ore in the center, and make sure the secondary lenses are focusing light on the ore.  When the ISS reaches the sunlit portion of orbiting, observe the heating of the specimen, and whether or not metallic substance is derived from the ores.  Measure the internal temperature of the ores.  Save the specimens. 

     Bring the heated specimens, and any metallic content, into the ISS.  Perform basic shaping and manipulation with simple tools.  Make squares, circles and rods. 

Anticipated results:   This could show us what to expect in future metal-smelting operations.   The benefits of solar melting of metallic ores are easy access to building materials for space habitats.  This experiment would help us lay the groundwork for future efforts in building space habitats.   Several succeeding experiments could find the optimum focusing and retrieval techniques. 

In Summary:   We are eventually going to be building some kind of permanent habitats, located either in orbit or on planets and Moons.  Might as well get started now on some of the methods to accomplish habitat construction!

Thanks for reading.

I just finished watching some Youtube videos of UFO’s hovering over the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem.   Some amazing stuff.  It might even be “real,” that is, a space being or even an Angel.  Sets me to thinking, wondering at the possibilities... 

     Extraterrestrials landing somewhere on Earth.   Ruling the skies with impunity.  Flitting about the Solar System with the greatest of ease, and no one on Earth need be appeased. 

     Are we being subtly influenced by undercurrents of energy?  Or simply bathed in the detrius of our own electromagnetic excesses?  Are energy beings zipping and weaving in and out among us day to day, invisible in the concrete canyons of the city, or the farm-carpeted expanses of the country?  Stephen Hawking said,  “We just don’t know!” 

     We can suppose and posit all we want.  We can answer our own hopes with doctored evidence, or sightings assumed to be ETs.  We can read and watch many, many reports.  But, in the end, after all of the blurry photos and uncertain saucers and evidence lost, we just don’t know.

     Maybe someday we will.  I hope I live to see that day.  But until then, we just keep grasping at wisps, obstreperous young race that we are.  I bet that someday we will be the ETs that another race sees.  Hard to believe -  some intellligent three-eyed race, quivering in fear over the bumbling human spacecraft littering their purple skies.   Stranger things have happened.  Anything is possible.  Thanks for reading.

Recently got finished re-working some of my E-books on Smashwords.   If anyone is curious, here are a couple of links:

Twenty-Ten - http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/28909
Dispatches from the Aether: 
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/12867

Thanks for taking the time to take a look   :)

Have a good day all.

Finally, some good news!

NATO-assisted forces in Libya finally got that Gaddafi character.  While he seemed like a buffoon on TV, he did brutalize his own people, and supported terrorism over the years, including the shooting down of a 747 airliner over Scotland in 1988.  Good Riddance.   And not one US servicemember had to die over there (at least that I know of).  It was basically an uprising by his own wearied people. 

The second bit of good news was the announcement by Pres. Obama that we are removing all of our troops from Iraq by the end of this year.  Like they said, now these talented young people can return home to help rebuild America.   Good for President Obama, good for the USA.   And good for Iraq - now they can fend for themselves.   

Two welcome pieces of news today.  Perhaps now we can change our focus from killing the bad guys to re-gaining energy indepence and educating our young people.  Now those are wars worth fighting, in my humble opinion.  

The "Occupiers" are doing the dirty work most of us wish we could do.  It is too easy to lose oneself in respite from a busy workday, TV, games, and yes, the Internet, to actually consider going out onto cold concrete with a sign.  But every time I read in the business section of the paper how banking company profits are up 20, 40, 77 percent, then see all these fee increases  "Because we have to" etc, it does tend to get one a bit upset.  How many billions of dollars of cash reserves do these people need?  I even read that Apple computer has 85 billion in cash right now. 

     Of course, they might argue, it is our company, we own it, we can do anything we want.  You don't have to buy their products, etc.  But the fact remains, these goliaths of industry started here in the USA, and benefit from the largess of US taxpayers.   I would argue they have a responsibility to try to the utmost to reinvest this capitol in the US, to alleviate our economic suffering.   And to strive to be reasonable and honest in their financial dealings.   Profit at any cost is too expensive for society.  There has to be a limit.

      The Occupiers are the tip of the iceberg, the ones who have the gumption and anger to speak out, carry a sign, get arrested.  There is a lot more discontent seething underneath.  Push your customers too far, and they will push back.

Something to consider anyways.



    

No technology needed

Personal computers are now passé,

PDAs and Ipods totally unnecessary;

The internet and social media soiree

I find rather unnecessary to make my day.

Much prefer the play of sun on rock and sand,

The feel of cool waters splashing my ankles;

Graphical interfaces and fiber optics not in demand

In my house, rather quiet woodland walks are ample.

Once upon a time I craved technological satisfaction,

Had to have three computers internetworked;

MP3 downloads and pic swapping  were the attraction,

Online newsgroups, chat sessions and MIRC.

Experience and age have changed my desires,

Now a quiet walk by the creek is what inspires.

-end